Blacklist EDM and warm words

Er, just as it says in the title. 70 MPs (update 19.37 13/3: 76 now) have now signed Michael Clapham's Early Day Motion on blacklisting.

Ucatt has been looking using other mechanisms to raise the issue in parliament and one was questions to the leader of the House. Harriet Harman duely pledged to end the practice, reports Building magazine.

Update 13.3: in the House yesterday Harman responds to question from Michael Clapham with some warm words: "important issue", "totally opposed", "scurrilous activity". Anybody spot a pledge to actually do as the unions are asking and bring in the regulations required to make blacklisting illegal in her answer? It's not actualy Harman's call anyway but BERR minister Peter Mandelson - and more specifically Pat McFadden.

In an earlier article Building magazine also quoted a lawyer on the potential exposure of companies involved in the scandal.

John Armstrong, partner at law firm CMS Cameron McKenna said the firms could face potentially unlimited claims if they were proved to have behaved in a discriminatory manner against workers on the list. He said: “If someone believes they’ve been unfairly dismissed or overlooked for work then they can bring an action, certainly. It becomes a discriminatory matter.”

I've piece on the issue in tomorrow's Tribune.

In other news: My colleague Rich Cookson has spent the last few months working on a programme for C4's Unreported World about the Congo.

In the jungles of North East Congo, the Unreported World team uncovers evidence that the Lord's Resistance Army - one of the world's most brutal rebel groups - has begun a new campaign of terror, and talks to survivors with stories of unimaginable horror.

Worth tuning in for.