{"id":7620,"date":"2016-02-05T15:24:38","date_gmt":"2016-02-05T15:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=7620"},"modified":"2016-02-05T15:24:38","modified_gmt":"2016-02-05T15:24:38","slug":"wake-up-call-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=7620","title":{"rendered":"Wake-up call"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unite has backed the growing number of Conservative voices speaking out against the Government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Trade Union Bill and planned changes to party funding.<\/p>\n

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Concerns were expressed by members of both main political parties, and others, during a sitting of a special Lords committee considering funding changes as a result of the Trade Union Bill.<\/p>\n

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The Independent<\/a> reports that a cross-party rebellion by Peers over union donations could force a government U-turn. The paper also suggests the committee may conclude that Tory ministers have failed to publish a proper impact assessment and ask them to think again.<\/p>\n

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It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thought the controversial plan forcing union members to \u00e2\u20ac\u0098opt-in\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to paying the political levy could deprive Labour of around \u00c2\u01418m a year in funding from the union movement.<\/p>\n

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Immoral\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Some senior Tories outside government feel this would be both partisan and divisive. The call for a re-think was led by the former shadow Home Secretary, David Davis, who suggested the plans were \u00e2\u20ac\u015bborderline immoral.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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He added: \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis shows that the Tory party does not understand the history of the Labour party as the political arm of the trade union movement.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Fair system\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Lord Forsyth \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a Thatcherite minister in the 1980s \u00e2\u20ac\u201c concurred, saying: \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to help the Labour party but I do want to see fairness across the system.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Iain McNicol, Labour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s general secretary, told peers Britain faced \u00e2\u20ac\u015ba crisis of democracy, distorting the UK electoral system.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Others, including former head of the civil service Crossbencher Lord Kerslake, called for a wider review of all party funding.<\/p>\n

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Wake-up call<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s political director, Jennie Formby, said the sight of Tories speaking out against their own party should serve as a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bwake-up call for David Cameron.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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She added: \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis Bill and the measures aimed at curbing union funding are designed to deny millions of working people a voice .<\/p>\n

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Cynical move<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMake no mistake this government \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which won just over 35% per cent of the popular vote \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is engaged in a highly partisan attempt to muzzle unions. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a cynical move to keep themselves in power permanently by starving the Labour Party of funding.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMore enlightened Conservatives have clearly understood that this is an attack on workers and an affront to democracy. To their credit they are unwilling to let the Prime Minister destroy the main opposition party and the trade unions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Vested interests<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAlong with a raft of other anti-democratic measures, ministers are attempting to tilt the balance of power still further towards their own vested interests \u00e2\u20ac\u201c big business and the rich,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said.<\/p>\n

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In recent months the government has been heavily criticised<\/a> over changes to voter registration and constituency boundaries.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Lords committee was established when opposition and cross-bench peers united to pass a motion demanding an independent review of the Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 plans.<\/p>\n

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Baroness Neville-Rolfe, the minister taking the Bill through the Lords said: \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt will allow individual union members to make an active choice whether to contribute to a union\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s political activities.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite has backed the growing number of Conservative voices speaking out against the Government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Trade Union Bill and planned changes to party funding.   Concerns were expressed by members of both main political parties, and others, during a sitting of a special Lords committee considering funding changes as a result of the Trade Union Bill. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[203,44,481,344],"wps_subtitle":"Cameron urged to scrap union curbs","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7620"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7620"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7634,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7620\/revisions\/7634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}