Taking Out The Trash

Contracting out

The Guardian has run a feature written by myself and freelance colleague Richard Cookson looking at how the public sector may seek to outsource more work to prisons as the Coalition cuts begin to bite.

It follows on from a piece we did a year ago where we were the first to full reveal the scale of contracts between the prison service and outside compnies - with prisoners getting as little as £4 a week.

We've been battling to get niformation released on this through Freedom of Information requests and it looks like the Ministry of Justice has given in as my last request resulted in a list of all contracts as of January this year. Download it here

The issue has been much in the news with Ken Clarke's announcement on getting prisoners to work more and better. Though this hasn't met with universal approval from the right.

The Howard League for Penal Reform put out a statement:

The Howard League for Penal Reform welcomed the plans to turn prisoners into taxpayers by introducing real work to prisons.  The charity has campaigned for this radical change for more than ten years, starting with the first research into prison workshops and running a prototype business inside Coldingley for three years.

Frances Crook, director of the Howard League for Penal Reform said, “We welcome this radical shift from the coalition government that will turn prisoners into tax payers.  Bringing real work into prisons is the most important reform to the prison system in two centuries.  Prisoners must pay tax which is the best way to support victims, families and for the first time, be asked to contribute to the common good.   We must get prisoners to take responsibility for their actions and work is the best way to achieve this. 

“There are real challenges ahead, but the Howard League's experience of being the only organisation ever to have run a business inside a prison will be invaluable.  It is essential that prisoners are paid the rate for the job so that the prison industries do not undercut local businesses - prison work must be competitive.  Why not bring back the outsourced industries currently being sent abroad?  

 "Everyone will gain from this new policy.  It will enable prisoners (overwhelmingly men) to contribute to families so that we could reduce the benefits bill and this will help to keep families together.  It could reduce prison costs as prisoners can pay for the luxuries just like the rest of us have to.  

"Prisoners must take responsibility for their actions and the Howard League asked its prisoners employed in the pioneering graphic design studio in Coldingley prison to make voluntary donations to victims charities.

"Staff will benefit in safer prisons as violence and conflict is reduced.  I particularly welcome the secretary of state's call for a 40 hour working week which means that prisons will be busy and productive places for the first time in history." 

“This will have a phenomenal impact in reducing reoffending. There will be less crime on release and will dramatically improve safety for the public.“

“This could be the biggest change to the prison system in 200 years  and Kenneth Clarke should go down in history as the greatest penal reform after John Howard.”

Frances Crook also has a blog post on this issue.

Image from Flowizm uder Creative Commons Licence

Bloggers big bash in Bristol

What’s the Blogging Story

October 22nd, 7pm / Watershed Media Centre, Bristol

Who can you trust when the new media meets the old? An evening of debate with mainstream journalists and bloggers. What’s the relationship between traditional and new media – the tired and the wired as some call them? Is blogging journalism? And who can you believe in this age of blogs, tweets and pay walls?

Join Roy Greenslade (The Guardian), Donnacha Delong (NUJ Vice President), Sunny Hundal (Liberal Conspiracy), Brooke Magnanti (Belle du Jour) and a panel of popular bloggers to determine who will dominate the future of news.

A Bristol Festival of Ideas event, in association with the NUJ Bristol branch, the University of the West of England MediaAct project and MediaWise, as part of a weekend study on the impact of the blogosphere.

Blogging Hell!

Pervasive Media Studio

Leadworks, Anchor Square, Bristol

Saturday October 23rd, 11am-1pm

Finding common cause across borders: Planning for international action on media standards.

What’s the role of online journalism in sustaining democratic societies? What role can the blogosphere play in more rigidly controlled societies? Can bloggers develop systems of self regulation that could enhance journalism standards?

This is the opening workshop in what promises to be a long-running debate.

 

Jo Bloggs – but is it journalism?

Pervasive Media Studio

Leadworks, Anchor Square, Bristol

Saturday October 23rd, 2-4pm

Is blogging the new journalism? Are blogs a new, democratic kind of publishing, giving a voice to everyone? Or are they just a platform where gossip, speculation and bias are passed on as fact, and nothing can be trusted?

As the lines between traditional and citizen journalism blur, how are mainstream media owners and regulators responding? Are the interests of citizen journalists, bloggers and mainstream journalists the same or contradictory? Where does the National Union of Journalists fit in the new media world? Should bloggers be able to join the NUJ?

Join leading bloggers and mainstream journalists for a revealing discussion and some possible resolutions.

 

Educating the children of military families

The Big Issue in the North has published a news story of mine about how the state educates the children of military families.

A fuller feature on this topic appears in the latest edition of Families Journal, the magazine of the Army Families Federation.

