The Wardman Wire

Human Rights

Three days ago I posted about instructions given to Gawain Towler, Press Officer for UKIP (the UK Independence Party) in the European Parliament.

Gawain Towler, The Press Officer for the Independent Europe Group (essentially UKIP and sister parties) in the European Parliament, whose job is to represent this group in criticising the EU has been forced to take his personal blog down for … er … criticising the EU. He’s employed by the European Parliament, and that means that he is subject to the employment regulations.

He runs .. sorry used to run … the England Expects website. You can read the detail on the site.

The precise circumstances are that his blog has been closed down under threat of disciplinary action from within the organisation after a complaint was made about a single post - which he had already edited to remove the particular issue that had been raised with him.

The complaint escalated through the organisation, and the sky subsequently fell in.

There has been some support from Jon Worth and Nosemonkey, as well as many others of a more EU-sceptic bent.

Since then, things have changed.

Both Gawain Towler and Jon Worth appeared on the Radio 4 programme Pods and Blogs talking with Chris Vallance about the events. The clip is below.

Betsan Powys has an update to the Christopher Glamorganshire sacking (a pseudonymous blogger sacked in Autumn 2007 for “violating the Civil Service Code”).

Betsan has had sight of some letters and emails, and says:

Who is Christopher? He is - or was - a civil servant of many years, employed by the Welsh Assembly Government and who was sacked as a result of publishing an anonymous blog.

Then (I have put direct quotes in bold):

Why was he sacked?

His thoughts on “Who would be a leader in a wicked, wicked world” drew the attention of someone in Cathays Park in July of last year. A flurry of confidential Emails started:

“This is the blog I mentioned earlier - reading it all and the profile places the individual in the Bay picking up plenty of insider stuff on WAG“.

The then Permanent Secretary, Sir Jon Shortridge, gets involved.

“The Permanent Secretary has asked me to check if any emails have gone out to this blog site (or if people apart from … have browsed). The site has contained some detail which may have links with leak enquiries“.

He was sacked and and as things stand is taking his case to tribunal, despite his union, the PCS, heeding advice they’ve been given that he has some mountain to climb, such a mountain, carrying the threat of such a big bill at the end, that they’ve decided he must climb it alone.

Solicitors acting for the government don’t mince their words. In letters I’ve had sight of they sum up the conclusions of the Employment Judge * (and bear in mind I’m quoting their own summing up here, not quotes from a transcript) like this:

the “claim has little reasonable prospect of success“, the blog was “contrary to the civil service code” and “has the potential to cause an embarrassment to the Welsh Assembly Government”, therefore breaking the code. Had ‘Christopher Glamorgan’ been guilty of “excessive internet abuse and potential copyright infringement” alone the judge seems to conclude that a final written warning would have been enough. However the blog, “the most serious of the issues”, means dismissal “would fall within the band of reasonable responses available to a reasonable employer”.

(A slight apology to usual readers for the weekend bulge in SPCK articles; a lot has happened in the last few days.)

This is an account from someone who reached an out of court settlement before a previous Employment Tribunal.

There will be a case hearing on the 18th September to determine procedure for the 31 Employment Tribunals which are being pursued against the Society of Saint Stephen the Great (SSG) by USDAW, the Shopworkers’ Union.

We have heard that some people are being contacted with offers of Out of Court Settlements. Now, clearly it is a matter for each individual to make their own decision, and I don’t want to try and change that in any way. This account is from someone who pursued a claim against SSG. I hope it is useful.

… is a term I am thinking of coining to mean the State or other bodies taking compulsorily more information about our private lives than they have a right to expect in any sane society.

Good current examples are extreme CCTV surveillance and the creation of a database of allegations that will be kept for the rest of your life using a “guilty until proven innocent” paradigm.

What do you think?

I’ve had to revise the contents - this roundup is going to be in installments, like Jackanory. Today, tomorrow and Monday.

Click through for the full report.

Via Dib Lemming

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