Contributors
The ToUChstone blog is primarily authored by TUC policy staff.
Adam Lent
I’m Head of Economic and Social Affairs at the TUC. Before joining the TUC, I was Research Director for the Power Inquiry, a Rowntree funded commission exploring how to increase and deepen political participation in the UK. I also free-lanced for a few years running research projects for think-tanks and government departments. Before that I worked in academia, mostly at Sheffield University.
Theoretically I’m responsible for all the policy areas in the Economic and Social Affairs Department which gives me the right to sound off about practically anything on this blog. In reality, I’ll try and stick to the areas I know best: tax, macroeconomic policy and public service reform.
Alice Hood
Before joining the TUC I was a policy officer and advisor at the Local Government Association and previously I worked for the European Parliamentary Labour Party and as a full-time elected student union officer at Sheffield University.
Ben Moxham
I’m a policy officer with the TUC’s snappily titled European Union and International Relations Department. I cover trade, decent work and international labour standards, as well as our work on priority countries such as Iraq Palestine/Israel and Burma. I’m also the TUC’s backstop on a range of complicated international meetings that begin with the letter “G”. I represent the TUC on the board of the Ethical Trading Initiative and as an alternate member on the even more snappily titled, Steering Board of the UK National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises.
Before joining the TUC in 2007, I did a Masters in development studies at the LSE, masqueraded as an industrial relations lawyer in Melbourne, and worked as a policy officer for a Southeast Asian development NGO based in Thailand from 2002-2004. When pressed at immigration, I claim to be Australian.
Brendan Barber
I’m General Secretary of the TUC, the 9th person to hold the position since its introduction in 1922. I’ve been with the organisation since 1975, working in different roles in industrial relations and communications, as well as Deputy General Secretary until 2003, when I was elected General Secretary by the TUC’s General Council. I’m responsible for the overall operation of the TUC, and for leading the implementation of policies set by our annual Congress and the General Council.
I studied at City University in London, and took a sabbatical year as President of the City University Students Union, as well as working for a year with VSO in Ghana. I’m a Non-Executive Director of the Court of the Bank of England, and have done turns as a member of the ACAS Council and of Sport England. The latter is close to my heart as I’m a keen supporter of Everton Football Club, though you’ll also find me occasionally at home games of Vauxhall Conference side Barnet, and when I get the chance I enjoy a round or three of golf.
Helen Nadin
Helen is TUC policy officer for pensions and is responsible for policy on private occupational, personal and state pensions, including public service pensions.
Helen joined the TUC in 2007, after working for the NSPCC.
Iain Murray
Iain is TUC Senior Policy Officer responsible for policy on learning and skills, including training and lifelong learning; education policy including schools, further and higher education; regional government and devolution.
Janet Williamson
Janet is TUC Senior Policy Officer responsible for policy on institutional investment, corporate governance and corporate social responsibility.
She also contributes to TUC pensions policy and campaigning and is a trustee of the TUC Superannuation Society.
John Wood
I’m Campaigns and New Media Officer at the TUC, working on campaigns and advice online, as well as chipping in with issues around how new media (particularly social media) are impacting on industrial relations. I’m always tinkering with the system behind this blog (so if something’s broken it’s likely my fault) and on housekeeping duties to help out the other contributors.
I’ve been at the TUC since 2002, and before joining the team here, I worked on websites, eCommerce and online campaigning for Oxfam GB. In busman’s holiday style, I spend some of the spare time my kids leave me in blogging and online activism.
Kay Carberry
I am Assistant General Secretary of the TUC, and I’m responsible for the TUC’s internal management and overseeing our work on pensions and equality.
I have served on a number of government advisory bodies on equality, education, training and employment, and have been a member of the Women and Work Commission and a Commissioner of the Equal Opportunities Commission. I am currently a Commissioner of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, as well as a Trustee of One Parent Families, the People’s History Museum and the Work Foundation.
Nicola Smith
I’m a TUC Senior Policy Officer working on a range of labour market and social welfare policy. This includes a specific focus on precarious and low-paid employment, following on from the work of the Commission on Vulnerable Employment (CoVE). I also represent the TUC on the Social Security Advisory Committee.
Before joining the TUC I worked in research and policy roles for Barnardo’s, the Children and Young People’s Unit at the old DfES and the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion. I’ve also done a few pieces of freelance work on migration issues.
Nigel Stanley
I’m the TUC’s Head of Campaigns and Communications, and have been working at the TUC since 1994. I manage campaigning, media relations, parliamentary lobbying, publications and event organisation. As I work in communications and public affairs, my blogging is likely to range widely, but superficially.
In the past, I’ve freelanced in public affairs, research and journalism, including with the European Commission, Labour Party and a number of MPs. I did research, press and campaign management at the House of Commons in the 80’s and early 90’s, first for Robin Cook and then for Bryan Gould. Before that I was Organising Secretary of the Labour Co-ordinating Committee from its launch in 1978. I play ska/jazz bass guitar with the Skamonics and have part-ownership of a canal boat.