Two local authorities (North Yorkshire and Wiltshire) are making particular efforts to improve the way they deal with the particular needs of service children. For instance; they often arrive at schools at late notice making the planning of provision difficult. They often have a parent absent for long periods (obvious, I know, but the impact of service children is not something that is recorded by Ofsted). There is an impact on children who are required to lose and make friends quickly.  There is, unfortunately, the question of bereavement.

However, what is surprising, is that basic information is lacking. Data on the performance of service children is patchy. It is not even clear how many children from military families are being educated in the state sector at any one time. The census run by the Department of Education has a section asking LEAs to list their number - but it is not mandatory and the results are suspect. Wales and Scotland don't bother counting at all.

As one education official said: “They say that one of the most stressful things is moving house, another is moving to a new country or moving to a new job. Service children can go through all of that and the education sector just expects them to cope.”

Blacklisting: the movie

Blacklist Support Group - TUC Congress 2010 Fringe Meeting

BLACKLISTED - FILM PREMIER

Blacklisting of trade unionists in the building industry - the struggle for justice continues

Speakers:

John McDonnell MP

Professor Keith Ewing

Date: Monday 13th September 2010

Time: 6:30pm start

Venue:

The Methodist Central Hall

Oldham Street

Manchester

M1 1JQ

Fringe Title: BLACKLISTED - FILM PREMIER

Blacklisting of trade unionists in the building industry - the struggle for justice continues

Brief Description of meeting:

BLACKLISTED: first ever public showing of new documentary (15 mins) about the illegal Consulting Association blacklist containing personal sensitive details on 3213 building workers who had raised concerns about safety or unpaid wages. The secret data-base used by multi-national construction firms to prevent trade union activists gaining work was only discovered following a raid in 2009. The blacklist appears to be a continuation of a vindictive attitude by building companies towards trade unions going back many decades. The film shares first hand experience from 12 blacklisted workers (including Ricky Tomlinson) about their fight for justice.

After the film, blacklisted workers, the film Director, MPs and human rights experts will take questions and discuss the ongoing campaign against blacklisting and the implications for all trade unions today.

Speakers:

John McDonnell MP

Professor Keith Ewing

(Author of Ruined Lives: Blacklisting in the Construction industry - Institute of Employment Rights)

Shaun Dey (Film Director - Reel News)

UCATT Executive Council member (invited)

plus many Blacklisted building workers from UNITE and UCATT

Chair

Steve Acheson

(Blacklisted Electrician and UNITE Manchester Contracting Branch Secretary) 

Employment tribunal set for blacklisted electrician

The Morning Star reports that a London electrician has wno the right to take his case to an employment tribunal.

An electrician blacklisted from the construction industry won the right yesterday to take his case to a full tribunal.

This week at a preliminary tribunal in east London Steve Kelly won the right to bring a case to full tribunal against electrical sub-contractors ECS.

Mr Kelly argues that he was employed by the firm in 2007 but was sacked within days, allegedly for poor work.

However after obtaining his file from the ICO he discovered documentation which he believes shows that either the firm, which was a sub-contractor for Sir Robert McAlpine, or McAlpine's itself dismissed him due to his trade union activities.

Both firms have denied the allegation, although McAlpine's is known to have subscribed to Kerr's blacklist.

While Kelly's case isn't scheduled to take place until next year dozens more cases hould be heard before then in Manchester.

Prison labour

I appeared on Bristol Community FM talking about prison labour (see here for more on this topic). You can listen to the interview below 

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Not just for shopping

A couple of years back I wrote a piece for Venue magazine about exploring around Cribbs Causeway.

There are sculptures and flattened villages, ancient rivers and bunkers and a stately home like something  out of Dr Who circa Tom Baker all close by.

Avon Wildlife Trust has now produced a podcast to accompany the Number 40 bus route from the centre of Bristol, to Cribbs and back again.

 As it says:

Embark on an adventure around the city or merely liven up your trip to the shops. You will hear about where to look for otters, where to find unusual plants such as the itchy 'beggarticks', why the pigeons are good for Bristol and when to spot the arrival of chiff chaffs on Brandon Hill.

 And in one section they read out excerpts from my original Venue piece. The pictures on this page are from my walk.

Nice to know it lives on in another format.

Great idea from Avon Wildlife Trust and nicely executed.  

On guard

Update: Kerry McCarthy has blogged in support of the Prevent programme in Bristol. Also I've found the article on Prevent in Bristol which I wrote for my MA earlier this year. It needed a sub and designer but I think there are some interesting elements. Download

Below are PDFs from two features I recently did for the Big Issue in the North about counter-terrorism efforts. One of Project Griffin and the other on the Prevent programme. It is being reported that Prevent could be on its way out though, as one of the people I interviewed suggested, that may just mean out of local authority hands and into police hands.

