GENERAL ELECTION 2019

Lawyers Strike Again

https://legalacstrikeagain.blogspot.com/

Image: Getty Images

What we're covering today:

1. Higher Education
2. Workers’ Rights
3. Democracy and Brexit
4. Climate Change
... focusing on the manifestos of the Conservative &
Unionist, Labour and Liberal Democratic Parties:

(Note: these are the three

parties standing for
election in Canterbury.
Unfortunately we haven’t
been able to cover the
others here, inc. the Green
Party, Scottish National
Party, Plaid Cymru and the
Conservatives: Labour: Brexit Party.)
Lib Dems:
Get Brexit Done: It’s Time for Real Stop Brexit: Build
Unleash Britain’s Change: For the a Brighter Future
Potential Many, Not for the Few
Images: from the Telegraph, 29 Nov 2019
1. HIGHER EDUCATION (HE)

Graduation ceremony, Canterbury Cathedral, 2019. Image: University of Kent

Current State of HE Funding: A Precarious Model
UNSUSTAINABLE:
• UK universities are largely
dependent on students' fees + (to
a lesser extent) on government
grants (1/4) + private
endowments, estates, big
research grants (Universities UK,
University Funding Explained)
• Student fees are universities’ main
source of income overall. If they
cannot recruit enough students,
they must restructure or ‘exit the
market’ (2017 HE and Research
Act)
UNDESIRABLE:
• Privatised Model relies on creating student debt.
Instead of focusing on education, universities and
academics act as private enterprises and compete
for students' fees. Overseas and home students
enrich our universities in incommensurable ways:
they are not markets.
• Students (esp. from disadvantaged backgrounds)
graduate with an average debt of £57,000 (Institute
of Fiscal Studies, 2017)
• Whilst the issue of access to HE is complex and
cannot be reduced to fees, there are links between
this funding model and the precarious working
conditions and pay gaps which characterise HE.
 Why we (university workers) are on strike:
1. ‘Zero hours’ contracts: 46% of
universities use zero-hours contracts to
deliver teaching. 68% of research staff are
on fixed-term contracts (UCU, Stamp Out
Casual Contracts, 2019)
2. Over-working staff: academics are
usually paid for 35 hours per week, but
most academics now work 50 hours a
week or more, including evenings,
weekends, and holidays. This work is
unpaid (THE, Work-Life Balance, 2018)
3. Ignoring gender and race pay gaps:
Universities have a worse gender pay gap,
13.7% on av., than the national av. of 9.1%.
For those from particular ethnic backgrounds
and/or with disabilities, pay gap is even more
pronounced (BBC, Big University Gender Pay
Gap Revealed, 2019)
4. Falling salaries: the average value of UK
university staff pay has fallen by 17% over the
past decade (THE, There are Questions to
Answer on Falling Salaries, 2017)

These problems are not limited to academic staff. The situation is just as bad, if not worse,
for professional staff – all those who help you outside the classroom (eg in the library, student
support, SLAS) and behind the scenes to ensure your learning and assessment run smoothly.
 Our working conditions are your learning conditions:

‘The increasing casualisation of teaching

flows directly from the erosion of labour
conditions sponsored through international
economic law global norms in other sectors of
the global economy.’
(International Economic Law Collective @iel_collective, 28
Nov 2019)

