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> JIM'S BLOG March Forward to 3000 NASS Members
My apologies for the last blog being a bit self-indulgent and now back to Stable Staff issues. This year is going to be very busy for NASS as we try to tackle the many issues affecting Stable Staff, along with a growing Stud Membership. > Click to read full article I was not well over Christmas starting a few days before and through to New Year.
I was not well over Christmas starting a few days before and through to New Year. I managed to do a few hundred work-related Xmas cards before that and was hoping to get personal ones done just before Christmas. However, that went out of the window and so any friends reading this (I do have a few) then you weren’t deliberately missed out this year - everyone was - apart from the ones that my wife did in our joint name. > Click to read full article Merry Christmas Peace on Earth and Goodwill to all Men and Women
Well I don’t think that was the thoughts of a Trainer who sacked a Stable Lad just before Christmas, saying he didn’t have as many horses. Of course, that is a redundancy situation which is well outlined in employment law as to how it should be dealt with – which he didn’t do. When we asked about it, his answer was that the lad hadn’t done one year’s service employment with him implying that he thought he was safe. > Click to read full article "You'll Never Beat the Irish": The Wolfe Tones Football World Cup Song - But we Did!
On my way to Ireland for the NASS v Irish Stable Staff Football Match, to catch the ferry from Wales I thought it appropriate to play some Irish folk music. > Click to read full article "Please sir, can I have some more" Oliver Twist "More boy, More!"
On a previous blog I talked about the fact that trainers had joined the ranks of protestors and even threatened strike action i.e. not to run their horses, collectively, where the prize money was insufficient. I pointed out that the lesson was there to be learnt by stable staff, although I would be the last one to advocate industrial action, even if there was no other reason than that it would tear the Association apart. I believe that there have probably been many tensions within the Trainers’ ranks but these have generally not seen the light of day and the public face of uniformity behind the NTF and the Horsemen’s Group position has ensured the relative success of the Horsemen’s Group Tariff and the bringing of more prize money into racing. > Click to read full article Interview with Frankie Dettori
Quotes from Interview with Frankie Dettori in Guardian Weekend Magazine 8.10.11 Q: “What is the worst job you’ve done?” A: “Mucking out horses in winter at 6am” Q: “Property aside, what’s the most expensive thing you’ve brought?” A: “A Ferrari”Q: “How would you like to be remembered?” A:” As a great Jockey” Q:” How do you relax?” A:” I go to my restaurant, Cavallino” > Click to read full article Back to Basics
This blog gets back to the original purpose of establishing the blog in order to comment on stable staff issues. I have tried not to drift away too much from that concept. > Click to read full article Doreen Rackham
Doreen died whilst I was out of the country on holiday and so I was not able to visit her as others managed to prior to her death and was unable to get a comment into the Racing Post about her on behalf of Stable Staff, although others made reference to her unstinting support for Stable Staff, particularly in Lambourn. > Click to read full article Betfair and NASS Support Racecourses
This blog was meant to follow the announcement of the winner of the Betfair/NASS project to improve Stable Staff facilities at Racecourses sponsored by Betfair but got delayed due to other work and a summer holiday. Hexham Racecourse were awarded the whole of the £25,000 available for match-funding to bring a racecourse’s facilities up to the NASS Minimum Standard. > Click to read full article I was intrigued...
I was intrigued to read the article in the Racing Post the other week about India’s richest prize money race, the Kingfisher Bangalore Derby, being postponed due to Stable Staff being on strike. Knowing nothing about racing in India, I decided to try to find out more on the web. > Click to read full article “Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not” Robert Kennedy’s, American politician, words spoken by Edward Kennedy at his funeral 8 June 1968.
