Livng outside of London, we are often quite cut off from the "left scene" which is very much centred on life in the capital. I hadn't even realised that Greg Tucker was ill and it came as a massive shock to hear a couple of days ago that he had died.

Now that I've got five minutes to write something by way of a tribute, I find that everything I would have written has already been said by others; people who knew him better or longer than I did.

The assorted leaderships of the NHS unions have demonstrated today why we're in the mess we are over NHS pay. As late as Friday afternoon there was little hard information available about this year's pay proposals, yet by Monday morning, UNISON and the RCN had apparently negotiated a proposal not just for this year but for next year and the year after as well.

If the proposals even came close to reaching UNISON's stated policy of an above-inflation pay rise for all NHS staff then this might have been worth the conflict with the other unions, the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament, but it doesn't. It falls so far short as to be shockingly bad - a below inflation, real terms pay cut for this year, followed by two more below inflation, real terms pay cuts to come.

Finally a small piece of good news from Iran, where trade unionist Mahmoud Salehi has finally been freed from the City of Sanandaj‘s central prison, where he had finished one-year jail term for his labour activities on March 23, 2008 but the authorities had refused to release him until today.

Congratulation and many thanks to all labour, progressive and human rights’ organizations and activists who have supported Salehi and called for his freedom and that of other jailed labour activists.

More details can be found on the website of the International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran.

Colleagues in local government have been made a final offer for this year's pay rise and apparently it's not very good. At least one UNISON branch has already decided to ask the national body responsible for leading their strategy to reject it and organise a campaign of industrial action.

Meanwhile, confusion reigns over our pay rise in the NHS. We're supposed to already have it, but while some in the media are saying an announcement is due imminently (although no-one who is waiting for the pay rise would consider the end of the month to be imminent) others are reporting that the NHS Pay Review Body hasn't even reported to the Government yet.

Yes, it's true. Better days are on the way. Well, episode one is, anyway. Everyone at 4 Glengate is rather fond of Joss Whedon's space pirates, and if we can't have a second series of Firefly or a sequel to the movie, then at least we'll enjoy the comics. The latest installment of Buffy series 8 arrived this morning, and brought with it an advert for a new run of three Serenity comics. The first issue has already been published, but of course it takes thre

On Thursday night I attended a presentation to GPs by the Virgin Healthcare group - a new company set up by Branson's money-making empire to seek out ways of exploiting the NHS for profit. Before going in, I met up with members of Keep Our NHS Public and the local UNISON branch, who were protesting outside (see picture).

The Virgin Healthcare proposals sound a lot like Lord Darzi's polyclinics - lots of different 'services' under one roof, centred around a GP surgery (or several GP surgeries combined together in some unspecified way). In the Virgin Healthcare model, the additional services would include things like laser eye surgery, dentistry (only private dentists, though, it was made very clear) and pharmacy.

George Parr on NHS privatisation, courtesy of YouTube and a recent book launch...

Meanwhile, because the irony of the above video is lost on some people, Richard Branson's Virgin Group has set up Virgin Healthcare - to try to find ways to make money out of primary care. Their plans appear to be to run clinics, in which GPs can rent space, where all the non-clinical staff (receptionists, and so on) will be employed by Virgin, and therefore not get NHS pay, terms and conditions, or pension rights.

Friends and regular readers of the blog will know that I'm more of a cricket fan, and the showy, glitzy, cheerleader-led frenzy that defines American sports doesn't really do it for me. However, when younger I did used to like to watch American football, and the regular late night to watch the superbowl became a bit of a habit. Don't watch it much now that I have 'parental sleep disorder' but last night found me installed on the sofa, sorry, couch, with a big pot of coffee. The fact that the game was on BBC2 without adverts helped, but crucially the game was superb.

For anyone who doesn't know the sport, American Football is a cross between rugby league and a maths lesson. I know that doesn't sound very exciting, but the game offers occasional bursts of athletic and spatial brilliance interspersed with tactical play around field placings and calculations that is almost on a par with cricket. Whereas in football, English-style, much of a game can be spent making irrelevant moves (back-passes to the goal keeper, for instance), in American Football, like basketball and cricket, every play matters. Every 'down', like every drive to the basket or every ball in a game of cricket, is an opportunity to score, or a chance for the other side to steal a breakthrough. Perhaps that goes some way towards explaining why I find those three sports, above all others, interesting enough to keep me hooked over the years, even though they seem so different on the surface.

On 12 December 2007 Vladimir Demyan, a trade union leader and the chairperson of Protection of Labour [Zahist Pracy] a Kyiv independent union, technician for electrical installations at the Commercial Centre 16 of METRO Cash & Carry Ukraine (part of the METRO Group multinational holding company headquartered in Dusseldorf, Germany) was unlawfully dismissed in Kyiv.

Following a campaign by workers locally, and international pressure through the UNI global union, Mr Demyan was yesterday guaranteed his job back. The local union, Zahist Pracy, will be able to organise unhindered by such union-busting efforts by management.

Not sure how I missed this at Christmas, but it's truly stupendous.

I'm scouring the schedules for 'Bonaduce and the Christmas Monkey' already. I think it won't be long now.