The Gagging Bill effectively became the Gagging Law last night when the House of Lords tied a vote and so the law that seeks to end free speech for NGOs, trade unions, charities and others became UK law.
The law as it will be enacted is a hotch-potch of that proposed because of amendments made to it. I confess that right now I have little clear idea of whether or not it will directly impact upon this blog.
I will be seeking advice. What I will not do is submit quietly. I suspect I will not be alone. In that there is some comfort, but have no doubt at all that some major NGOs, run by worried trustees with much to lose, will succumb to legal risks that the law will create and will fall silent as the election approaches, just when they should be acting as the voice for those who are not heard in the UK. And that, I am sure, is the intention of this ghastly law.
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Hi Richard, could you give a few basic bullet points as to the implications of this new law?
38 Degrees Facebook page is the place to go for that
1. The Conservatives use this gagging law to help get a small majority at the next election.
2. The boundary change bill is re-introduced and passed to pretty well ensure a perpetual Tory majority.
3. The right to strike becomes so circumscribed as to be effectively abolished.
Etc
And they would love Scotland to go too
RM – Keep up the good work. I use your site as a source of news and discussion. It would be a sad day if your benign blog were muted.
Some of us spent a lot of effort and some money opposing the Gagging Law. Shame on the LibDems – Was this part of the original Coalition agreement? I can see a whip around to pay legal expenses soon.
As they say in the Mafia films “We know who you are and where you live” – and “and your blogging”.
I’ve already posted on the 38 Degrees Facebook page, which called for responses to this dire piece of dictatorial legislation, the suggestion that the coalition of NGO’s, charities and voluntary sector organisations that opposed this Bill should jointly fund “Anti Gagging Law” candidates in every constituency, starting with the up-coming Euro elections, through to the 2015 General Election.
They might not garner many votes, but candidates can say what other organizations would be prohibited from saying, even if only for the duration of a campaign.
These “verminous” Tories and untrustworthy, duplicitous “Fib-dems” – the most decietful, cruel and corrupt administration in the last 200 years, matched only by Lord Liverpool’s 1812 to 1827 horror – MUST be defeated in 2015, or wave goodbye to a caring, civilized society, and welcome the rule by the 1% for the 1%, with serfdom for everyone else.
This is a real low point as the neo-lib juggernaut builds up speed in its brakeless downhill journey. With a broad populace dumbed-down and somnolent- I don’t hold out much hope for vigorous protest and to think that this gagging law was presented as an anti-lobbying bill!!! These people know exactly what their doing -the sleepwalking continues.
Andrew I agree.
Candidates currently cannot be gagged, although the neo-liberal media will do their best.
Could this finally be the thing that brings about a serious, organised political alternative?
Deny people the opportunity to express themselves through speech and people will express themselves through action, often violent action. This doesn’t seem to have really got through to this government. Perhaps this is because they’re all Toffs, isolated from reality by their fortunes. They’ll learn.
Not sure, Bill – the atmosphere in the country is narcoleptic (my favourite word at present) with people swallowing the Tory guff. The neo-lib project is gathering pace and short of a massive collapse in housing and banking there will be no wake-up call I fear.
Alas, Simon, I agree – the Tories really are using “bread and circuses” allied to an amazingly effective, Goebbelsesque PR machine! “Why didn’t somebody tell us?” they will ask. You were too busy lapping up the tosh purveyed by the Right wing Press, and a dumbed down public discourse to ask any questions.
Richard,
I think, as an individual, you may still be free to blog as you wish. However, if you are commissioned to do research by Joseph Rowntree or Unite you or they will not be free to publish the results directly.
What I am thinking is if your report is tweaked and submitted to a free-to-read, peer-reviewed online academic journal, it might make life more difficult for the government.
If they try to ban the publication of legitimate peer-reviewed academic research, it would damage their reputation irretrievably. Would they really ban British Medical Journal? Or block international journals?
I think this could be a way forward.
Any takers to set up a new online journal of critical research?
Now there’s an idea
Do you want to turn that into something a little more structured I can post as a guest blog?
I suspect the first thing to do will be to wait a couple of weeks to get some careful analysis of the main effects of the gagging bill. I certainly don’t know enough to be sure how it will work in practice.
The main problem that I foresee will be for established broad-based charities and pressure groups. They will be able to promote and fund politically sensitive activities, but they will have difficulty publishing well researched and authoritative criticism. The threat of injunctions and prosecution will be sufficient to discourage a major charity from risking its main activities in the courts.
The internet will mean there will be just as much political criticism as before, but it will be more disorganised and have less credibility. This is where a new on-line academic journal might be useful as an outlet.
Setting up a journal should be entirely feasible. There would be costs, which could probably be met by donations. They should be of the same order as the costs of Richard’s blog. I suspect there would be quite a lot of additional work. It would be good to find a sponsor. It might be hard to find a university willing to risk it. Perhaps 38 degrees could do so. Perhaps a sympathetic overseas host could be found.
1. A journal could NOT have opinions, otherwise it would become a lobbying organisation and subject to the gagging law. It would have to publish any potentially gagged report or study that met reasonable academic standards.
2. It should not publish diatribes. Individuals will still be free to do this. It would aim to publish evidence-based studies and reports with political implications, where the sponsor was no longer free to publish them directly. Individuals would be able to use the reports as a focus to back up their political criticism.
Trade unions may face additional harassment, but they can’t expect anything different from a Conservative government. This is an intended consequence.
However, an unintended consequence may be be that people like Richard, those of us who post on his blog, and possibly those who even read his blog, will be considered legitimate subjects for surveillance, since they may be pushing the limits of the new legislation, and thus be engaged in potential criminal activity.
The concern us that surveillance
I fear it will happen and I fear malicious prosecution or why was the law passed?
As an individual, I’ll continue citing my Article 11 rights to protest. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_11_of_the_European_Convention_on_Human_Rights
Maybe mentioning the true name of the bill would be in order ¨Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party
Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2013¨
As far as I can see it does nothing to halt lobbying much, although the sections on unions are vague and long-winded.
As long as PW? are into accountancy and tax avoidance scheme generation, the transparency of lobbying part does not hinder them, or others, in any way. Personally, if a person or organisation was of a malign turn of mind, I can see that unions may be forced to jump through hoops a bit. Iḿ sure nobody is that perverse though?
However:
http://www.thompsonstradeunionlaw.co.uk/information-and-resources/transparency-lobbying-non-party-campaigning-union-administration-bill.htm
Mind…..
¨Organisations like the TUC have already observed that under these rules the cost of the annual TUC Congress would breach the limits that have been proposed just on its own¨
http://www.unionhome.org.uk/?p=2775
Apart from that, it is an incredibly boring read, one that will keep armies of solicitors happy for many a long hour.
I understand that a “gagging” law is being rolled out in the US and in Spain. I suspect this veiled attack on democracy is further evidence of the rise of corporate fascism worldwide.
When will the vast majority stir from their slumbers and realise that worldwide we are entering a very dark phase in history?