GFTU BGCM Minutes 2017

you think back to Sunday when we all arrived and we had the two separate

conferences, one was the Caravan Club and the red coat bounded down the

corridor trying to cajole people into their conference. When I first saw him, I

thought, “Which trade union is he from?” (Laughter) One of the things I was

asked to do was to try and do this in a more informal way and try and be funny,

which, as Ronnie will tell you, is always awkward if you try and be funny. It is

obviously better to try and be natural with it. So I was asking other people to

give me their memories and their thoughts about what has happened in a

comedic way.

I think it was quite interesting that the first person to speak was John who tried

to blame his Shakespearean quote and joke on his son and for many of us as

well that was the first time we had heard about this contest that was going on.

Doug has just handed me the piece of paper to tell you who the winner is, so I

will give that out at the end. I am not sure if that was blackmail or pity he was

trying to use by blaming it on his son, but it did not seem to work anyway.

We have had many excellent contributions and motions that have been heard

over the past few days, particularly on that first day. We then had the gala

dinner where the dress was formal and I just need to compliment the two dicks,

sorry, the two dickie bows that were by our comrades there. One of the funny

things for me is that everyone is a bit cautious and a bit nervous about the

seating plan, the seating arrangements, because we were all spread out and

put with people that you would have to talk to for a change, meeting different

people and that kind of thing, and as I am walking up to the table plan, not

knowing where I am, I stand next to Yvonne and she goes, “Oh bloody hell! I’m

on the worst possible table I can be on”. I said, “Oh, right, yes, you’re on the

same table as me, Yvonne. Thanks for that!” (Laughter) Not only that, she

was actually sitting right next to me as well! The gala dinner went as expected.

There was an auction which we always feel for Doug on, because he is never

quite sure if anyone is going to dig into their pockets, despite the varied riches

that are within the room and particularly with some of the trade unions. I

thought an interesting interjection was from Paul from Morrish Solicitors who

tried to auction off the legal work when most of us in the room, actually being

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