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New Statesman
3 days ago
- Politics
- New Statesman
Eddie Dempsey on why Britain needs a trade union revival
Eddie Dempsey, photographed by David Sandison for the New Statesman In a quiet corner of King's Cross, London, is a small pocket of an old world. The office of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers' Union (RMT) is a time capsule for the 20th-century left. Appropriately, the building stands opposite an interwar housing estate based on Vienna's Karl-Marx-Hof, an icon of the faded tradition of municipal socialism. (Just down the road is a blue-plaqued building where Lenin once resided.) At the reception in the RMT's Unity House lies a pile of copies of the Communist Party-affiliated Morning Star. Its corridors and rooms are adorned with left-wing, proletarian nostalgia: hammer and sickle coasters, strike memorial badges, gifts from comrade brothers in the Teamsters, and busts of heroic dead leftists. But the RMT is still very much alive – growing, in fact, despite the general decline of trade union membership in the Britain that Thatcher built. The union has a reputation for political and industrial militancy, provoking frothing editorials from the press for its ability to periodically bring the capital to a halt. But it can also claim credit for securing decent, liveable London salaries for its members – a rare thing in today's world. I was at the RMT's office to meet Eddie Dempsey, who became its general secretary earlier this year after Mick Lynch retired. During his tenure, Lynch was renowned for his blunt put-downs of hapless, confused junior ministers and calm eviscerations of Partridge-esque breakfast television presenters. Dempsey welcomed me with a comically firm handshake. At 43 he is baby-faced, but embodies the old-school London pie-and-mash bloke, somewhere between the former Apprentice contestant Thomas Skinner and Arthur Scargill. He pointed to a wall of black and white photographs behind him in the grand meeting room, depicting a century of the union's leadership. 'I'm the 18th, by the way,' he told me. 'He retired; he retired; he died; he died; he was sacked; he died.' You got the sense that he was doing a bit. He paused on one photo: 'Him up there, he got pancaked. Flattened by an articulated lorry. In Stalingrad, no less.' After our interview, I looked this up. One Jimmy Campbell, a former RMT general secretary, did indeed die in Stalingrad – not in the bloody Second World War battle, of course, but in a car accident during a visit to the Soviet Union in 1957. This gives some clue as to the union's historic political proclivities, which are still very much apparent. 'My politics are pretty straightforward,' Dempsey said. 'I want to see people being able to work and have a good standard of living. I want them to have public services that educate you, look after you when you're sick, and give you retirement in dignity. I want to rebuild communities and rebuild a sense of shared responsibility. And I want a world that lives in peace.' But Dempsey's politics haven't always been so straightforward and anodyne. He is fervently pro-Brexit; in some liberal-left circles that's enough to place you beyond the realm of political acceptability. The RMT stood out among a Remain-orientated labour movement for its opposition to EU membership (not least because of the bloc's restrictions on state interventions and public ownership). In Dempsey's world-view, there is some crossover with the ideological hinterland of the Corbyn project – the harder-edged, workerist, industrial wing, rather than the putative 'kinder, gentler' crowd that mixed a more middle-class, hippyish aesthetic with links to foreign jihadis. The Labour left, Dempsey told me, 'went wrong going into the 2019 election with an incoherent policy on Brexit'. A full-blooded 'Lexit' position would have rescued Labour's fraying connection with working-class Leave voters, he contended – a view that was shared by several senior figures in Corbyn's office at the time. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe More controversially, in 2015 Dempsey visited the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and was pictured with pro-Russian separatists. He told me this was 'part of a humanitarian visit' prompted by the deaths of trade unionists at the hands of ultra-nationalists in Odesa the previous year. Nevertheless, as head of one of the most visible, public-facing organisations in the British labour movement, at a time of ongoing war in Ukraine, Dempsey may find this episode is not easily forgotten. Eddie Dempsey was born in 1982 in south London to Irish parents. He grew up on New Cross's Woodpecker Estate, before starting work on the railways in his twenties. I tell him I lived in New Cross for nearly a decade and we share our appreciation for the Marquis of Granby pub on New Cross Road. 'I grew up in that pub really,' he said. 