Why the BBC strikes deserves public support
Members of the NUJ started their 48 hr strike at the BBC at midnight on Thursday over changes to their pensions.
When I arrived at BBC White City studios yesterday I had expected a deflated and demoralised picket line. But it proved to be much more optimistic. Coffee and cake was circulating the picket line. Even the heavy downpour of rain didn’t harm the fighting spirit.
Paul Mason, economics editor for Newsnight and the Father of the Chapel, told me he expected them to win the strike, providing an agreement can be found with the management.
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Why are Libdems so calm in the face of electoral meltdown?
This was originally written for the Guardian. Am cross-posting it here too.
I don’t want to go all Margaret Thatcher on you, but it seems the Liberal Democrats will soon cease to be; they will expire. They will ring down the curtain and join the choir invisible.
I may be exaggerating, but only slightly.
On Thursday morning, polling company YouGov had Lib Dem support at single figures (9%) for the first time since 1997. It’s at 11% today (both within the polling margin of error) but the trend since May’s election has been steadily downwards.
If Labour or the Conservatives had shed half their support in a manner of months, people would be at panic stations.
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David Davis: ‘libertarian’ against striking
Too many of those directly engaged in industrial relations regard it as all a bit of a laugh. As a journalist who has covered numerous disputes ever since the 1980s, I know plenty of union officials and employer reps who get a kick out of showing what a clever clogs they can be across the negotiating table.
A spot of brinkmanship here, a threat of some argy-bargy there.
Then split the difference, maybe 70/30, 80/20 or 90/10 in favour of the bosses. The ‘concessions’ get presented to the members as ‘the best deal that could be done in the circumstances’, and everyone’s happy. See you same time next year, mate.
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Muslims tell tabloids: put us on your front pages!
Minority Thought, 5CC and Anton Vowl all deal with the tabloids’ curious sense of priorities when it came to the sentencing of Roshonara Choudhry, deciding that the antics of three mouth breathers in the public gallery were of far more importance than the culmination of a far more fascinating and worrying court case in their usual fine fashion.
More of note to me though is how the three papers and their rent-a-gobs have seemingly decided that they know better than Mr Justice Cooke himself does as to how he should run his own court.
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Good riddance: Woolas cut adrift from Labour
Phil Woolas has been found guilty of breaching section 106 of the 1983 Representation of the People Act, by making false statements about where his Liberal Democrat opponent lived and his relationship with Muslim extremists.
The election has been declared void, and there will be a by-election – Woolas will not be eligible to stand, so it is the end of his political career.
On behalf of all of us at Liberal Conspiracy, good riddance.
Update 1: The judgement is here (via @virtualstoa)
Update 2: The press release by the Libdem lawyers is here.
Update 3: Statement from Phil Woolas at the Guardian. Hilariously, he says the judgement will have a “chilling effect” on political speech.
Update 4: Harriet Harman statement:
The court has found that Phil Woolas said things that he knew were untrue during his election campaign.
It is no part of Labour’s politics to try to win elections by telling lies. We believe in good community relations – in fact that is central to our politics – and Phil Woolas has been suspended from the Labour party.
Yes to AV website goes live… thoughts?
contribution by Guy Aitchison
At first glance it looks clear, sharp and colourful, in contrast to the dull opporessive shades of the No2AV site.
It also does a good job of projecting the grass-roots, people-led nature of the campaign, which is a good way of positioning it against the highly centralised, elite-driven campaign of the Noes.
EXCLUSIVE: Phil Woolas authorised use of force to deport immigrant children
Ahead of the verdict of his trial due today, documents obtained exclusively by Liberal Conspiracy shed new light on the work of Phil Woolas as Immigration minister.
Published here today, they should strengthen the case for the recently appointed shadow immigration minister to be expelled from the Labour Party.
When in government, Woolas authorised security guards employed by private contractors Serco and G4S to use “physical control in care (PCC)” techniques to remove people resisting deportation.
Not only did that include mothers with mental health problems, but children under the age of 18.
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Firefighters strike cancelled for today
The Fire Brigades Union last night sent out this tweet:
Tomorrow’s strike suspended. Brigade agrees to go to arbitration and to delay decision on mass sackings until 26 January.
FBU members had been due to walk out for 47 hours from 10am today.
The two sides have now agreed to meet an independent mediation body in two weeks to discuss the row over new shift patterns.
Matt Wrack from the FBU was interviewed on Sky News last night
The Slow Death of the DWP ‘Lie Detector’
More than a year ago, Liberal Conspiracy published a short series of briefings on a controversial trial of a so-called ‘voice risk analysis’ system by the Department of Work and Pensions.
Yesterday, the ultimate fate of these systems was revealed in a rather terse response to a parlimentary question tabled by the Tory MP for East Yorkshire, Greg Knight:
Chris Grayling (Minister of State (Employment), Work and Pensions
In 2008-09 a total of £1,734,314.07 was paid directly to the 24 local authorities involved in voice risk analysis pilots. There was no DWP funding for voice risk analysis in subsequent years. The pilots finished in December 2009. Local authorities can continue to use voice risk analysis at their own discretion and at their own expense.
Disability charity slams cuts to benefits
Mencap, the charity that supports people with learning disabilities, has launched an attack on the government’s cuts to Disability Living Allowance. Mark Goldring, the charity’s chief executive, called the move a “blow” for people with a learning disability.
We have reported on the plan to remove the mobility component of Disability Living Allowance from people in residential care, pointing out that thousands of people will be unable to get out of their residential homes.
Old people will be badly hit. The largest group of young people who will be affected in this way will be people with learning disabilities. As Mr Goldring pointed out:
They rely on this money to access the community and live a fulfilled life. Through this cut the government is targeting some of society’s most vulnerable people who cannot always fight for their rights themselves.
It also suggests that the government does not believe that people in residential care who receive DLA are entitled to live independently.
This cut will take us back to the days when people were left in care homes with just four walls for company and will undo decades of progress. Mencap is calling for the government to urgently review this proposal and prevent this devastating blow to some of the UK’s most vulnerable people.
Mencap is calling on people to ask their MPs to contact disability minister Maria Miller, asking for the policy to be reversed.
The charity has launched a new website for conversations and debate on cuts and learning disability through twitter, online discussion forums, facebook and other channels.
You can read articles through the front page, via Twitter or RSS feed. You can also get them by email and through our Facebook group.
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» The US is now a model for the Eurozone to save itself
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