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| Meet me Huw - One on one |
I will never lie to you and I will not stop fighting for you. May God strike me down dead should I do either.
Sometimes I may have to withhold information from you for reasons that might not be clear. But I swear that once able, I will release the information as soon as I consider it right to. I accept I may well make mistakes and will correct those mistakes if I can, as soon as you make me aware of them.
Yesterday, in Ebbw Vale, the Fire Service represented by the Chief Fire Officer Huw Jakeway, threw away an opportunity to call a halt to this madness on the part of the Fire Service.
He had a chance to show that he had listened to the voice of the people of Blaina, read the report submitted by Councillor Lisa Winnett, withdraw the proposal and let our lives return to normal whilst removing the Sword of Damocles that he has hung over the heads of the men who crew our station.
Why would he do that, unless of course he's working towards a hidden agenda and to him the facts that his proposal to close Blaina was based on false information that he KNOWS to be inaccurate are irrelevant?
Also, having read the true figures and seen the graphs provided by Councillor Winnett, he still chose to proceed with an action that is going to cost Blaenau Gwent more than just money.
- We are talking about the loss of goodwill to the Fire and Rescue Service from the people of Blaenau Gwent.
- We are talking about a loss of confidence in the Fire Brigade Union that is supposed to represent the fire crews that risk their all for us. No man can serve two masters.
- We are talking political conflict as the battle widens and becomes a dirty war with secrets some politicians would prefer to remain buried, revealed and used by their enemies.
Well I will tell you - but not yet, because the time is not quite right for the whole rotten truth about what is happening in the Fire and Rescue Service in South Wales. It needs a lot of work before it can be presented to the people.
But before we get to the whole truth, because of the deliberately planned short time we have been given by the Fire Service to organise resistance and give reasons (as if any reasons were needed) for why Blaina should not be closed, we must first save not just Blaina Fire Station but all the Fire Stations that serve the people of Blaenau Gwent so well, despite being short on manpower and resources.
Shamefully, the Fire Service have said that they are not prepared to accept the paper petitions that thousands of you have signed in the garage and the shops of Blaina. The fire service is spitting in the face of the people of Blaina by ignoring those petitions and they will pay for that I promise you.
Now time is tight and I have a lot to do, so know this.
There are events being planned and organised to rally the support of the people behind this campaign. These events MUST be supported by everyone in the community.
You MUST make the time to support those who defend the lives of your children. Shake off your apathy and be a part of a fight that is both just and noble, you must fight, fight, fight and when you feel you cannot fight anymore, then that is when you must fight harder.
You must make yourselves nuisances to all the politicians, trade union officials and anyone who can influence those people who would steal our station from us. Remind them of their duty if they shirk it and let them know that THEY represent you and only hold their positions because of YOU.
Our website statistics are rising like a rocket and the people who matter are reading it, including the Fire Service. So you must tell them what you think in the comments of the articles on this site.
Leave your reasons why the station must not close. Tell us what you are doing to save our station. Tell us who the good guys are, point to the bad guys. Contribute, write an article, do something.
If you have any information that you think useful, then send it in. Know this also, the site records no information as to who makes the comments and should any of you email me with information you have my word of honour that I will never betray a source.
Now then, we know that Huw Jakeway will not speak to the people directly but would he be prepared to take part in a well managed, policed debate with people like myself?
Come on Huw. Show you have the courage of your convictions and come to Blaina and speak to us.
Do not be a coward and launch your cruise missile of destruction from your bunker, if you want to destroy us, then have the guts to look us in the eyes whilst you try to do it.
If you are not prepared to speak to the people of Blaina Huw, then do you have the courage to speak to me alone?
I will come to your office Huw and we will have a chat. You have my word of honour that I would never reveal a word of what was said in that private meeting afterwards unless agreed with you first.
So Huw, are you up for it? I have petrol in my car and am ready to roll at a minutes notice and I know you have time to spare.
Dear Paul,
ReplyDeleteI have been following your ‘Save Blaina Fire Station’ blog with growing dismay over the past few days. You stated in your first post ‘keep your comments civilised, as we do not wish for foolish comments to overshadow our arguments.’ I have to say, that you would benefit from heeding your own advice on this score.
You have in several posts questioned the integrity of my friend and colleague Mark Watt, using such phrases as ‘how can he be expected to cross swords with his boss?’, ‘no man can serve two masters’, and you have reported today that there is a ‘loss of confidence in the Fire Brigade Union that is supposed to represent the fire crews that risk their all for us.’
