By Dude Swheatie of Kwug
The Wembley Matters blog has republished a newly-elected-Labour-MPs'-letter that was published in Saturday's Guardian.(1) The letter calls upon Labour Party leadership contenders to not go in for any return to Blairite 'New Labour'.One of the signatories is now MP for Sheffield Brightside & Hillsborough, the former seat of David Blunkett. Blunkett became much too heavily connected with a private company that had global ambitions, A4e [aka 'Action for Employment].(2)
When Blunkett was Secretary of State for Education and Employment David Blunkett, A4e was expanding its 'welfare to work industry' operations from the North of England into London. The reason I know that is that I was a jobseeker and intern with another 'welfare to work industry' company in London and told by the Head of Jobsearch of that company to complete weekly jobsearch portfolios relating a minimum of 16 job leads and I actually applied for a job with a company called A4e that was expanding into London. (3)
Since Blunkett owed a double allegiance to that company and his constituents, if not before, 'welfare to work industry' customers in Sheffield and elsewhere have been well able to tell Labour candidates that a privatised 'welfare to work inustry' is more of a problem than a solution.
It would, I am sure, be very interesting to see what other 'interests' Labour MPs hold in the private sector while mass media commentators focus so much on the power of 'the trade union lobby' in the Labour Party leadership election process.
See also
A4e head Emma Harrison steps down from family champion role (4)Notes
(1) http://wembleymatters.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/no-return-to-new-labour-call-by-group.html(2) https://uk.search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A9mSs2NRn1lVLUwA9StLBQx.;_ylc=X1MDMjExNDcxNzAwMwRfcgMyBGZyA3lmcC10LTkwMy1zBGdwcmlkA2FRak5qSkJrUXgyV1M3Wm51U1A3SEEEbl9yc2x0AzAEbl9zdWdnAzQEb3JpZ2luA3VrLnNlYXJjaC55YWhvby5jb20EcG9zAzAEcHFzdHIDBHBxc3RybAMEcXN0cmwDMzEEcXVlcnkDImRhdmlkIGJsdW5ldHQiICJhNGUiIHNoZWZmaWVsZAR0X3N0bXADMTQzMTkzNzMxNQ--?p=%22david+blunett%22+%22a4e%22+sheffield&fr2=sb-top-uk.search&fr=yfp-t-903-s
(3) That Head of Jobsearch told me when I objected to that directive of quanitity over quality, that the directive came from 'no less than the office of David Blunkett'. A subsequent investigation in response to complaint from me found that 'Direct Computer Training' (DCT) claimed that that monitoring measure was actually only a recommendation and not mandatory. Yet at the time that I received the findings of the 'investigation' DCT intern contacts gave me a subsequent internal memo marked 'confidential' that reaffirmed the 'mandatory claim' associated with the jobsearch portfolios and threatened 'termination' [sic] to anyone not complying with that directive. The reason that irked me so much was that my written application to A4e including customised CV and hand written covering letter that had taken me several drafts and several days to accomplish had resulted in an interview.
I doubt that I would have accomplished an interview had I complied with A4e's 'advice' that we submit photocopies of the same standard CV with each job application!
(4) http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/feb/23/a4e-emma-harrison-steps-down-family-champion
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