(2.30pm) for his persistence in an interview with Steve Gough, National Vice Chair of the Prison Officers Association trade union.
At lunchtime the government sought (oh the irony!) and was granted an injunction agsint the POA, compelling the the union to call off today’s lightning strike or be in contempt of court. A little after 2pm, live on TV, a POA official in Liverpool, Steve Baines, told his members that he’d just spoken with Steve Gough:
“And he expressed his view to us, ‘Tell them to shove it up their a***, we’re staying out'”
– which, if true, places Gough and the POA clearly in contempt of the High Court – not something that anyone sensible would undertake lightly. Sopel tied Gough up in knots as he wriggled and jiggled to avoid either confirming the above quote or admitting that the union, whatever the legitimacy of their case, must order its member to return to work under the terms of the injunction.
It was a pleasant change from the normal uninformed lightweight question and answer sessions that pass for TV interviews these days. I hope that the government’s failure to avoid even being interviewed about these issues (and larger issues with the Prison Service) is highlighted just as robustly, and I hope, for the sake of the members of the POA, that their case is being handled by people more gifted than Mr. Gough.
Alas, and now back to Westminster Square for more lavish luvvie coverage of Saint Nelson of Mandela’s new statue, without mentioning at all any of the ANC’s techniques or its victims on their ‘long walk to freedom’. Let us also not be so churlish as to contrast the current strengths of the institutions of South Africa with those of the state of Zimbabwe, itself freed from oppression by that great freedom fighter, Robert Mugabe.
I seem to remember that Amnesty International refused to recognise Saint Nelson as a “Prisoner Of Conscience” during his long imprisonment because of his support of the use of terrorism – not that you’ll year that in today’s televised hagiography.
As for Mandela’s work since his release, I’m with Brian Walden. His excellent televised “Walden On Heroes” lecture (on the BBC..!)a few years back rightly dismissed him as an utter let-down.
I’m surprised that Desmond Tutu’s contribution is so frequently overlooked. After all, his life was on the line constantly during the apartheid years and he campaigned tirelessly against the regime in non-violent ways.
In fact, he risked being lynched by his own side on at least one occasion when he resisted their attempts to ‘necklace’ a suspected informer.
Why isn’t his integrity, faith and commitment to non-violence more widely recognised and honoured?
Would Sopel question a union official representing nurses, doctors or teachers in the same way?
The fact that this line of questioning is a “pleasant change” and surprises B-BBC just illustrates the BBC’s bias against hard-statist (prison officers, immigration officials, the police) powers.
Andrew, I don’t really know why you are surprised or pleased at this. In my experience of the BBC (which goes back decades) they have never liked trades unions, and have often given a very hard ride to trade union leaders, even when the latter had some very good points to make, and have generally addressed them in a rude, offensively dismissive manner. The BBC’s particular version of left-wingery is the Hampstead variety, that is, control of everything by the educated, enlightened elite, with everyone else just doing as they are told. They do sometimes support trade union actions, but generally just against private employers, and not against labour governments.
They do sometimes support trade union actions, but generally just against private employers, and not against labour governments.
or if the union is contemplating a boycott of something to do with isreal!
Why isn’t his integrity, faith and commitment to non-violence more widely recognised and honoured?
Fran | 29.08.07 – 5:27 pm
Dunno, perhaps he is overshadowed by Mandela who of course has been elevated practically to sainthood by the media. Tutu also has a dark side. He was a great rabble rouser, helping to whip a black mob at a football stadium into a frenzy – which resulted in the brutal killings of white people who had the misfortune to be living next door to the stadium and were murdered simply because they were white.
The media has been complicit in painting a far rosier picture of the overthrow of apartheid than is warranted. Mandela, too, is no saint. In some respects he is a tribalist. A Xhosa, he did not intervene to stop the brutal war between the Xhosa and the Zulus as apartheid crumbled and the main black groups vied for power. Confident that his tribe would prevail, he sat back and let events unfold. It was a major failure of leadership.
Be interesting to know how many Zulus are in leadership positions in the ANC today. I don’t think there are too many.
Tutu has become much more impressive recently than he was in the old days. Perhaps part of the reason why he doesn’t get too much recognition is his criticism of the current failings of the ANC government. Hell, we can’t have that. It means challenging the myth that has been so carefully built up over the years.
Dirty Den: “I don’t really know why you are surprised or pleased at this. In my experience of the BBC (which goes back decades) they have never liked trades unions”
Hi Den and others. What I was pleased to see was an interview being properly conducted, rather than the fact that a POA official was on the receiving end of a deserved drubbing.
I think the POA has a good case, though I disagree with this sort of strike.
It was good to see an incompetent and blusterous interviewee (in this case a union official) being held to account rather than being allowed to limply evade the truth and use the media for their own ends.
Too often on News 24 (and Sky News) interviewers are too ignorant and/or too weak to pin down and expose the truth. That is what was refreshing about Sopel’s interview today.
More power to his elbow – especially when it comes to government ministers!
[Deleted for profanity]
Funnily enough, the BBC recieved complaints that this interview was biased againt the POA. Depends on your own bias I suppose.