Thursday 9 July 2009

Trouble at t’Diversity Mill…

Are things falling apart for the establishment’s man at the Equality Commission?
It was not supposed to work like this. The Government's equality watchdog – which is charged with rooting out discrimination on the grounds of sex, race, religion, sexuality, age or disability – was yesterday in the dock charged with discrimination by a member of its own staff.
Is anyone really surprised by this? That a quango doesn’t abide by the rules it expects the rest of us to follow?
The woman before an employment tribunal yesterday was Brid Johal, from Tipperary. (These things are important when it comes to equality). She was an aide to the aide of Mr Phillips. Even aides have aides in the wonderful world of quangos
Why not? They aren’t spending their own money, after all…
While she was on maternity leave the person who was covering for her – whom we might, unkindly perhaps, describe as the aide of the aide of the aide – was promoted over Ms Johal's head. It happened just as a commission bigwig was holding forth publicly about how unfortunate it was that women get penalised if they take a year off. Ms Johal told the tribunal that she had not been informed that there was a vacancy available despite her bosses' promises that she would be "kept in the loop" while she was away.
Whoops! Sounds like she has them bang to rights. Hope she takes them to the cleaners and..

Oh, wait! We’ll be paying that as well, too, won’t we?
"There is something oddly old-fashioned going on in terms of plum jobs at the higher level," one insider said recently.
You mean, despite what it preaches, it’s as much an ‘old boy’s club’ as any other large institution? I’m shocked. Shocked
In the next few weeks the National Audit Office is expected to deliver a hard-hitting verdict on the commission's finances, and may even qualify its accounts. Its concerns are said to centre on staff who were given generous redundancy payments when the CRE was wound up, then re-hired by the EHRC. Mr Phillips may soon face questions in Parliament.
Questions will be asked in Parliament? The place where, if you get the heave-ho as Speaker due to incredible incompetence, you’re in line for a peerage to make up for it?

That’ll be fun to watch.
More personally embarrassing for Mr Phillips is the rumbling row over his private business activities. Last year he was forced to quit as director of the Equate Organisation, a management company that he founded – and in which he owns a 70 per cent stake – when it was disclosed that it gave advice to Channel 4 following the Jade Goody race row in the 2007 series of Celebrity Big Brother. He was accused of a conflict of interest between his business and his public-sector role. It was also revealed that his contract with the commission – where he is paid £110,000 for a three-and-a-half day week – allowed him to use the commission's offices for a number of exclusively private business activities.
*cough* Smith Institute *cough*

But it seems that Trev has fallen foul of the racemongers within his own organisation by not being PC enough:
…in April three board members resigned after a public assertion by Mr Phillips that the police were no longer institutionally racist. Mr Phillips argued that the police had "shown a much better understanding of how to deliver a public service that doesn't discriminate just because of the colour of your skin" since the botched investigation into the murder of Stephen Lawrence. But this did not go down well with the old guard.

They had already been incensed by his U-turn on multiculturalism – the notion that a diverse society should celebrate the different cultures of its ethnic groups. Multiculturalism, Phillips argued, might actually be counter-productive.
Well, that attitude will never do…

But don’t weep for Trev. Like all cool cats, he’ll find a way of landing on his feet:
There is now talk that his time at the commission may be nearly up. Some are suggesting deal may be done to allow him to save face, by which he will be offered another three years – on the understanding that he will turn it down. He might be offered a job as head of another quango, the British Council, which has a vacancy at the top following the departure of Neil Kinnock who had to quit when his wife, Glenys, was made a minister.
Ahhh. Cozy…

20 comments:

Vetnurse said...

They would all give me ulcers if l gave to much thought to how they rip off everyone. Only a gov dept would have so many aides to aides. And as for the rest of the entire dept they are all money grabbing no good scum :-(

clarissa said...

Ms Johal told the tribunal that she had not been informed that there was a vacancy available despite her bosses' promises that she would be "kept in the loop" while she was away.

Two things that spring to mind:
1. Doesn't the EHRC send internal emails around about job vacancy's to all employees as a matter of course?
2. What are the chances of her getting the job given that I can't imagine that they'd want to have two people (the pregnancy cover temp and then her) find their feet in the new role inside a matter of months?

Anonymous said...