The above quote is, I think, a lesson that we should all learn. The concept of dreaming of a better world, a better society, a better way of doing things is what has led mankind to strive to achieve and change things for the better for themselves and those who come after them. > Click to read full article “The current recession could easily be appropriated to provide a smokescreen for legislators and employers to freeze the wages of those in most need, who have played no part in engendering the economic crisis that is hitting them and their families so badly. This would be beyond folly; it would be commercially dangerous and socially short-sighted.” - Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, in the foreword to “Not Just For The Good Times - The New Imperative for Fair Pay”
In the run up to NASS putting in this year’s pay claim for Stable Staff (more details in next blog) I have been doing some research and have come up with two articles which are very relevant. Firstly, in the Telegraph an article headed “Queen forced to end low pay among her domestic servants” is very relevant in this Royal Ascot Week. It reads as follows: The Queen is to offer her domestic servants pay rises of up to 16 per cent in a move to eradicate low pay in the Royal Household. The Telegraph has learnt that senior courtiers have conceded to staff demands that the "medieval" pay scale, which has been blamed for keeping down wages, be overhauled. The move follows increased concern that some of the 600 staff at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Holyrood House were unable to make ends meet despite working for one of the richest families in the world. > Click to read full article “Yet let’s be content, and the times lament, you see the world turn’d upside down” (the chorus line of an old English ballad)
“Who needs enemies with friends like these” must have been the thoughts of many in the horseracing world when the inevitable decision about the sale of the Tote was announced. My guess is that many of the top participants in horseracing support and voted for the majority party in the Coalition (I call it Conservative Government rather than Coalition as the LibDems have emasculated themselves to achieve the pretence of power). Yet the demands of the Treasury; the need to be seen to achieve what the previous (Labour) Government failed to achieve; and a further nail of privatisation into anything that is, could or should be public has led to this Government turning on, and upsetting, its allies and their own “Sport of Kings”. > Click to read full article “Education can be both life-sustaining and lifesaving. It is the basic right of every girl and boy, vital for their enjoyment of all other human rights and critical to the future of any society.” Vernor Munoz, UN Special Rapporteur
Adult Learning Week 14-20 May 2011 Last week was Adult Learning Week and so I will deal mainly with training and education. This is a particular interest of mine going back a long time. In 1979 I founded a unique training organisation which came to be known as Workbase Training and which was a catalyst for transforming the training agenda of both the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Labour government elected 1977. > Click to read full article “Patriotism is the virtue of the Vicious” Oscar Wilde
I’m not a “Little Englander” and do not like the way more people describe themselves as “English” rather than British. I hold a British passport and my Country of origin is classified as either Britain or the United Kingdom. I also regard myself as European. However, I do support the concept of a devolved regional parliament for England for the same reason that I supported the concept for Scotland and Wales. The British Parliament should deal with cross-regional matters and the devolved regional parliaments deal with matters that apply solely to that region or where they want to put a regional dimension on a wider issue. > Click to read full article “I wandered lonely as a cloud” William Wordsworth
Recently I was in the Lake District dealing with NASS Members issues. I travel around the Country every week even if it is only going up to the NASS Head Office near Burton upon Trent (I am based in South East London). As I then went to both Newcastle and Doncaster for meetings it meant I travelled about 700 miles. > Click to read full article The National Association of Stable Staff
The National Association of Stable Staff (NASS) is the transformed previous Stable Lads Association (SLA) (a lot of people still refer to it as that). It began with a change of name following my election as Chief Executive in May 2007. For a while NASS still had the old SLA leadership and it was difficult to get real change, due to self-interest. Change began to really start when George McGrath, now NASS President, joined the National Committee followed by Stephen Freeman, (Scotland), and Jack Smith, (Middleham). > Click to read full article Horseracing isn't just about Gambling
A few days ago I attended the funeral of a close friend, Godfry Eastwood, who died at the age of 65. It was attended by about 150 people, mainly from a trade union background as that had been his career, he was a work colleague of mine for many years in the late 1970s through until I left Unison in 1999. > Click to read full article Reflections on Principles and Hypocrisy
Since my last blog, the Levy determination was announced by the Secretary of State and can be classified as a partial success for the BHA and racing. My number 2 blog may still be prophetic. The work has now to be done on an alternative to the Levy, which I don’t think the Government can bow out of. It is clear that consensus cannot prevail and criteria for levying the betting industry has to be laid down. The Minister went some way to doing that and if the outstanding demands of racing were considered in a similar manner, we would then have a formula to determine future levy arrangements. > Click to read full article A Bigger Cake / A Bigger Slice or Both!
I said in my second blog that I would say something about the Horsemen’s Group Tariff “when the dust settles” after its initial launch. However, with the Jump Tariff just beginning there is still a lot of debate going on including about the run upto the commencement of the Flat Season. > Click to read full article Racing Post Reviews & Website Development
A great start to the blog with details of it being published in last Sunday’s Racing Post. Having seen Robin Gibson’s previous reviews of websites in the Racing Post, I added him to our contacts list, as I was mailing Blog No 2 to many of them, as I suspected that many of them would not regularly log on to the NASS website. Thanks Robin, much appreciated. > Click to read full article Mandela Moments & The Racing Post
This is the second blog to be posted by me. Already it is a longer gap than intended due to a short break after the New Year and keeping on top of the work from before that. As soon as I returned to work, the Horseman’s Group Tariff for all races was released. I was able to get to the press launch and planned to deal with that, NASS involvement in it and our perspective of the financing of racing as I said in the first blog that I would. > Click to read full article New Year Message from Jim Cornelius, NASS Chief Executive
I hope you had a good Christmas and greetings for the New Year. It will clearly be an interesting year for Racing after the rollercoaster one we have had in 2010. Both the highs and lows are well known to racing fans and this new blog isn’t going to try to compete with other commentators of the Racing Industry but will concentrate on issues affecting STABLE STAFF. > Click to read full article |
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