'I'm going to be having my father's wake in there next week.' The Granby hosts a mixed crowd of working-class, established locals and student pretenders – art-school hipsters and earnest humanities undergrads – from nearby Goldsmiths, University of London. If the contemporary left has become associated with the post-2008 wave of 'millennial socialism' backed by this kind of progressive-liberal graduate class, then Dempsey – like Lynch and the late Bob Crow before him – represents something older: a throwback to an era when left politics was spearheaded by blue-collar trade union firebrands. A friend familiar with the culture of RMT describes it as 'a madhouse' – a strange place where balding cockneys of a certain vintage can discuss the differences between a Bolshevik and a Menshevik, a Tankie or a Trot. Movement leaders such as Lynch and Crow were informed less by the academy, the professoriate or social media platforms, and more by workplace organising. Dempsey is no different. 'I was a union rep within six months,' he said of his early days in the workplace. 'I became embroiled in union activity from day one. So I didn't really get into politics as such, I got involved in trade unionism, which then becomes political as you progress.' His father was a deep-sea sailor. 'The dock shut in '81. A lot of people were laid off,' he said. The recent history of London's former docklands is an apt microcosm of the British economy as a whole over the past half century. Amid chronic unemployment, closed ports were declared an enterprise zone, deregulated banks were lured to invest with tax breaks, and swathes of working-class east London was redeveloped into the global financial centre that's now Canary Wharf. Dempsey, a proud south Londoner, interprets this as a story of decline rather than regeneration. 'In my father's day, when he went to sea, a lot of workplaces were closed shops,' he said. 'Everyone was in a union. You couldn't get on the dock without being in the union. Life was better in some ways. Your wages could pay for things that you wanted. You could buy a house if you had a normal job. You could take a holiday. You could buy a car. Employment was secure. A lot of people can't do these things now.' The ultimate prize for RMT's new general secretary would be a 21st-century version of this postwar era of security: the end of the five-decade experiment in neoliberalism, the restoration of corporatist labour relations, and the pursuit of a more statist economic strategy. The means and method to achieving this, Dempsey said, is securing Scandinavian-style, nationwide, sectoral collective bargaining. 'At one stage, about 80 per cent of contracts of employment in Britain were covered by these kinds of agreements,' he told me. 'Now it's about a quarter, and the result has been stark: declining living standards, and a massive shift in power away from working-class people. So we're determined that the trade union movement demands it's restored. The future depends on it.' The Labour Party, for its part, has committed to introducing such a system in social care, with unions negotiating pay and conditions with representatives of employers across the industry nationwide. But it's unclear whether this will be replicated in other sectors. 'This government has made some important steps in the right direction,' Dempsey said, not just on employment rights, but also on some long-time, totemic demands of the British left, such as the nationalisation of the railways. And yet, all the political momentum today is with the populist right. The union man's Championship team, Millwall FC, are known (among other things) for a terrace chant, sung to the tune of Rod Stewart's 'Sailing': 'No one likes us, we don't care.' It's a mantra that could just easily have been adopted by sections of the progressive-activist class militantly pushing causes that have little or no resonance with the wider public. 'Our political culture has been focused on the things that divide us for too long,' Dempsey said. In 2019, during the interminable Brexit negotiations, Dempsey was the subject of an online fracas. The journalists Ash Sarkar and Owen Jones, alongside the Labour MP Clive Lewis, pulled out of a rally because of his attendance. He had been accused of racism for stating that he empathised with the working-class followers of the far-right activist Tommy Robinson, and their hatred of the liberal political class. Many also took issue with his support for a no-deal Brexit. Today, Dempsey shrugs off the incident, but has little time for the very-online left, which he describes as 'destabilising and debilitating. I've always argued that just abandoning parts of the working class in favour of the more well-educated types is not going to work in the long run. 'We've got to find those common bonds, and I think the reconstruction of the trade union movement has to be a part of that. I don't think people realise just how much we've lost… The trade union wasn't just a card you carried into work… There was a whole broad architecture of what was the working class and its institutions in Britain that's been pulled away. It gave a sense of community, a sense of dignity and togetherness, and it gave people a framework [through which] they were able to articulate what they thought about society, to articulate a political view.' The sense of collectivity that came from organised labour, as well as the institutional architecture of workplace branches, mass memberships and political education, has given way to individualism and the purity-rituals of cancel culture. Left politics and class consciousness are now less determined by organising and more by an individual's adherence to a set of ever-shifting progressive mores. 