Not Only A Creep But A Scab
I knew there was a good reason for loathing Charlie Falconer, aside from the fact he is a fat, sweaty, underqualified and over-promoted Tony-crony who lies like the rest of us breathe.
I only just came across this or I would have posted it earlier, as it was tucked away in the back of the Grauniad’s Freedom of Information campaign pages (insofar as one can have back pages online). It seems that Mr Labour Lord Chancellor Charlie was instrumental in breaking up the National Union of Mineworkers and the consquent ripping apart of the very Labour party of which he purports to be a supporter:
Secret papers reveal Falconer role in breaking up NUM
David Hencke and Rob Evans
Monday May 16, 2005
The GuardianLabour’s current lord chancellor, Charles Falconer, provided vital legal advice at the height of the miners’ strike 20 years ago to enable the Thatcher government and the National Coal Board to assist the breakup of the National Union of Mineworkers, according to previously secret documents released to the Guardian.
Lord Falconer was engaged in his then role as a barrister to advise Sir Ian MacGregor, brought in to run the coal board, on how to handle miners who defied their union leader, Arthur Scargill.
[…]
Mr Falconer was an established barrister advising commercial companies. During 20 years at Fountain Court chambers in London, his clients included British Nuclear Fuels, for whom he fought a series of cases against leukaemia patients and Greenpeace activists, and the NCB.
He also advised the Labour party on a number of legal actions. He gave up his commercial law practice when he was made a peer and minister by his longstanding friend Tony Blair in 1997.
Yesterday a spokesman for Lord Falconer confirmed that he had acted for the NCB, but pointed out that at the time the coal board felt they should be able to enter collective bargaining agreements with groups who wanted to negotiate with them, particularly because a majority of the Not tinghamshire miners had effectively left the NUM.
During the pits dispute, most miners in Nottinghamshire carried on working.
Mr Falconer’s advice was to keep informal links with Mr Lynk, but not to have formal discussions in case the meeting became public.
In the following months, he and Fountain Court colleagues provided detailed legal advice to the board on how to open talks with the minimum of danger of repercussions from the NUM, even though the new union had yet to have a ballot or made the necessary rule changes. By October, Sir Ian MacGregor took personal responsibility to open negotiations with the union.
Only Tony Blair would even consider appointing a scab to government: this says all you need to know about him, his political friends, and the whole New Labour project and its plans. The miners’ strike was the most divisive political event of modern times in Britain: it was a head-on clash between socialism and democracy, as represented by the mineworkers; and capitalism and hegemony as personified by Thatcher and her Tory government. It was crucial to Thatcher’s plans to break the unions, and the NUM was the biggest and strongest.
For someone who portrays himself as a Labour supporter to have enabled the defeat of the miners and midwived the ascendance of Thatcher and all the neo-connery that followed – well, I can’t find words strong or slimy enough to describe it. Wanker just isn’t good enough. Suggestions on a virtual postcard please.
