I’ve just received this email from The Public Services Union PCS. I’d urged my MP to vote against the bill. I took his reply to mean that he would vote for it – because he’s a Tory and he’ll do what he’s told.
Dear Equality Campaigners,
I’m absolutely delighted to inform you that as of this morning, the government did a U-turn. ITS A WIN!
Last night the House of Lords voted again to keep the general equality duty (Section 3) and this morning the government finally gave up the game of ‘ping pong’ and said that they are not going to scrap it any more.
We knew your emails were having a huge impact from the uneasy contact we were getting from some government MPs who were not happy about what was happening. Your emails, together with our joint working with members of the House of Lords, independent experts in equality and human rights law (such as Professor Sir Bob Hepple QC), trade unions, equality organisations and Liberal Democrat grass roots activists, have all helped in this great victory.
As a legacy equality law coming from the Macpherson Report into the Stephen Lawrence murder, this win could not have been more timely.
I do hope you enjoyed campaigning with us, and interacting with your MP on such an important issue (even when, as I know, some were less than pleasant in their responses)!
There are more campaigns to come on equality as we know that the government has other laws in its sights and we fear further plans to scrap equality law, including more of the Lawrence legacy.
Please, if you’d like to keep campaigning with us, respond ‘yes’ to this email and I’ll contact you again next time we need to mobilise a campaigning crack team!
Great job – take a bow.
Yours sincerely
Natasha Burgess, Campaign Officer
Campaigns and Communications
Public and Commercial Services Union
Web: www.pcs.org.uk
PCS, 160 Falcon Rd, London SW11 2LN
I’m not a member of PCS, I stayed with UCU when I left employment (became self-employed) – but I was formally a member of Cohse which must have evolved into Unison and/or PCS.
Saturday Walks 