Good day: UNISON members in local government, together with their colleagues from Unite, have started their 48 hour strike in support of their demand for an above-inflation pay rise. Picket lines were impressive and positive at various Leicester City Council offices this morning, and even a short speech from me didn't dampen their mood at the lunchtime rally in Leicester's Town Hall Square.

We finally took the stabilisers off Gregory's bike yesterday, and figured out how to adjust the handlebars and the seat so it was nearly big enough for him, and off we went to the park... where he learned to ride on two wheels in about three minutes flat! He's had the bike for ages, but been very reluctant to learn to ride it without the stabilisers. However in the autumn he's going on a school trip to Brancaster, where one of the activities is going to be a bike ride. Therefore there's a real incentive to learn to ride competently over the summer holiday.

He's clearly been practicing in secret, or something, though, as he pretty much nailed it on day one. Well done, Greg!

Just been up to the allotment and picked our first cucumbers of the year. And a few other things too.

Saturday saw the kids and I at the Abbey Pumping Station - built by the Victorians to solve the problem of sewage, in response to a higher than average death rate amongst local children, and now a museum. Since it went out of service fifty years ago it has served as a museum of technology for Leicester and the shiny National Space Centre was built next to it.

On Saturday the giant beam engines which pumped the sewage uphill out of Leicester were running again. It was a reminder of the good that science can do - when harnessed by progressive rather than reactionary ideas.

Wellington Chibebe and Lovemore Matombo are Zimbabwean union leaders arrested and charged with "spreading falshoods prejudicial to the state" (in other words, being active trade unionists and democrats). Their trial was planned to start yesterday, however the judge and prosecutors did not attend the court, and the trial has now been rescheduled for July 30th.

The TUC organised a protest yesterday, to coincide with the planned start of the trial, and they report: Hundreds of unionists and human rights supporters gathered outside the Zimbabwean Embassy on the Strand in London today to protest at the scheduled trial of Lovemore Matombo and Wellington Chibebe of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.

Top of the list for this afternoon's business - prioritised by delegates at the conference - is motion 63 on the union's relationship with the Labour Party.

The motion calls for a review of the union's political funds, and asks "what do we get for our money"?

The NEC have submitted an amendment to the motion. Although the speeches and the leaflets they have put out argue that we don't need a review because we had one five years ago, their amendment accepts the idea of a review whilst gutting it of any potential impact. The NEC aren't actually speaking against the motion, but by putting up an amendment they are trying to avoid the embarrassment of losing a vote on this subject.

I received the following email the other days. Despite being an elected member of UNISON's Health SGE I didn't receive it from the national office directly, but via a member in another region who forwarded it on to the excellent and useful healthactivists email list.

The email raises a couple of questions. Firstly the fact that the email, the meeting it refers to, and the draft statement presented to that meeting in UNISON's name all seems to have gone on without any oversight or control by the elected lay leadership of the union. I think members of the union will quite reasonably ask why the SGE weren't in control of this process of negotiations with the other NHS unions.

Delegates vote to agree support for motion 30 demonstrating our pride in the NHS at its 60th birthday.

The highlight of the second day of UNISON conference has undoubtedly been the NHS debate. There was an excellent fringe meeting at lunchtime organised by the cross-union activist bulletin health worker. Several of the newly-elected members of the health SGE were there, and they joined in an excellent discussion about learning the lessons from the pay ballot. There was a determined mood to the meeting and positive suggestions for rebuilding our relationships with other NHS unions in support of efforts to get the pay deal re-opened, in line with Dave Prentis' speech and his comments in this morning's papers.