Shot by both sidesA special treat for blog readers, courtesy of Bristol Lib Dems by the look of it.
Following on from the previous post, just what are the rights of staff working in the public sector to speak out about the devastation that is facing them?
The right of public servants to speak out about what they see in their line of work is a bit of a minefield. There was the furore over the Orwell prize-winning NightJack blog, written anonymously by a serving police officer, who was unmasked by The Times after he failed to obtain an injunction to protect his identity. Not sure whether he then faced disciplinary action, but he certainly had to stop blogging.
Labour of course introduced protection for whistleblowers, provided disclosures were made “to the right person in the right way” – in other words, you can’t just go shooting your mouth off in public about what’s going on… So where does this leave people working in the public sector who want to join protest marches and rallies, or speak out on a blog or website about their fear for their jobs or the impact the cuts are having on frontline services?
Judging from this story – HT to Political Scrapbook – some employers are taking a very dim view of it. RAF top brass have apparently cracked down on employees who joined a Facebook group campaigning to save their jobs, telling them in an email that “Engaging in such activities without obtaining authorisation at the appropriate level may result in administrative or disciplinary action being taken, which in the most serious cases could ultimately lead to dismissal.”
MOD civilian staff in Bristol are also facing the threat of substantial redundancies; I’d be interested to know if any attempt has been made to gag them in a similar fashion.
The Saturday before last I went along to the union-organised protest against the cuts, in Bristol, meeting at Castle Park in the rain, marching up to College Green. It was a good turnout – some say 700, some say 4000, which it wasn’t – but despite that, and not just because of the rain, it was a fundamentally depressing experience. The sense of deja vu, been here before, done this before – and it didn’t make any difference then either. (I’m talking 30 years ago, with another 17 years of marching against the Tories to go). Same banners, same badges, same chants: “Tories, Tories, Tories! Out, out, out!” “No ifs, no buts, no to public service cuts!” True, there were some rather more imaginative lyrics in the anarchist songsheet being handed out (sample, to the tune of “Mickey”, “Oh Boris you’re so fat, cut your hair you…” I’d best not go on). But none of them caught on.
At the rally in College Green there were the usual speeches, semi-audible through a squeaky megaphone. I wasn’t asked to speak, and didn’t offer. I’m about as suited to that sort of thing as Anne Widdecombe is to dancing the tango. No-one can ever hear me, or even see me, even if there’s a box or bench to stand on. And to be honest I find it all a bit embarrassing…. Not my way of doing politics, though I may just have to bite the bullet and get used to it if this lot stay in power much longer. Which they will.
I did have lots of conversations with people in the crowd: the RMT, the CWU, PCS, some local transport campaigners, and constituents who recognised me, as well as the Labour activists who’d turned out. But I left thinking – this isn’t how we need to do it this time round.
My spirits were restored by a brilliant piece by Johann Hari in the Independent (who is almost always brilliant, and without a doubt the best political commentator around today), in which he argued that protest does make a difference, even if doesn’t always seems so at the time. > here’s link ghttp://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-protest-works-just-look-at-the-proof-2119310.html, will link properly later.
And this weekend we had another protest in Bristol city centre as people congregated at the Vodaphone store to call them to account for allegedly not paying a £6 billion tax bill. Like the marches the week before, this was replicated in city centres across the country, forcing the closure of Vodafone stores in London, Birmingham, Brighton, Leeds …… Did it persuade Vodafone to write a cheque? No. But did it feel like something was happening, that a point was being made, that an impact was being felt? Yes. (I should say, I wasn’t there and I’m not sure it would be appropriate for me to have been there. I’m sure some will argue, as they always do in cases of direct action, that the protestors were out of order, preventing shops and customers going about their business, and it’s not the sort of behaviour us politicians should endorse. So I won’t…)
But I will say this… Compared to the 1980s, when organising protests came down to handing out leaflets, flyposting or rallying the troops at poorly-attended branch meetings, this time round it could be very different. New media makes it much easier to spread the word, to build alliances, to let people know what’s going on on the day. And to be imaginative in the type of protest, and the way people express their views, from online virals and spoofs, to flash mobs and demos, to simply reweeting an article you really think other people ought to read.
I’ve been watching over the past few days as the storm has grown online around the housing benefit cuts (and please, this isn’t just about the cap, but that’s for another blogpost), and over the past few weeks as disability campaigners have rallied people to their cause. I’m glad Labour MPs are in there, engaging, being spurred on to action (and sometimes doing a bit of spurring to action themselves!) We need to do some hard-thinking about how we operate in this new environment, how we use it to agitate, educate, organise. As Johann Hari says, protest does make a difference. We can’t get rid of this Government overnight, but we can try our damndest to stop them bring this country to its knees and kick them out at the very first opportunity we get.
We finished voting earlier than predicted tonight, at 10pm, and I’ve just been down to the Chamber to make a brief contribution in an adjournment debate about the closure of the Passport Office in Newport, which many people from Bristol – indeed, from across the South West – use. Very good speech from Jessica Morden, the MP for Newport East, and lots of interventions from Welsh MPs (and me).
I’m now back in the office, once again immersed in the Finance Bill. With occasional breaks for voting and cups of tea, I make that about seven hours preparation today… I think I can safely say that the speech I give in committee tomorrow morning on consortium claims for group relief, amending Chapter 4 of Part 5 of the Corporation Tax Act 2010, and the six “probing” amendments I have tabled on whether it should be restricted to companies within the EEA and whether there should be limitations based on the proportion of voting power held by a company will not be the most scintillating of my political career.
And then we get onto clauses entitled R+D relief for SMEs: removal of intellectual property condition; film tax credits: unused losses; insurance business transfer schemes: non-profit fund transferred assets; capital gains tax private residence relief for adult placement carers; and the reinvestment of ring fence assets: acquisition by member of group. None of which are particularly controversial and were actually being worked on by the Labour government before the General Election inconveniently intervened.
Tomorrow I will also be doing the winding-up speech at the end of the day for the Second Reading debate for the Savings Accounts and Health in Pregnancy Grant Bill. A four clause bill which does a lot of damage in a very few words, axing Child Trust Funds, the Saving Gateway and the Health in Pregnancy Grant. That should be livelier than the Finance Bill….
But back to work. And here’s a second shot at #keepingitpeel, another track from a Peel session. Chosen entirely at random.
Interesting post by Stephen Williams MP on his own blog defending his line on tuition fees… It’s very long – make yourself a cup before you click on the link.
He seems to be saying that it’s OK for him to support what the Government is doing now because he spent his time as Higher Education spokesperson trying to get the Libs to ditch their position on fees, and everyone knew that’s what he was trying to do, but he still signed the NUS pledge against fees and spoke at rallies against them because… Well, he’s kind of lost me there, but he had a very good reason for doing so. The comments are more entertaining than the post, and a good deal more succinct!
| Tweets that mention … on Too hot to handle | |
 | citizenr on Silence kit |
 | RichS on We are the angry mob |
| Nationwide shut down… on We are the angry mob | |
 | marc fenton on Lassitude! |
