MY first involvement in trade union activism began just as Thatcherism was getting into full swing.

After a long pause, I returned to the maelstrom in the 1990s. By that time the trade union movement was a faint shadow of the mighty force that had once commanded huge influence, its UK membership slashed by five million in the intervening period since I was a teenage shop steward.

During its 18 years in power, the Tory government had railroaded through nine Acts of Parliament designed to further weaken the rights of working people to organise themselves.

One thing remained unchanged, however. The Labour Party still dominated the machinery of the trade union movement in Scotland and across Britain. Some of them tried in vain to recruit me.

“Join the party and change it from within,” they said. “Labour is the political wing of the trade union movement,” they insisted. “And now that we’re in power, we’ll take take the party back to the left,” they claimed.

By the time Tony Blair had unleashed global carnage, even the most ardent Labour loyalists were no longer trying to recruit anyone.

But 12 years and two General Election defeats later, these old arguments are being revived with a passion as tens of thousands of people – mainly in England and Wales – sign up to change the Labour Party by voting for Jeremy Corbyn. Many have been inspired by the example of Scotland, their confidence in left-wing ideas galvinised by the landslide election victory of the anti-austerity, anti-Trident SNP.

But its clear they’re not welcome.

The problem with real democracy is that people cannot just be herded like sheep. If you believe in it, you need to live with people who don’t agree with you. And if you claim you’re the natural party of the working class, you need to be prepared to let in the mob.

Ultimately, it’s all about power.

The Oxbridge elite who’ve run UK Labour for decades are panic-stricken that they’re about to lose control.

Yes, political parties should have mechanisms to protect themselves from damaging and destructive behaviour, whether that’s violence, bullying, harassment of women, corruption or fraudulence.

But if Jeremy Corbyn is denied the leadership by bans and exclusions, Labour will have taken one more giant leap towards oblivion.

Say no to sanctions on the poor

BACK in 1923, the Red Clydesider and Independent Labour MP Jimmy Maxton was thrown out of the House of Commons for denouncing a Tory minister as a “murderer” for withdrawing school milk. Times may have moved on, but we still have a Tory government in Westminster driving the poor to early graves.

No-one will ever be tried or convicted, but when poor people take their own lives because their benefits have been stopped or cut, those in charge of our welfare system are morally if not legally guilty of culpable homicide.

Now DWP staff have been given guidance about how to deal with suicidal claimants. It’s like recruiting burglars to advise the folk they’ve robbed how to make an insurance claim. Only worse.

And it’s not even proper training. Many health and social care workers are thoroughly trained by professionals in suicide first aid. The DWP workers are simply given a pink card, which is supposed to help them assess whether or not to call an ambulance.

Here’s a better and more humane way of dealing with vulnerable claimants. Stop imposing sanctions. They don’t work. They will never miraculously transform people with a mountain of problems into nine-to-five types.

Half of all those who appeal against sanctions win – evidence enough of their arbitrary unfairness. We need a co-ordinated campaign, that includes the power of the Public and Commercial Services Union to abolish sanctions. And save lives.

The pink cards should be binned. That would be a start in resisting the Tories’ war on the vulnerable.

I cheered when maligned young mum hit back after spray tan boob

SPRAY tans might look great under the studio lights of Strictly Come Dancing, but in the cold light of day they tend to make folk look like refugees from a Tango ad.

Yet many women, under pressure to look good and bombarded daily with images of bronzed glamour, do take to the spray can on occasion.

Gemma Colley, a self-deprecating young mum, made the mistake of posting a shot of her baby on Facebook after accidentally transferring some of the lotion onto her baby’s cheek while breast-feeding.

Enter the Holy Willies. In their eyes, mothers should be demure self-denying Madonnas (and certainly not the pop star version). The pelters directed at Gemma underline the impossible duality women are expected to exemplify in a world in which we are still far from liberated.

I cheered when Gemma hit back saying: “Yes, I occasionally forget things, lose my s***, give my eldest one too many biscuits, and occasionally let the CBeebies presenters babysit, but I’d hardly say that constitutes as the worst mum in the world.”

No, it doesn’t, Gemma. You’re just like the rest of us – trying to do your best in a world where women are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.