The Government’s “consultation”
on Trade Unions and facility time for workplace representatives has concluded,
with a variety of submissions being made, some serious and backed with a body
of evidence, some blatantly partisan and ideological, and that from the so-called Trade Union Reform
Campaign (TURC), titled because it does not want to reform unions but wipe
them out, verging on the incoherent.
TURC, mostly another vehicle for the ignorance and prejudice
of the odious flannelled fool Henry Cole, tame gofer to the perpetually thirsty
Paul Staines at the Guido Fawkes blog, has made a submission which has been put
on its website so that all can marvel at the shaky grammar, blatant dishonesty,
and puerile characterisation that should have got Cole expelled from Edinburgh
University.
Justifying themselves to the Government, TURC say “we felt it was important for you to have the
fullest possible information at your disposal” after wrongly referring to a
workplace representative as an “activist”.
So another step back, then. But they stress that “polling data suggests 86% of the public share our view”. Ho yus,
and what’s that word “suggests” doing
there, if not to make another of those logic leaps?
Then there is one of those non sequiturs: “The existing legislation draws a distinction
between trade union ‘activities’ which cannot be funded and ‘duties’ which can
be funded. The consultation exposes that a great deal of so called ‘activities’
are going on”. And your point is? What was that distinction in the first
sentence? Did it prohibit those activities? No, it only says they aren’t part
of statutory facility time.
Never mind, close behind is the tired canard about facility
time in the private sector: “A good start
would be an interim commitment to using the private sector as a benchmark –
this would see facility time fall by 75%”. Really? Only if you accept a
recent quote which was an “estimate”
and which was never backed up with a source. Making numbers up on the fly will
not help your cause.
And they’ve got an objection to the scope of the
consultation: “The consultation only
covers the civil service. However, our research has shown that the real abuse
occurs in schools, the NHS and local Government”. Two things here: TURC has
not done any research, and so don’t have any information about abuse. But “Eric Pickles is making sterling strides in
the DCLG on this subject”. Bullshit. He’s just gobbing off.
Then comes the final triumphant declaration: “the issue has been subject to a number of
Parliamentary Questions, Early Day Motions and Debates in the House of Commons”.
Yeah, all because Astroturf groups like TURC have been feeding falsehood and
misinformation to gullible Tory MPs which over the next few months is going to
be subjected to real world analysis and then quietly binned.
TURC want Unions billed for facility time. TURC should be billed for wasting time.
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