Owen Tudor
I’ve been the Head of the TUC’s European Union and International Relations Department since 2003 and have worked at the TUC since 1984. I’ve been a member of the Health and Safety Commission, the Civil Justice Council, the Social Security Advisory Committee and the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council and now I’m on the Migration Impacts Forum. I’m particularly interested in the trade union movements of Australia, Iran and Iraq, the Middle East and the USA, and I’m interested in migration, trade, and building trade union capacity. I’m the Secretary of TUC Aid, the TUC’s charitable union development arm.
My wife Sarah works for the University of Westminster and sits on the National Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, and my son Charles is in Year 9 and just starting the GCSE curriculum. I’m a season ticket holder at Saracens, a member of the Wine Society and the GMB.
Paul Nowak
I head the TUC’s Organisation & Services Department, which is responsible for the TUC’s regional councils, public services, organising and recruitment, health and safety and inter-union relations. The department also leads the TUC’s work to reach out to young workers and the organisation of the TUC’s annual Congress.
I also write on the TUC’s Organising blog StrongerUnions.
Paul Sellers
Paul is TUC Policy Officer dealing with working time and the minimum wage. He focuses on combating the long hours culture, campaigning for better laws on working time, and promoting collective bargaining and best practice.
He also focuses on influencing the Low Pay Commission and the Government, and works to promote better awareness and enforcement of the minimum wage.
Philip Pearson
Climate change, energy and transport are the main parts of my brief as a Senior Policy Officer in the TUC’s Economic & Social Affairs Department. Working out an effective trade union response to climate change has been a huge challenge, very much a collective effort both inside the TUC and with our affiliated unions. It’s been difficult to draw any proper boundaries to this work, as it seems to affect so many of our activities and union members out there – in the energy, transport, manufacturing and services, skills and training, education and workplace organising, rights at work … much of what we do, in fact. Green jobs. I even think about them on my allotment.
I’m a member of the European Trade Union Confederation’s sustainable development group, building common ground with our affiliates across Europe. And I am currently chair the ITUC’s working group on climate change, our interface with the Kyoto treaty processes, magnifying my carbon footprint in so doing.
Richard Exell
I am the TUC’s Senior Policy Officer covering social security, tax credits and labour market issues, including the debates about the European social model and labour market flexibility.
I also represent the TUC on the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council, as well as with Unemployed Workers’ Centres.
Scarlet Harris
Scarlet is the TUC’s Apprenticeships Policy and Campaigns Officer. She joined the organisation in 2009 and works on policy issues and practical support from the TUC around Apprenticeships.
Tim Page
I’m a Senior Policy Officer at the TUC, responsible for economic and industrial policy. I also cover science policy, public procurement and high performance workplaces. I started my union at the Amalgamated Engineering Union, which is now part of Unite. I also did a spell at the House of Commons, working for the MPs Ann Clwyd and Ian McCartney. I was part of the team that put together the policy proposals which became the National Minimum Wage.
One of my major tasks at the TUC is editing our Budget Submission, which is sent to the Chancellor of the Exchequer each year. It sets out our analysis of the state of the economy and recommends policies which, we believe, will improve the economic and social fabric of Britain. Being the TUC Budget Submission, it is especially concerned with these issues from the perspective of people at work. When I’m not working, I enjoy sports, especially football (watching) and skiing (taking part). I’m also learning to speak Italian.
Guest posts
The blog also periodically features topical guest posts from external policy experts in different areas. Guest posts are intended to widen debate and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the TUC or its policy staff. Guest authors have included:
- Calvin Allen: Connect Researcher
- Bob Baugh: Executive Director, AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council
- Kate Bell: Director of Policy, Advice and Communications, Gingerbread
- Ian Brinkley: Knowledge Economy Programme Director, Work Foundation
- Sharan Burrow: President of the ITUC
- Richard Crisp: Research Fellow, CRESR Sheffield Hallam University
- Jonathan Ellis: Director of Policy and Development, Refugee Council
- Philip Flaxton, Chief Executive, IT Forum Foundation
- Kate Green, Chief Executive, Child Poverty Action Group
- Stephen Hale: Director, Green Alliance
- Alastair Hatchett: Head of Pay and HR Services, Incomes Data Services
- Stewart Lansley: Author and broadcaster
- Professor Lord Richard Layard: CEP Wellbeing Programme Director, LSE
- Helen Maunga: Vice President, Cook Islands Workers Association
- Tom MacInnes: Senior Analyst, New Policy Institute
- Maeve McGoldrick: Campaigns Co-ordinator, Community Links
- Ed Miliband MP: Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
- Richard Murphy: Tax Justice Network founder
- Will Norman: Principle Research Associate, the Young Foundation
- Sophia Parker: Acting Director, the Resolution Foundation
- Vicki Peacey: Research and Policy Officer, Gingerbread
- Kate Pickett: Co-founder, The Equality Trust
