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item0055C 854, 855
854
27 October 2003
Turnover growing
Great news of growing turnover from
Remploy. This Government agency still owns 80 working factories
throughout the UK, and increased its commercial turnover last year by 5%.
Younger generations may well not appreciate the
strengths of this great socialist innovation of 1947. In the
immediate aftermath of war, it represented a great act of faith, creating
special-purpose environments - special factories and workshops - in which those with disabilities (then,
often war-related) could earn a decent living doing productive work in
an environment adapted to their needs. Brilliant new management
methods were devised, to regulate the conduct of "fair trade" between
Remploy and mainstream firms.
I have had a long love-affair with Remploy. I admire
the organisation greatly. When in 1967 I first turned by my
political attention to public stimulation of the economy, this was one of my first studies. Another
organisation which fascinated me was the Scottish Highlands and Islands
Development Board. But the post-War formation of Remploy
was such a bold and imaginative political move - and I am sad that the
agency has seemingly
fallen out of favour, disregarded by current neo-liberal economic
orthodoxy.
So I am delighted to see it prosper.
There is nothing patronising, or demeaning, in the Remploy
ethos.
The reasoning is this. Those with disabilities
cannot hope to compete "in the open market-place" with the able-bodied.
But neither should they be assigned to charitable backwaters, making rugs,
and baskets and mail-bags. They ought to have the opportunity to
manufacture real competitive products, provide real
services, for real sale, in the real market-place.
And that is what Remploy does, to the tune of a 2002
turnover of £158m. Under the rules, each Remploy employee is
assigned a discount to account for disability - say 40%. The
management, in pricing the factory's goods for competitive sale, is
permitted to cost-in that worker's wage at 60% of the market-wage, and to
price the end-product accordingly. Those sales, when successful,
generate income to offset the State's costs of running Remploy.
Historically, Remploy has recovered (by way of commercial income)
some 60%
of its costs, leaving the Treasury to pick up the remainder of the tab.
More important
however, is the workers' knowledge that, once an
appropriate discount has been made for disability, their products can and
do sell competitively in the market-place.
- And that sense of reality, and practical utility,
is worth many, many
£millions...
Do you have
any experience of Remploy? Drop me a line
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855
27
October
2003
"The Secret Policeman"
The greater truth
 This great
documentary had a devastating effect on all those who saw it. Not
since
Kathy Come Home can TV have made such a course-changing impact upon
our public life.
However, the true
lessons I suggest are not about "racism" at all - I experience comparable
racist language in many other walks of life, even around the Boardroom
table. The true lessons lie in our understanding of the
character of police forces as such.
Police service will always attract,
alongside its thousands of decent, honest public servants, more than its
fair share of bullies, thugs, ex-soldiers, near-psychopaths and those
who relish the opportunity for the legitimate deployment of physical
violence. We should understand that.
That is why
people like me, as civil rights lawyers, resist the
assignment of greater and greater arbitrary powers of intervention to the
Police. Particularly dangerous are the discretionary powers of
stop-and-search, on-the-spot fines - so beloved of New Labour.
The truth is that police forces are necessary, but inherently dangerous,
instruments of civic order. We all salve our own consciences, and
keep ourselves "comfortable" by arranging for the Police to out dirty work
for us - we do not have to confront our own muggers, chase our burglars,
fix our own punishments - we leave it all to the Police and the Courts.
But the price, and the risks, of that delegation are high. The
Police must be managed with great skill, care and sensitivity, and a far
greater democratic component. Their powers must be constantly held in
check by Parliament, and subject to rigorous independent scrutiny - that
must surely be the principal lesson to be learnt from The Secret
Policeman. If men like this form part of the corps of
police officers, we owe to our fellow-citizens to keep the whole force
under the tightest possible scrutiny and control.
The Labour Government, having become increasingly
intolerant and authoritarian in character, is granting more and more
extended
powers to the Police. This awesome documentary vindicates the
principled stand taken against these extensions by the Bar, the Law
Society, the Judiciary and many concerned charities - though I do not
recall that the Police Federation has ever opposed any of these extended
powers.
Blair must have paled visibly, viewing this documentary. His chosen
shock-troops of social control were shown to be a nasty lot, with feet of
clay. He should not content himself by muttering "just a few bad
apples..." under his breath. The latent racism was clearly far, far more extensive than the
officers who were specifically named and shamed. He will surely be
more circumspect, in future, in creating new powers of Police
intervention. They have more than enough powers, for the job they
need to do. And it must be a matter of regret that David Blunkett
can never actually see the documentary, the expressions on
the faces of those racist thugs proudly bearing Police uniform, and
carrying their
arrest warrants.
While he can compensate for most of the effects of his blindness, this is
one dimension of human understanding that will be, sadly, forever closed to him.
What do you think? Drop me a
line
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