Newsletter
May 2005 Secret
papers reveal Falconer role in breaking up NUM In
recent years we've become quite accustomed, sadly, to the fact that modern politicians
owe no loyalty to either party or even principles, only to whoever is prepared
to pay the highest price for their services. But it still disappoints and angers
us when we find how prevalent such lack of principles can be. In 2003, Labour
Prime Minister Tony Blair appointed his old friend and former flatmate Charles
Falconer to the position of Lord Chancellor, the cabinet minister responsible
for the country's judiciary. But as the London Guardian discovered, in a previous
incarnation he was hired by the National Coal Board during the strike in their
war against the NUM. Worse,
he offered advice to the NCB on how to recognise the UDM, the scab union created
just after the dispute to help the government in the pit-closure programme that
followed the defeat of the NUM. Most of the men who formed the UDM had scabbed
during the strike and the successful policy of divide and conquer pursued that
year was continued for the pit-closure programme afterwards. The decision to form
the UDM was voted on its conception by the Notts miners in the summer of 1985
and inaugurated 6th December 1985. And
for good measure, Falconer's clients included British Nuclear Fuels, for whom
he fought a series of cases against leukaemia patients and Greenpeace activists.
David
Hencke and Rob Evans Monday May 16, 2005 The Guardian Labour'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. ....Lord
Falconer told the board how they could safely recognise the breakaway Union of
Democratic Mineworkers (UDM), without provoking a legal challenge from the NUM.
....The
creation of the union led by Roy Lynk, a Nottinghamshire miner, ended the united
front by miners against pit closures, and hastened the NUM's demise as an industrial
force. The breakaway union was promoted by the Tory government. ....Documents
released under the Freedom of Information Act and now placed in National Archives
reveal how the then Mr Falconer's role came into its own between July and October
1985, after the miners had gone back to work. ....The
NUM National Executive and the Nottinghamshire dissidents were involved in a bitter
dispute over assets and membership. ....Minutes
of a private conference between the NCB and Mr Falconer and another barrister
show that the barristers stressed it was "fundamental that the Lynk union
was not seen to be an [NCB] creation. They considered that the ultimate risk was
an action by the national union [NUM] against the board ... it was even more imperative
that, if there was any doubt as to whether the Nottingham union was still part
of the national union, the board should not be seen to be negotiating with it".
....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 Nottinghamshire 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.
Charlie Falconer,
Baron Falconer of Thoroton From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia. Charles
Leslie Falconer, Baron Falconer of Thoroton, Privy Councillor (born November 19,
1951), is a British lawyer and Labour Party politician. In June 2003 he became
the Lord Chancellor and the first Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs
(a position created originally to replace the position of Lord Chancellor).
....Educated
at Trinity College, Glenalmond, and Queens College (?), Cambridge, Lord Falconer
became a flatmate of Tony Blair when they were both young barristers in London
in the early 1970s. They had first met as pupils at rival schools in the 1960s.
While Blair went into politics, Falconer concentrated on his legal career, becoming
a Queen's Counsel in 1991. ....In
May 1997 Blair became Prime Minister and Falconer was made a life peer and joined
the government as Solicitor General. In 1998 he became Minister of State at the
Cabinet Office, taking over responsibility for the Millennium Dome after the resignation
of Peter Mandelson. He was heavily criticised for the failure of the Dome to attract
an audience, but resisted calls for his resignation. ....He
joined the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions as Minister
for Housing, Planning and Regeneration after the 2001 election and moved on to
the Home Office in 2002. At the Home Office he was responsible for criminal justice,
sentencing and law reform, and annoyed some of his fellow lawyers by suggesting
that their fees were too high. ....In
2003 he joined the Cabinet as the first Constitutional Affairs Secretary in what
many have come to regard as a rather hasty cabinet re-shuffle. This was confirmed
by the government announcement that the office of Lord Chancellor was to be abolished
without even informing the monarch. The following day it emerged that this announcement
was incorrect, and that the Lord Chancellor was required by statutue to sit in
the House of Lords. Many have also criticised the chosen name as a sign of the
unwelcomed americanisation of the uncodified UK constitution. The post of Secretary
of State for Constitutional Affairs took over many of the responsibilites of the
Lord Chancellor, the Welsh Secretary and the Scottish Secretary. Falconer remained
Lord Chancellor while the process to abolish the office was started, but announced
his intention not to use the Lord Chancellor's power to sit as a judge. ....He
has also stopped wearing the traditional robe and wig of office. Many now suggest
that his apparent failure regarding the Dome has been replicated by his apparent
failure to correctly understand and interpret the national constitution. The replacement
of Derry Irvine, Blair's mentor, with Charlie Falconer, one of his best friends,
gave Blair's opponents a further opportunity to criticise the role of "Tony's
cronies" in the government.
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Date this
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