'A lot of the movement has been dragged away,' Dempsey said, 'and what people have tended to do is demonise and insult people that they disagree with politically. That doesn't help us, but that has been the approach… People have become obsessed about what's in people's heads.' The radical left may be ailing, but politicians of the Fabian centre left aren't faring too well either. Despite the 'steps in the right direction' Dempsey describes, Labour's leadership has spent its first year in power shedding support in all directions. What's going wrong? 'We're living under a dictatorship of the bond markets,' Dempsey replied. Even Donald Trump has been tamed by bond traders. 'The government is scared to invest.' We spoke before Rachel Reeves delivered her Spending Review, which combined capital spending with a continued squeeze on day-to-day departmental budgets. This broad fiscal policy picture is unlikely to shift the dial decisively towards national renewal, still less be the starting gun for constructing a new, post-neoliberal economic model. 'I don't believe the trade union movement should be a committee for arguing for a bigger slice of an ever-dwindling public expenditure pie,' Dempsey said. 'We've got to be addressing the economic reality: we need to rebuild the country. We can't rely on imports of wage-producing goods. We cannot rely on the chaotic situation that we've had for the past 40 years. It doesn't work any more. It doesn't deliver better living standards any more. The only way we're going to change it is by having proper investment. We've got staggering profits, falling living standards and wages, and a really, really low level of investment – and that's business investment as well as government investment. 'We can't just be an association of banks with a country attached any more. We need to be making things. We need a real economy, with high-tech manufacturing and infrastructure. And today, you can't rely on the market to deliver that.' This is an analysis that will be familiar to many New Statesman readers. The UK is in its second decade of declining living standards, and the deterioration of the public realm continues apace. 'People's lives feel chaotic,' Dempsey told me, 'the social fabric has been torn away.' Our industrial base is threadbare. The financialised, debt-driven, service-dependent economic model no longer generates growth. The ethereal nature of a digital 'knowledge economy' became apparent during Covid. Britain is tired and worn out, its real wealth increasingly concentrated in the capital's property bubbles and the glass-and-steel edifices of its tertiary sectors. Against this bleak backdrop, a figure like Eddie Dempsey espousing a bread-and-butter, populist socialism might be seen less as an anachronism and more as a welcome antidote to the moribund left and progressive gentrification. As much of the electorate joins the Faragist revolt, could a revived, popular trade unionism lead a fightback? 'We've got to focus on providing people a good standard of living and bringing people together,' the RMT leader said. 'And I wouldn't mind the beer price coming down, and Millwall being promoted. If I can have all that – I'm happy.' Hapless junior ministers and Partridge-like TV hosts: beware. [See also: Geoff Dyer's English journey] Related
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Lord Alan Sugar savagely mocks Roman Kemp's 'weird' haircut as he compares it to a 'dead beaver' in unlikely feud - and the presenter has a very apt response
Lord savagely mocked Roman Kemp's haircut as they became embroiled in a very unlikely feud. The Apprentice boss, 78, kicked off the lighthearted war of words when he shared a post to X, sharing his unfiltered thoughts on Roman's look after watching him on The One Show. He penned: 'What a weird haircut Roman Kemp has. I know I am a bit old and out of touch with some things, but what is it. @BBCTheOneShow (sic).' However, Roman didn't shy away from responding to the criticism as he penned: 'I've no idea on the true name Lord Sugar, please feel free to suggest one.' Lord Sugar then doubled down on his verdict as he brutally replied: 'Dead beaver Davy Crocket,' with Roman responding with a string of laughing face emojis. Roman took the criticism in his stride as he took to Instagram to share screenshots of Lord Sugar's words, alongside the caption: 'Well... we've peaked. My hairs now been fired (sic).' The radio presenter also shared a cheeky throwback photograph of Lord Sugar as he seemed to mock the businessman's own choice of hairdos over the decades. Despite Roman taking the criticism well, his fans flocked to the comments section to voice their support. Comments included: 'RIP hair. I think it looks great'; 'He only wishes he was as handsome as you at your age'; 'I'd take it as a compliment that he's so bothered'; 'OMG HOW RUDE. Nothing wrong with your hair xx.' Lord Sugar's remarks come after he recently spilled the beans on his future on The Apprentice after claiming 'hard graft has gone from the UK'. In March, the business magnate revealed he has committed to the beloved BBC show for three more years. The Amstrad founder, who has been leading the show since 2005, remarked he still has the eye to spot the best and worst candidates to receive his eye-watering prize. 