The line-up in this year's contest for BECTU president is exactly the same as it was two years ago.
Only two candidates had come forward by the time nominations closed on March 5 2004 - current president Tony Lennon, and Tudor Gates, who was the sole challenger in the 2002 election.
Tony Lennon has been nominated by 30 union branches, while Gates has been supported by only two.
In the 2002 election, Tony Lennon won 2,896 votes, against Gates' 2,503, a result which the re-elected president described as "a bit close for comfort".
Lennon's winning campaign that year focused on "progress with continuity", emphasising the need for industrial organisation in all the union's sectors, coupled with continuing efforts to recruit new members.
Gates's platform in the 2002 election, shared with two other National Executive Committee members from his own section of the union, was based on bitter criticism of BECTU's policies going back almost to the amalgamation of ACTT and BETA in 1991.
Despite a promise that Gates and his two colleagues would transform BECTU once elected, a combination of work commitments and illness meant that he was the only one who attended meetings of the National Executive on a regular basis, often failing to win a single supporter for his views.
In the last two years General Secretary Roger Bolton, one of Gates' favourite targets, has been re-elected to his job, and only last month Gerry Morrissey, another target, was re-elected as one of two Assistant General Secretaries without opposition.
Over the same period, BECTU membership has held steady, with a slight increase recently, contradicting gloomy predictions by Gates that a collapse was just round the corner.
Tony Lennon's manifesto this year acknowledges the steady progress made by BECTU on the industrial front, but promises no let-up in the fight for better freelance rights, proper funding of public sector arts and the BBC, and support for members facing new technologies, or possible redundancy, from film labs and cinemas to ITV.