… So what are the three parties offering on these two first issues of
funding for higher education and workers’ rights (for workers both inside
and beyond the university?
Conservative Manifesto on HE Funding:
• ‘In the next Parliament we will work to maintain and strengthen our global position on
Higher Education. The Augar Review made thoughtful recommendations on tuition fee
levels, the balance of funding between universities, further education and apprenticeships
and adult learning, and we will consider them carefully. We will look at the interest rates on
loan repayments with a view to reducing the burden of debt on students.’
• ‘…continue to explore ways to tackle…grade inflation and low quality courses, and improve
the application and offer system for undergraduate students. Our approach will be
underpinned by a commitment to fairness, quality of learning and teaching, and access.’
• ‘…strengthen academic freedom and free speech in universities and continue to focus on
raising standards.’
• ‘…strengthen universities and colleges’ civic role. We will invest in local adult education and
require the Office for Students to look at universities success in increasing access across
all ages, not just yond people entering full-time undergraduate degrees’ [p 37]
Labour Manifesto on HE Funding:
• ‘Will will end the failed free-market experiment in higher education, abolish tuition
fees and bring back maintenance grants. Develop a new funding formula for
higher education that:
- Ensures all public HE institutions have adequate funding for teaching and
research
- Widens access to higher education and reverses the decline of part-time
learning
- Ends the casualisation of staff
• ‘We will transform the Office for Students from a market regulator to a body of the
National Education Service, acting in the public interest’
• ‘We will introduce post-qualification admissions in higher education,
and work with universities to ensure contextual admissions are used across the
system’ (p. 41)
Lib Dem Manifesto on HE Funding:
• ‘The UK’s place in the EU has made Britain one of the best places in the world
for students to study and gain the skills that they need to give them the best
possible start in their working lives. Before the referendum, the UK’s universities
received around £730 million a year from the EU to spend on research.
Membership of the EU means that academics of international calibre can easily
come to teach in our universities and pass their expertise on to British students.’
• ‘Being in the EU also enables British students to participate in the Erasmus
scheme. More than 40,000 people from the UK went abroad on the Erasmus+
scheme during 2015–16: the scheme has allowed students like these to live and
study anywhere in the EU and in turn other EU students have come to the UK,
enabling an exchange of cultures, broadening of horizons and the building of
new relationships. By staying in the EU, Liberal Democrats will ensure that
British students can continue to study wherever in the EU they choose to’ [p. 12]
2. WORKERS’ RIGHTS

On the picket line, Nov. 2019. Image: University of Kent University and College Union (UCU)
We are interested in workers’ rights as workers in
higher education…
We think you’ll be
interested as many of
you work alongside
studying at university,
and/or you will want to
know how the major
parties will protect your
working rights in the
future…
Conservative Manifesto on Workers’ Rights:
• Build on existing employment law with measures that protect those in
low-paid work and the gig economy (no further details available on this
point in the manifesto)
• Ensure that workers have the right to request a more predictable
contract and other reasonable protections (no further details available
on this point in the manifesto)
• ‘Our vision for the labour market … is not one where the state does
everything for you. It is one where the state does everything it can to
help you help yourself – by upgrading your skills, or by being able to
balance work and family life. It is one in which a deep commitment to
entrepreneurship and business is matched by a desire to ensure that
the jobs that are created are highly skilled, well-paid and fulfilling.’
Labour Manifesto on Workers’ Rights:
• Ban zero hours contracts
• Give all workers rights from their first day on the job (doesn't currently happen
– up to 2 years for some rights, meaning you're unprotected)
• 12 months statutory maternity pay (up from 9 months) plus 4 weeks paternity
leave; new right to bereavement leave
• Require employers to implement plans to eradicate the gender pay gap – and
pay inequalities underpinned by race and/or disability – or face fines
• Increase wages through sectoral collective bargaining
• Living Wage of at least £10/hour for 16+ year olds
• New Ministry of Employment Rights, giving working people a voice in Cabinet
• End bogus self-employment so employers can't avoid granting workers their
rights
(and much more...)
Lib Dem Manifesto on Workers’ Rights:
• Establish a Worker Protection Enforcement Authority to protect those
in precarious work;
• Make flexible working open to all from day one in the job;
• Consult on how to set a genuine Living Wage across all sectors. Pay
this Living Wage in all central government departments and their
agencies;
• Modernise employment rights to make them fit for the age of the ‘gig
economy’; (no further details in manifesto)
• Strengthen the ability of unions to represent workers effectively in the
modern economy, including a right of access to workplaces (no further
details in manifesto)
3. DEMOCRACY, THE CONSTITUTION & BREXIT

