The General Secretary

August 2005

Freedom And Democracy - The Part That We Play

At the time of writing my comments for the August magazine, we are still in the wake of the horrific bombings in London on the 7th July 2005.

We, like all other civilised human beings, condemn those people who commit such horrific acts to innocent people, whether that is in London or throughout the world.

These attacks are not just attacks on innocent people in London, the capital city of England, or indeed, the home of the United Kingdom Parliament, it is not even an attack on the United Kingdom while it is holding the presidency of the G8 nations or the presidency of the EU, it is an attack on the freedom of civilised people to determine their future through a democratic process.

We live in a diverse society; a society with many religions, many cultural beliefs and many differences between those who live or choose to live in this country. In order to live in a decent and civil society we have rules by which our society exists. The rules and laws of the land are changed frequently to match the changes in our society, the changes in our cultures and the recognition of the diversity in which we live. However, more than anything the laws under which we live by are about people being decent to each other, respecting the differences and accepting the diversity.

Just as society as a whole abides by those rules we, working in a public service, have a responsibility to ensure that we insist that those in our care learn to obey the rules and to conform to the laws of the land.

Equally we have to do this by example. We have a massive responsibility to society, to show those in our care that we expect high levels of decency to each other, from those in our care and towards those who we have the responsibility to keep in custody. I take great pride as the General Secretary of the POA, in telling many gatherings how professional as public servants the POA membership is. Equally, I do not try to defend the indefensible and openly will accept that amongst the huge majority of our membership who are decent, law abiding and responsible people, there will always be those who break those rules and let down this union.

On the 17th June 2005, I took great delight in addressing the Galips Conference in Manchester Town Hall, in attempting to explain how far we have come as a Prison Service, and also how far we have come as a trades union. I have tried to analyse the difficulties that some people have in accepting others with different sexual orientations. I do not believe that the vast majority of the POA membership sees sexual orientation as an issue at all. Equally, I do not believe that our gay and lesbian colleagues expect to be treated differently, but do quite rightly demand to be treated fairly and without prejudice. I know that the vast majority of our membership wants to live within the diverse and culturally different society and workplace.

In closing this column I would express our sincere condolences to the families, friends and all those affected by the bombings in London.

Further, I would urge the membership, at a time when we are seeing a continued rise in disputes between members, to take some time to try to resolve differences between each other without the need for outside intervention. The continued member on member attacks do nothing for the union and do very little for individuals involved. It surely must be better for people to sit down and discuss their differences and difficulties than to seek punitive measures or the gathering of compensation as a way forward when disagreements occur.

As I have said through this column on many occasions, together we are strong and we can benefit the whole of our membership. When we are not united we are weak and vulnerable to all those who choose to attack the POA and its membership and they will pray upon that weakness.