You clearly have no knowledge or understanding of how the Fire & Rescue Service or, more importantly to us as Brigade Officials, how the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) operates. The vast majority of FBU officials – national, regional and brigade based have either been operational firefighters, or still are. The remainder are emergency fire control staff who handle emergency fire calls, providing the first point of contact to distressed and frightened callers.
Mark Watt has been an operational firefighter for 28 years – a good proportion of that in Strathclyde Fire Brigade, one of the busiest in the UK, so for you to question his integrity and ability to represent crews that risk their lives is a downright insult. If you were to read up on trade union law, and in particular the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, who would understand that union officials are protected by law to enable them to assist their colleagues and negotiate with management.
Mark and I have attended various meetings in Blaina and Ebbw Vale, we have ensured that financial support is available to assist the campaign e.g. printing of fliers, organising a bus to enable local residents to attend the Fire Authority meeting in December and anything else the members at Blaina station need. We have met with the local Assembly Member, Alun Davies, and have other meetings with politicians lined up and are also in continued discussions with the media, to promote our cause.
We feel extremely disappointed to read your report of a loss of confidence in us – only yesterday we managed to secure the attendance of our General Secretary, Matt Wrack at the open day in Blaina which we are helping the crew to organise. Matt Wrack who is the General Secretary of a Union in the middle of a national pensions dispute and who oversees in excess of 50,000 members, but who is willing to take the time out and visit a station in the Gwent valleys, because, like us, all his members are important to him.
Despite your negativity towards us, we will continue to support Blaina members until such time as they themselves tell us they don’t need us – the fact of the matter is, they are our members, and not you.
I will end by saying to you Paul that if you injected as much energy into actually doing something positive to save Blaina Fire Station as you do in waging war on Huw Jakeway and the FBU, you may achieve better results.
Jo Byrne
South Wales FBU
Brigade Organiser
You said:
Delete"I will end by saying to you Paul that if you injected as much energy into actually doing something positive to save Blaina Fire Station as you do in waging war on Huw Jakeway and the FBU, you may achieve better results."
I think this is extremely unfair to Paul as he has worked as hard as anyone to try and save our fire station. He has also put a lot of hard work in to writing this blog and motivating people to help fight this closure.
You should be working together on this and not running down the effort Paul has made.
Regards
Blaina Resident
I will second that Blaina Resident ...... Well said
Delete
ReplyDeleteThank you for the correspondence Jo.
I think your last paragraph sums it up nicely.
I am sure that Mark has done a great job in the past but I stand by my statement that no man can serve two masters and will publish the reasons why tomorrow.
My advice now, is do not enter a war of words with me as it will only be a distraction for both of us in our fight to save Blaina.
Paul
ReplyDeleteI feel that you are doing Mr Watt a disservice as you clearly have no grasp of trade union relations and the fact that the majority of trade union officials in any walk of life are employees of an organisation the same as the members they represent?
Have you ever acted as a trade union official yourself or dealt constructively with anyone who has or do you prefer the route of slagging people off in print when you are clearly ill informed or ignorant as to the role of a union official and as much as I admire your quest and hope you succeed in assisting the Fire Brigades Union who I'm sure will present far better arguments to keep the Station open than the rhetoric you are spouting in your personal attacks on individuals which if anything are taking the focus away from the real issue of keeping this valuable resource within the borough of Blaenau Gwent. As someone who's grandfather worked in and acted as a union official in Six Bells Colliery all his working life I can assure that my grandfather was able to carry out his role as a miner and also represent the miners of the colliery and to be blunt if you knew anything of trade union relations maybe you would think before spouting your rhetoric.
Good luck in your quest to keep Blaina open but choose your targets wisely and realise that the final decision actually sits with the fire and rescue authority not any one individual.
Resident of Blaenau Gwent
Another interesting last paragraph.
ReplyDeleteMy Quest to keep Blaina open?????????????
Surely that should be OUR Quest.
Rest assured I am going to remind Tudor Davies just who he was elected to represent and it NOT the Fire Service.
Paul
DeleteWhy do you choose to ignore the content of posts and give the cheesy "interesting last paragraph" response, maybe you should take some notice of and at least respond to the content of posts or are you unhappy at the highlighting of your total lack of knowledge surrounding trade union activities and the banal nature of your personal attacks.
BG resident
Because you have clearly played this game before and are only seeking to drive a wedge between the Fire Brigade Union and this site and I will not let that happen.
DeleteNow stop wasting time and go do something to save Blaina Fire Station or make a comment congratulating them on the superb work they did last night.
Professionally speaking, you are the worse spammer I have ever encountered you are so obvious.