Tories struggle to explain cuts.

The Tories and their Lib Dem foot soldiers are running scared to answer questions about the massive cuts they are making, instead they try to deflect the damage they are doing to the economy, focusing on trying to take away council workers rights.

It is now quite clear there is an organised and co-ordinated campaign by the Conservatives to discredit Labour in Reading in the run up to this year’s local elections.
It amounts to a series of innuendos and spurious allegations, largely insubstantial but if repeated sufficiently often they become accepted as reality. of “repeat the lie sufficiently and the lie becomes the truth”. The same could be said for the use of particular words, never attributed to individuals as to do so in that context would be actionable, but to repeat in the context of an organisation so that all those involved with it are contaminated.

These are the tactics of the far right and have been for generations. The latest spin tactic of the Reading Conservatives and their Liberal props is to call actions and policies “corruption” when they are nothing of the kind. The more they repeat the ‘C’ word the more they think it will stick.

It is pure spin to suggest that Reading Borough Council has “given money to Trades Unions”. To quote sums of money that imply a seven figure saving that are, in fact, calculated over more than a decade is dissembling on a grand scale.

The alleged ‘corruption’ is the practice of giving to recognised trades unions in Reading Borough Council ‘facility time’. The jargon means that local trades union representatives are not expected to do their jobs in the authority, they effectively spend all their time representing their fellow workers. This is accepted practice in large organisations where trades unions are recognised. Hard headed bosses in the private sector make the bottom line judgement that good industrial relations are worth the investment in facility time. They conclude that by granting such facility to representatives in the workplace they avoid disputes and costly legal actions over health and safety, unfair dismissal and so on. The same is true of the many Conservative authorities that grant facility time. Common sense yes, ‘corruption’ hardly.

While there may be a legitimate debate about the nature and quantum of facility time it is a massive stretch to suggest this is in any way ‘corrupt’. The attack is shameful – 100% spin and 100% malicious. This is more evident because the Conservatives, who claim they have “uncovered” some great subterfuge, knew very well about these arrangements, having been represented on the appropriate Council body since the unitary council came into being (the agreement dates from 1998). There is no record of any Conservative objection.

According to internal council documents, the Conservatives and their Liberal supporters are actively considering the removal of all trade union facility time. If this were to happen Trade Union representatives would not be able to time away from their desks to represent their colleagues. It would be a very serious step, almost a de-recognition of trades unions by the Council. If forced through it would be entirely for the benefit of the Conservative spin machine and nothing to do with the public interest. A single health and safety case brought against the council that could have been avoided with trades union involvement could end up costing more than facility time costs in any one year.

The Labour Party has a long record of upholding standards in public office and the former MP for Reading West came out of the expenses affair as one of the ‘saints’. The Conservatives know all of this, so now they resort to smears to attempt to blacken Labour’s name locally.

This approach to politics does public debate no good at all. It is no longer enough to disagree with an opponent’s view of the world – it is regarded as essential to portray them as in some way corrupt. Manufacture scandal and the media become more interested. This approach traduces our public life and should be resisted by decent people.