Palace of Westminster, 2013. Image: Monostardust/Wikimediacommons

The parties are proposing changes across a multitude of
policy areas that are key to the way that law operates,
including:
§ Representation
§ Voting
§ Fixed Term Parliaments
§ Access to Justice
§ House of Lords reform
§ Individual rights
§ Freedom of speech/press freedom
§ Decentralisation, and…
§ Brexit
Democracy and the UK Constitution (1/4)
Conservatives
Representation:
Update/equalise Parliamentary
boundaries
Voting:
- Introduce identification to vote at polling
stations;
- Stop postal vote harvesting; prevent
foreign interference in elections
Repeal Fixed Term Parliaments Act
(2011) (led to paralysis when UK needed
decisive action)
Consultation/oversight:
Establish Constitution, Democracy &
Rights Commission to examine key
constitutional issues (eg relationship
between government, parliament, courts;
Royal Prerogative; role of the House of
Lords; access to justice for ordinary people)
Labour
- Maintain 650 constituencies (but will
respond objectively to future, independent
boundary reviews)
- Lower voting age to 16
- Extend full voting rights to all UK residents
Ensure everyone entitled to vote can vote via
new system of automatic voter registration
- Abandon plans to introduce voter ID (harms
democratic rights)
Repeal Fixed-term Parliaments Act (2011)
(stifled democracy, propped up weak
governments)
New UK-wide Constitutional Convention,
led by a citizens’ assembly, to make
recommendations on renewal of our
Parliament (eg on distribution of power in
UK; relationship between nations and
regions; how to put more power in the
hands of the people)
Liberal Democrats
- Replace FPTP with PR system for
election of MPs + local councillors
in England
- Intro. written constitution for a
federal UK
- Lower voting age to 16
- Extend the right vote + stand for
office to EU citizens resident in UK
for 5+ years
- Scrap plans to introduce voter ID
n/c
Establish UK-wide and local
citizens’ assemblies to maximise
public engagement on major
challenges (eg climate
emergency; use of artificial
intelligence/algorithms by the
state)
Democracy and the UK Constitution (2/4)
Conservatives
Access to justice:
n/c
House of Lords reform:
n/c
Individual rights:
Ensure balance between
individual rights, national
security, effective
government:
- Update Human Rights Act +
administrative law
- Ensure judicial review
available to protect individuals
against an overbearing state
(but also that not abused,
creating needless delays)
Labour
- Restore all early legal aid advice (inc. for
housing, social security, family, immigration
cases);
- Ensure legal aid for inquests into deaths in
state custody + judicial review cases
- Consult on civil legal aid means-test levels
- End the hereditary principle immediately
- Put preferred option (abolition/replacement
with elected Senate of the Nations &
Regions) to new Constitutional Convention
Radical expansion of workers’ rights
(above) + anti-discrimination (race, religion,
gender, LGBTQ, disability, etc) + social
equality
- Committed to the Human
Rights Act/ECHR
- Will ratify Istanbul Convention on preventing
domestic abuse + ILO Convention on
Violence and Harassment at work
- Replace Social Mobility Commission with a
Social Justice Commission, wide-ranging
powers to hold govt to account
Liberal Democrats
- New right to affordable, reasonable legal
assistance
- Invest £500 million to restore Legal Aid
Reform H of L with ‘proper democratic
mandate’
Build a society in which rights & liberties are
protected; privacy safe from prying state:
- Defend the Human Rights Act;
- Resist any efforts to withdraw from ECHR
Oppose any laws that unnecessarily erode
civil liberties
- Make all hate crimes aggravated offences
- Fund extra security measures for places
of worship, schools, community centres
that are vulnerable to hate crime/terror
attacks
- Recognise non-binary gender identities
Democracy and the UK Constitution (3/4)
Conservatives
Freedom of speech/press:
- Champion freedom of expression and
tolerance (UK + overseas)
- Repeal Sec. 40 of Crime & Courts Act
(2014) (seeks to coerce press)
- Will not proceed with Leveson Inquiry
2nd stage
- Ensure no-one put off from engaging in
politics/standing for election by threats,
harassment or abuse (in person or online)
- Improve government use of data, data
science and evidence
Decentralisation:
- Council delivery of essential local services
to continue
- Local ‘veto’ on hikes in council tax hikes
to continue (‘although this does not prevent
councils raising more’)
- Full English devolution
Labour
- Support public service broadcasters +
local media outlets; address grip of tech
giants on ad revenues
- Address issues raised by 2nd stage of
abandoned Leveson Inquiry
- Empower Ofcom to safeguard
plurality of media ownership
- Establish inquiry into impact of ‘fake news’
on trust in media, democracy & public
debate + into legal right of public interest
defence for journalists
- Make directly elected
mayors more accountable to local
councillors & elected reps
- Re-establish regional
Government Offices to support regional
investments, decentralise decision-making,
strengthen local democracy
Liberal Democrats
- Support pluralistic media
environment where journalists hold
the powerful to account;
- Protect civility in public
discourse; ensure election
procedures/rules are upheld
- BBC must provide impartial
news/information and educate all
generations in tackling fake news
- Redistribute power from
Westminster to the nations,
regions & local authorities
- Allow communities to hold local
services to account; decide how
taxes are raised and spent
Democracy and Brexit (4/4)
Conservatives Labour Lib Dems
- Brexit will end ‘supremacy of European law’ - Scrap ‘deeply flawed’ WA; negotiate new deal that ‘protects - Clear ‘stop
allowing UK to ‘take back control’ of laws, jobs, rights and the environment, avoids a hard border in N. Brexit’ platform:
money, trade, fishing, immigration policy Ireland and protects the Good Friday Agreement’ revoke Article
50 and stay in
- UK will exit EU single market (and ECJ - Legally binding referendum within 6 months (decision to be the EU
jurisdiction); any form of customs union ruled implemented immediately), ‘giving you the final say’
- If election
out Labour deal: does not return
- ‘Implementation period’ (during which EU law - Rules out a no-deal Brexit Lib Dem
will continue to apply while new trade - Comprehensive customs union to protect manufacturing, majority
agreement negotiated) will not be extended government,
allowing future co-negotiated trade deals) we will
beyond 31 Dec. 2020 (although 1-2 year
- Close alignment with Single Market ensuring strong, ‘continue to
extension provided for in WAB (Art. 30)
business-friendly future relationship fight for a
Not mentioned in manifesto: people’s vote
- Dynamic alignment on consumer/workers/environmental
- ‘Financial Settlement’ (c. £30 billion): still to rights/protections with the option
be negotiated (WAB, Art. 20) to stay in the
- Continued participation in EU agencies/funding EU’ and ‘would
- New EU trade agreement exempted from programmes in vital areas (eg science, culture, environment) passionately
normal constitutional requirement for 21+days
- Clear commitments on security (eg shared databases) campaign to
Parliamentary scrutiny (WAB, Art. 31(10)) keep the UK in
- Automatic right for EU nationals to continue living/working
- EU law will be retained under UK law after the EU’
in UK , preventing ‘repeat of the shameful Windrush scandal’
end of transition period
- Appropriate transition period allowing businesses/citizens to
adapt
4. CLIMATE CHANGE

