Judy McKnight's Napolog

Web log of Napo's general secretary

November 30, 2006

Making the Front Page

Today we made the front page of two papers.

The Morning Star led on coverage of yesterday's lobby.

The Independent led with an interview with Lord David Ramsbotham about the meltdown in the Government's criminal justice policy, which criticises John Reid's attack on Probation and called for an end to the move to NOMS!

Posted by jmcknight at 08:50 PM | Comments (0)

November 29, 2006

We Can Do It!

If there was one message from today's Lobby, it was that we have a very real chance of defeating the Government over the Offender Management Bill.

Thanks to everyone who came.

We now understand that the first debate in the House of Commons will be Monday 11 December.

Not long!

It was really heartening to hear from so many MPs and Peers, (Lord Ramsbotham and Baroness Stern), about the level of support for the Probation Service, and the extent of opposition to the Bill. We also heard very positive messsages of support from Brendan Barber, TUC, Francis Crook, Howard League, Martin Wargent, PBA and Tony Benn.

There were very few, if any, speakers who did not refer to John Reid's speech at Wormwood Scrubs. Let's hope he realises the mistake he made with that unjustified attack on the Service.

One of the MPs said that the Labour Whips were looking in on our meeting, which shows that we have them worried!

Kath will be putting more about the Lobby on the "Stop the NOMS Bill" bit of the website and we hope to get copies of most of the speeches.

Here are the notes I used for my speech.
Download file

If we are to succeed however, it is critical that all members contact their MP- as soon as possible.

Posted by jmcknight at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)

November 28, 2006

Have you contacted your MP?

I hope to see many of you at the lobby of parliament tomorrow.

I hope all members, whether or not they are at tomorrow's rally are contacting their MP.

Harry and I met with some Labour MPs this afternoon who have pledged their support for our campaign against the privatisation of the Probation Service. Interestingly, they contacted us asking for a briefing on the background and the issues, and they did so after John Reid’s speech at Wormwood Scrubs.

I had a feeling that speech might just backfire on him!

They stressed again the importance of Napo members contacting their local MPs and also emphasised the added value of seeing MPs face to face, in their constituency, if not at Westminster.

MPs get a lot of correspondence on different issues but if they start to receive the same message from a number of their constituents they start to take notice.

While we were at the House of Commons today, Gerry Sutcliffe was seen coming out of a nearby meeting room with Dominic Grieve, who is the Shadow Attorney General (and member of the Tory front bench Home Affairs team). I wonder what they had to talk about.

Could this meeting be related to the fact that Gerry is worried about the lack of support from Labour backbenchers for his plans for privatising Probation?

Members can make him even more worried, by ensuring that all MPs, of all parties are contacted.

We are expecting the first debate on the Offender Management Bill in the House of Commons, (known as the Second Reading), to be week commencing 11 December.

So get cracking, and if you haven’t yet done so, contact your MP as soon as possible.

We actually do have a chance of defeating the Government on this. Don’t waste that chance!

Posted by jmcknight at 08:18 PM | Comments (0)

November 24, 2006

FT Covers our Fight Against the Bill

Good coverage of our fight against the Bill in today’s FT.

Today's Mail also covered the story along with an up date on proposals on young offenders.

Posted by jmcknight at 05:26 PM | Comments (0)

November 23, 2006

John Reid Promotes Napo Leaflet.

It’s not every day that Home Secretaries circulate Napo’s briefings to the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP)!

And on the day that the Government has published "THE" Bill.

Today’s PLP briefing by John Reid, reproduces our leaflet on “10 Reasons to Oppose the Bill” then, rather pathetically, seeks, and palpably fails, to respond to the points we make.

We hadn’t sent that particular leaflet to MPs, we had sent it to members, but John Reid has now sent it to MPs for us.

Is there a Napo mole in the team that writes the PLP Briefings?

Will we ever know?

Either way, we should be very grateful!

(The phrase “You couldn’t make it up” springs to mind!)

We will be doing a full response to the PLP Briefing which we will post on the Napo website.

(For example, the briefing quotes Napo as saying that 788 out of 798 opposed the proposals and, in John Reid's rebuttal, he cites two organisations who were in favour, both of whom are potential beneficiaries. What about the other eight? Are they also potential beneficiaries?)

Here is the PLP Briefing.

Enjoy!

Download file

PS I've just spotted something new on PLP briefings, a reference to the fact that they are “confidential”, and that their “publication or dissemination” is “prohibited and may be unlawful”.

Does this mean I’m breaking the law???

So be it.

May be we should add that phrase to Napo leaflets sent to our members in the future!

Posted by jmcknight at 07:32 PM | Comments (0)

November 19, 2006

John Raine and Gordon Brown put John Reid in His Place.

John Raine not only wrote a good letter in our defence to John Reid, (see 14 November entry,) he has also got coverage for it in The Times. Good for him.

And Gordon Brown wants to know when John Reid will start to address sentencing policy. About time too.

Why are Home Office Ministers ignoring the Halliday Report and the Carter Report in respect of their clear recommendations on the need to address sentencing policy? We didn't agree with everything in the Carter Report, but he did recognise the importance of tackling sentencing policy if the Prison and Probation Services were to have any chance of being more effective than they currently are in reducing re-offending.

Posted by jmcknight at 06:48 PM | Comments (0)