'Listen, when I took the job on of The Apprentice, I was already a multi-millionaire,' he explained to the BBC. 'I didn't do it for the money.' Previously speaking to MailOnline, Lord Sugar told: 'Work ethic has changed in my lifetime and in my opinion, I think it's getting too relaxed. 'I blame companies like Google for example that have beds, and they allow people to turn up at 11am so they can detox from boozing the night before and lay in a little pod somewhere and then pop out at about 3pm and do their two minutes of genius. 'And then go and have the free lunch and dinner laid on for them. Hard graft has gone in my view.' The political advisor and author stressed he doesn't intend to change his work ethics or method, after insisting taking a two-hour lunch break wasn't 'in his culture'. He added: 'Anybody working for me that wants a two-hour lunch break to go to the gym, I'm afraid to say they will have to stay on the treadmill for the rest of the day ... It's not my culture and I might be wrong.'
Wales Online
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
Strictly Come Dancing line up rumours ahead of 2025 launch
Strictly Come Dancing line up rumours ahead of 2025 launch Who will be dressing up in their sequins in the hopes of winning the prestigious glitter ball? Claudia and Tess will be back to host the series, but who will be competing? (Image: 2018 Getty Images ) Excitement is already building for this year's Strictly Come Dancing. We are months away from their autumn launch, but fans of the show cannot wait to get their foxtrot fix. The last season was the BBC's biggest Unscripted series in 2024 with the main show averaging 8.8m viewers across the series with 10.1m tuning into the final. Last year, we saw comedian Chris McCausland take home the glitter ball alongside his dancing partner Diane Buswell. So, who is set to compete in this year's Strictly? According to these are the celebrities with the highest odds of taking part in this year's competition. For the latest TV and showbiz gossip sign up to our newsletter . Those rumoured to take place range from footballers to reality TV stars, but will they be donning sequins or will they be on the bench. Former Chelsea and Netherlands striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, is now 8/13 favourite to take on change from ball games to ballroom. Sir Mo Farah was named the greatest British sportsperson of this century (Image:) Article continues below Other rumoured stars include Olympic legend Sir Mo Farah, Apprentice star Tom Skinner, Gladiator star Nitro, the Queen consort's son Tom Parker Bowles and Coronation Street star Helen Flanagan. Reality television stars are always a firm favourite on Strictly, and this year is no different as Made in Chelsea's Georgia 'Toff' Toffolo is rumoured to be appearing as well as Danny Dyer's daughter and Love Island star Dani Dyer. The BBC are yet to announce exactly when the show will be back on air, however fans can look forward to Strictly Come Dancing waltzing it's way back onto screens this autumn. (Image: PA Archive/PA Images ) They have already announced which professional dancers we can expect to see later this year as we can look forward to another series of dancing joy. They have revealed that returning this year will be Aljaž Škorjanec, Amy Dowden, Carlos Gu, Gorka Márquez, Johannes Radebe, Jowita Przystał, Kai Widdrington, Karen Hauer, Katya Jones, Lauren Oakley, Luba Mushtuk, Michelle Tsiakkas, Nadiya Bychkova, Nancy Xu, Neil Jones, Nikita Kuzmin, Vito Coppola and last year's winner Dianne Buswell. There will also be two brand new professional dancers joining the team, who will be revealed closer to the return of the show. Sarah James, BBC Studios Executive Producer says: "The excitement is already building ahead of the new series and in addition to welcoming back our fantastic returning Pros, we are looking forward to welcoming two brand new Professional Dancers to the line up who will help bring another unforgettable series of dazzling dance and loads more besides to viewers later in 2025." Kalpna Patel-Knight, Head of Entertainment at the BBC says: 'The Strictly Professional Dancers are the beating heart of the programme, showcasing to viewers in every corner of the UK their world class talent by lighting up the famous Strictly ballroom every Saturday and Sunday night. Here's to another fab-u-lous series!' Article continues below
The Irish Sun
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
How can I turn my passion for painting into a career and retire early?
