Peter Kent-Baguley

The Guardian's In praise of...Tribune

Possibly for the first time ever, I didn't read the current issue of Tribune until last night, having first seen with enormous delight the Guardian's answer to those splendid Third Leaders of The Times (when it was The Times), In praise of... focusing on Tribune. Its penutlimate sentence: "It was Labour's beating heart." sounded decidedly final, rending the praise rather more an obituary.

I had been so wrapped up with the anti-academies conference in the city on Saturday and all kinds of follow up work on Sunday that my weekly dose of Tribune was on hold. That penultimate sentence thrust shock waves through me and I immediately retrieved my current Tribune and rather frantically flicked pages searching fro the dreadful announcment. And there it was, a note at the end of the Comment column, headed: URGENT talks are taking place about the future of Tribune. 

Apparently the trade union consortium which owns Tribune - Unite, Unison, Community, ASLEF and the CWU - has still not agreed a  financial development plan tabled in April. The delay has led to "financial strains" so the Tribune Board has agreed to seek a broader range of investment from within the labour movement. The matter will now be discussed at the annual meteing of the Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Organisation in Manchester on Friday 19th September.

Come on for goodness sake tade unions: this is not the time to abandon an important voice for labour that is neither strident nor hectoring, but thoughtful and encouraging, encompassing a broad range of labour centre-left views. If you are a member of one of the Tribune-owning trade unions, make sure your general secretary knows you expect support to be given to Tribune.