As for Griffin; my thanks to Leicestershire Police for inviting me along to their training day. I now have a lapel badge and certificate. My FoI requests on Griffin in other forces turned up some vaguely interesting material - it's clear that the broad structure is dictated from the centre but individual counter terrorism officers are devising the exact training sessions as local needs dictate. The question about whether Griffin-trained civilians are being heavy-handed towards innocent photographers remains but the session I was at didn't give that impression.

One thought sparked from the briefing I attended was about the extremely professional film we were shown about a shopping centre bombing. It was produced for ACPO by Pukka Films using mock BBC news footage. I wonder what the guidelines are for the BBC on how much they allow their news 'brand' to be used for fictional purposes? You assume that CNN or Sky are happy everytime a film uses a 'fake news' clip because its product placement. Is it the same for the BBC? Something for another FOI request perhaps.

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I'm with the brand

Article by me for The Big Issue in the North on the marketing of modern festivals

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Dirty money

This was previously published in another place but now one of those involved has made to Parliament, the issue is still current and I badly need to post something as this blog has been slumbering tooooo long. More up to date stories, views and comments to come, honestly.

The Times published this story during the general election campaign which generated roughly zip follow-up.

The Conservative Party has accepted donations from a wealthy British family that is accused of profiting from the destruction of one of the few remaining habitats of the orang-utan.

Although the party has a policy of protecting orang-utans, it has continued to accept donations despite evidence of the family’s links to a company involved in the destruction.

Sir Henry Keswick, chairman of the trading house Jardine Matheson, has donated £213,000 to the Conservatives in the past eight years.

His wife, Tessa, president of the Devizes Tory association, donated £32,500 last year. Simon Keswick, a director of Jardine, has donated £99,500 to the party since 2002.

Sir Chippendale “Chips” Keswick, a banker and former director of the Bank of England, donated £34,750.

You can read the full story here.

Mark Fletcher, the Green Party candidate for Devizes, said at the time (Note: Perry was subsequently elected):

"Evidence is building that local Tory leaflets may have been paid for by rainforest destruction.

The true blue constituency of Devizes is raising some very alarming questions, as reported in The Times yesterday.

It seems possible that Conservative leaflets were paid for in part with profit from the destruction of the rainforest in Sumatra, and the possible deaths of Orangutans. The Conservative Association in Devizes President is Tessa Keswick, former Tory policy advisor, and her husband is Sir Henry Keswick, boss of massive Bermuda and Hong Kong based multinational family firm Jardine Matheson. The Keswicks give huge donations to Tory Central Office, and to the Devizes Tories. Lady Keswick is described by local Tories as their chief fundraiser in Devizes, and on the selection committee that chose Claire Parry, a ‘Dave babe’, and ex-banker.

The Keswicks are accused of taking large profits from the burning of an area of rainforest UNESCO has highlighted as key to the survival of the Sumatran Orangutan. For three years Greenpeace, Oxfam and many others have fought the Keswick's family of firms, and it appeared in the national press in 2009 after Sir Henry was given a knighthood. The Tories are accused of accepting this money, and even now, facing difficult questions, are refusing to hand any back.

I wanted to go through the evidence with Devizes candidate Claire Parry in private, but she brushed me aside. Icould have shown her photographs of Orangutan nests taken in 2007, in an area now cleared, according to the latest maps and scientists in Indonesia. I could have shown her satellite images of burning, when burning is against Indonesian law. I could have shared what I have been told about investigations into AAL by the Indonesian Government, and by GES-invest, and by PanEco, Wetlands International, Flora and Fauna International, Oxfam, Greenpeace, and many others.

I could have drawn her attention to a speech by Gorge Osborne promising to help save the rainforest, and the evidence that they could, and should, have known where the donations were coming from.

We could have talked about how the profit from Astra Agro Lestari reaches the parent company, Jardine Matheson, and so reaches the Keswicks, and the amounts they give to the Tory party. We could have talked about the power Tessa Keswick has in fundraising, and policy, and in the selection of candidates. I could have shown her that the Keswicks most likely knew of the accusations.

We could have sat down and discussed a way, even now, to save a very important bit of rainforest. But she wasn’t interested. This is an issue her prospective constituents are raising, and I think she would have been very shocked by the evidence. I think her potential voters would be appalled."

If you would like to raise the same concerns as Mark then you could write to Claire Perry c/o Devizes Constituency Conservative Association, 116 High Street, Marlborough, Wiltshire SN8 1LZ or email
[email protected] or [email protected]

Alternatively you could write to Sir Henry Keswick, Matheson & Co. Ltd, 3 Lombard Street, London, EC3V 9AQ. They are rather opaque when it comes to contacting them so a letter is probably more reliable, but you might also wish to email [email protected]