To hell with all these equality quangos. Before these commissions all were equal before the law, now some are more equal than others.

woman on a raft said...

Good post. It drew together a lot of things which had got right past me.

Perry Neeham said...

God I hate those bastards!!!

Letters From A Tory said...

Even when Trevor gets booted out, we'll still need to get rid of the EHRC itself.

Our work is just beginning....

Umbongo said...

Not a lot on this at another quango, the BBC. High level corruption by one of the BBC's favourites is obviously less important than the old (2+ years) news "learned" from the Guardian that News International has been listening in to John Prescott's (mostly unintelligible) phone calls and has (apparently) squared the PCC, the police and several interceptees. It seems Prescott missed out on that largesse (maybe that's why he is so angry). Luckily for Trev he is solidly in the BBC-approved camp while Coulson not only worked for arch-demon Murdoch but is now an adviser to the Conservatives. How guilty (by association) can you get?

Stan said...

The EHRC is a money gobbling waste of space and should be shut down - along with most of the quangos.

Ross said...

It's a hard decision- Trevor Phillips is a waste of space and should go BUT he is being criticised for not being even more dreadful than he is so his replacement will undoubtedly be worse.

Rob said...

"However, many in the ethnic minority communities were alarmed, arguing that it was his job to defend minorities, not give succour to attacks on them."

Really? At the Equality and Human Rights Commission? I'm shocked!

James Higham said...

There is constant discrimination - in particular, reverse discrimination - and I'm currently locking horns over this.

It is an enormous false cosntruct which has been perpetrated on us.

Greg said...

You're right! I didn't see you coming!

Sharp and straight. I like it.

http://theantipolitician.wordpress.com

Dr Evil said...

You do know that the etnic make up of this evil Quango does not reflect on the general population of the UK nor even the weird make up of the population of London. So much for equality. This will be the first Quango to be wound up under my administration! LOL :-)

Nick von Mises said...

It's the People's Front of Judea sketch happening in real life, again.

Lefties always disolve into backstabbing putsches. Whether it's greed on the way up or recrimination on the way down. It's in their genes.

Anonymous said...

All these people are part of the political class together with the MPs, lords, QUANGOs, councils, regions, civil service, senior police and all the other legions that feed freely on the public purse. They hold or manipulate all the levers of power. Nothing short of revolution will ever shift them. As you see before your very eyes, the MPs are rearming with their new corruption while their old corruption is still being revealed to us by the Telegraph. Bring back Guy Fawkes and his gunpowder now! Westminster is a good place to start.

JuliaM said...

"Only a gov dept would have so many aides to aides."

Try getting away with that in private industry, and the shareholders will soon have you out!

"Two things that spring to mind:
1. Doesn't the EHRC send internal emails around about job vacancy's to all employees as a matter of course?"


Probably, but I doubt they are canny enought to realise that sending an internal email to someone not in the office by virtue of maternity leave is a waste of electrons.

Want to bet no-one asked (and she never volunteered) an external mail address?

"...I can't imagine that they'd want to have two people (the pregnancy cover temp and then her) find their feet in the new role inside a matter of months?"

No-one would. But that doesn't stop this kind of insanity from being promoted.

JuliaM said...

"How guilty (by association) can you get?"

I don't think it gets much better than that for the Beeb, does it?

"..BUT he is being criticised for not being even more dreadful than he is so his replacement will undoubtedly be worse."

The very definition of 'between a rock and a hard place' for modern times...

"Sharp and straight. I like it."

You're welcome ;)

"Lefties always disolve into backstabbing putsches. Whether it's greed on the way up or recrimination on the way down. It's in their genes."

Does eventually degenerate into 'weasels fighting in a sack', doesn't it?

David Gillies said...

Wish I could take a year's holiday and not only expect to have my job at the end of it but get promoted.

Steve said...

"may even qualify its accounts"

Another 14 years of that and it will be as incompetent as the EU.

Anonymous said...

Lefties always disolve into backstabbing putsches. Whether it's greed on the way up or recrimination on the way down. It's in their genes.

Its because, ultimately, their beliefs are inconsistent. Once you have your ideological ducks in a row and enough information on a given issue most of these problems dont arise. Of course you have to stop being a liberal for this to happen...