Rising Sea Levels in the Marhsall Islands. Photo: Erin Magee/AusAID

Conservative Manifesto on Climate Change
(3 x subheadings under Sections 4 and 5 of the manifesto; 2.5 pages)

‘Conservation is, and always has been, at the heart of

Conservatism. Our Government’s stewardship of the
natural environment, its focus on protecting the countryside
and reducing plastic waste, is a source of immense pride...
[W]e believe that free markets, innovation and prosperity
can protect the planet. Yet we recognise that there is far
more that needs to be done…’ (p 55)
Conservative Pledges on Climate Change:
‘Fight climate change and protect the
environment’
• £640 mill Nature for Climate fund to achieve
target Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions
by 2050
• new international partnerships to tackle
deforestation + £500 million Blue Planet
Fund to address plastic pollution, warming
sea temperatures, overfishing
• Invest in R&D; decarbonisation; new flood
defences; electric vehicle infrastructure;
clean energy (no details available)
• ‘Work with the market’ to deliver 2 mill new
jobs in ‘clean growth’
• Expand offshore wind industry; new floating
wind farms + £800 mill to build first fully-
deployed carbon capture storage cluster by
mid-2020s.
• £500 mill to help energy-intensive industries
move to low-carbon techniques; support for
hydrogen production/nuclear energy;
moratorium on fracking in England to stay
unless safety scientifically proven
• £9.2 billion to promote energy efficiency in
homes, schools and hospitals
• Support clean transport to ensure clean air;
new air quality laws; will hold consultation on
phase out the sale of new petrol/diesel cars
Conservative Pledges (contd.):
‘Stewards of Our Environment’:
• New Office For Environmental Protection
• £640 million new Nature for Climate fund:
new National Parks/Areas of Outstanding
Natural Beauty
• new levy to increase proportion of
recyclable plastics in packaging; producers
to pay full costs of waste disposal; ‘boost
domestic recycling’
• Increased penalties for fly-tipping; deposit
return scheme to incentivise recycling of
plastic/glass
• ‘make those on community sentences
clean up their parks and streets’
• ‘We will make no changes to the Hunting
Act’
Animal Welfare:
• New regulations + tougher sentences for
animal cruelty
• Crack down on illegal smuggling of
dogs/puppies; implement/extend ivory ban;
ban on primates as pets
• Bring forward cat microchipping
Labour Manifesto on Climate Change
(Section 1 of the manifesto (first ever major party; 16 pages)