APPRENTICE star and West Ham United vice-chair Karren Brady answers your careers questions. Here, Karren gives her expert career advice to a reader who wants to sell their artwork. 1 Karren Brady gives you career advice Q) At the age of 53, I've taken up painting, and I think I'm pretty good. I mainly paint landscapes, and would like to see if I could make some money out of selling art. My dream would be to retire early and live off the proceeds of my paintings before drawing my pension, though I don't know how doable that is. My biggest problem is that I don't know where to start with selling paintings. READ MORE FROM KARREN BRADY I use a computer for my office job, but I'm not very technically minded and I realise I need to create a website if I want to get my artwork seen. But what else do I need to think about? Pamela, via email A) It's fantastic that you've discovered a real passion for painting, and even better that you're dreaming big and thinking about turning it into something profitable. Most read in Fabulous Don't worry about jumping into building a website just yet – there are easier, more approachable ways to get your art seen. Start small – take some good photos of your work (make sure you use natural light) and open an Instagram account. The Apprentice's Karren Brady gives career advice in game of Have You Ever? The platform is free, simple to use and a great way to test the waters and see what reaction your paintings get. I'd also suggest joining local art groups on Facebook, as I've seen so many people connect, sell their work and get advice that way. Platforms like Artfinder and Etsy are also worth looking into, plus don't underestimate the value of a local craft market to get face-to-face feedback and build your confidence. Most importantly, make sure you sign your work and keep a log of each piece. Finally, try to speak to other artists whenever and wherever you can – people are often more helpful than you might expect. Got a careers question for Karren? Email
Scottish Sun
7 days ago
- Business
- Scottish Sun
My new manager is destroying my confidence with micro-management & bad communication
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) APPRENTICE star and West Ham United vice-chair Karren Brady answers your careers questions. Here, Karren gives advice to a reader who wants to negotiate a fair redundancy after 20 years at her job. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 1 Karren Brady gives you career advice Q: For the past three years, I've worked in change communications. It was my perfect job and enabled me to thrive. Unfortunately, my employer got rid of my position and sent me back to a previous role in a different department, which I now find difficult. I'm currently on the waiting list for a neurodiversity assessment. I've told my new manager this, but they don't understand and work in a way that makes things a struggle and affects my focus. They also aren't very clear in their communication and they micro-manage me – even asking me about personal appointments in my calendar. I want to move forward – whether in this company or a different one – but my confidence is being knocked every day. Do you have any advice? Amber, via email A: It doesn't sound like your employer is supporting you or playing to your strengths. The Apprentice's Karren Brady gives career advice in game of Have You Ever? Request a meeting with your manager to calmly explain how the current set-up is affecting your ability to do your best work. Be specific about what's difficult, such as micro-management, unclear instructions and being questioned on personal matters, and how this is affecting your focus and confidence. Then explain what you need instead – more clarity, trust and autonomy. It's also worth sharing how much you thrived in your previous role and why. At the same time, speak to occupational health or HR about your neurodiversity assessment, as you may be eligible for reasonable adjustments. while at work. Keep a written record of concerning interactions, and don't stop advocating for yourself. Whether it's within this company or somewhere new, you deserve to be in a role and environment that supports your needs and allows you to grow.
