NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE
Having been a full time Union official for over twenty years and serving on Union Committees for another ten or more I am well aware of how irritating it can be if you get a persistent complainant.
You want, or need, to get on with other more pressing work and yet the person or persons involved will not accept the outcome of the complaint or concern they have made what did we do? Well the one thing we didn’t do was just slam the door in their face. You had to persevere and ultimately you would get a resolution. They are after all members and they are also human beings who feel wronged in terms of the predicament they are raising.
If organisations like Trade Unions and other bodies can deal with people on an equitable basis what on earth is wrong with the Manx government. Why cannot it apply standards of service and decency to the public it serves – because that’s what government and all its apparatus in a democracy is a servant of the people.
I posted today about documents leaked to Trevor Cowin which set out that clandestinely government is setting out to proscribe people’s right to complain.
I’ve had a chance to look in more detail now and I have to admit I may have treated it a bit flippantly earlier.
The proposals to put it bluntly are a disgrace! Government intends to determine when complaints are vexatious and also make determinations on people’s correspondence and behaviour and if you fail to meet criteria they set you will your contact with government ‘restricted’.
The document in terms of its structure is Orwellian! Now I know that’s a term easily bandied about but there is no other word to describe it. It is like something out of Orwell’s 1984. It is shocking and I sincerely hope Members of Tynwald give it short shrift.
If they do not I would voice a word of caution for ‘our rulers’.
Cut of the democratic right of people to make representations of issues of concern to them and you force people down a dangerous road.
Dialogue (no matter how irksome or protracted) is better than direct action – because be under no illusion if you restrict democratic rights you are on the slippery road to anarchy – an anarchy thank goodness this Island in modern times has tended to only experience minimally!
BERNARD MOFFATT
Issued by: The Celtic News
05/02/16
THE CELTIC LEAGUE INFORMATION SERVICE.
The Celtic League established in 1961 has branches in the six Celtic Countries. It promotes cooperation between the countries and campaigns on a range of political, cultural and environmental matters. It highlights human rights abuse, military activity and socio-economic issues
