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28th September 2009 - Banking Bail Outs II & Other News

Accord sponsored a fringe event at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton on Sunday, 27th September.

The event, organised by The Smith Institute (www.smith-institute.org.uk) was addressed by:

Stephen Timms MP - Financial Secretary to the Treasury
Gavin Hayes - General Secretary of the social-democratic pressure group, Compass (www.compassonline.org.uk)
Ged Nichols - General Secretary of Accord.

On the eve of what is expected to be a hard-hitting speech from the Chancellor of the Exchequer on banks and bankers' bonuses, Accord's fringe meeting in Brighton aired the issues that will be grabbing many headlines this week.

Stephen Timms gave an overview of developments in the last year arguing that everybody in the UK had benefited from the Government bail out of the banks as the alternative (the potential collapse of a major British bank and perhaps the UK banking system as a whole with all its implications) would have lead to much more serious consequences.

Gavin Hayes called for a more radical approach in the future while Ged Nichols set the scene for the discussion that followed by putting the case on behalf of behalf of bank employees (see the attached speaking notes).  

Next is a fringe meeting at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester on October 5th where Ged will be making the case again on behalf of Accord members on a platform shared with Mark Hoban MP, Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury, amongst others. 

Any comments or queries should be referred to info@AccordHQ.org 

Other News 

  • On Thursday, September 24th, the Lloyds Banking Group confirmed that negotiations have started on the integration of terms & conditions of employment for HBOS and Lloyds TSB employees. It is obviously early days and the negotiations will be complex. However, we can confirm that Accord is committed to involving members in the decision making process as and when the discussions are completed and we will not sign any agreements without the consent of the majority of members through a consultative exercise.
  • Accord magazine has not been published since the take-over of HBOS by Lloyds TSB was announced in September 2008. One year on, the first edition of the magazine since the creation of the Lloyds Banking Group is being finalised and will be published in October - look out for it. 
  • The magazine will contain a summary of Accord's accounts for the year ended 31st December 2008. The statutory information which must accompany the accounts is available here  and it will be reproduced in the magazine.

Any comments or queries should be referred to ged.nichols@AccordHQ.org 

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