‘A Green Industrial Revolution’: ‘This election is our best hope to

protect future generations from an uninhabitable planet…
Labour will kick-start a Green Industrial Revolution that will
create one million jobs in the UK to transform our industry,
energy, transport, agriculture and our buildings, while restoring
nature… We will show the world how prioritising sustainability
will not only deliver immediate improvements to everyone’s lives
but also offer humanity a pathway to a more equitable and
enlightened economy: one that protects our environment, reins
in corporate power, revitalises democracy, unites our
communities, builds international solidarity and promises a
better quality of life for all.’
Labour’s Pledges on Climate Change
Economy & Energy
• £400 billion Green National Transformation
Fund + £250 billion in green lending for
enterprise/ infrastructure/innovation; 3% of
GDP to be allocated green R&D by 2030
• c. 90% electricity + 50% heat from
renewable/low-carbon sources by 2030 (new
wind turbines, solar panels; nuclear power for
energy security)
• New Sustainable Investment Board
(Chancellor, Sec. for Business Sec, Gov. Bank
of England); long-term costs of not acting on
climate/environment to be factored into fiscal
decision-making; delisting of problem
companies from London Stock Exchange
• Overall 1 mill new jobs to be created by
‘Green Industrial Revolution’
• ‘Democratic public ownership’ of energy/water
systems; provision to be reoriented from profit-
making to social/environmental priorities; surplus to
be reinvested/reduce consumer bills
• New UK National Energy Agency + 14 new Regional
Energy Agencies to own/maintain national grid
infrastructure and oversee decarbonisation strategy
• Upgrade almost all homes to highest energy-
efficiency standards by 2030, eliminating fuel
poverty; all new homes zero-carbon; roll out green
technologies (e.g. networks using waste heat);
permanent fracking ban
• Transitioning energy workers to be guaranteed
retraining + equiv. new job
• New Apprenticeship Levy encouraging employers to
train ‘climate apprentices’; additional bursaries for
disadvantaged groups
Labour’s Pledges (contd.)
Transport
• Public ownership of bus and rail networks to
allow fare reductions, coordination of
decarbonisatin: 3,000 bus-routes to be
reinstated; free bus travel for under-25s;
electrification, upgrading + national re-
integration of rail networks; promotion of rail
freight to cut carbon emissions; cycle routes
• End new sales of combustion engine vehicles
by 2030 (a decade before the Tories)
Environment & Animal Welfare
• New Climate and Environment Emergency
Bill: binding new standards for
decarbonisation, nature recovery,
environmental quality, species protection
• Clean Air Act, flood defences, national parks,
green belts + stronger protections for animal
rights (ban foxhunting, whaling, keeping
primates as pets etc)
• New Right to Food Act + net-zero-carbon food
production 2040 (support for sustainable
farming/fishing/food production)
Lib Dem Manifesto on Climate Change:
(Section 4 of manifesto, 10 pages)

‘Our Plan for a Green Society and a Green Economy’. ‘A

Liberal Democrat government will take urgent action to save
our planet. We are the last generation that can stop
irreversible climate change. We’ve already seen how floods
and wildfires are becoming an ever more regular occurrence in
our country. And, though we should be proud to be the first
country to declare a climate emergency, we cannot ignore the
fact that the government has done little else since then. In the
meantime, it’s been young people who have consistently put
the climate crisis back on the agenda with their inspirational
climate strikes’ (p 7)
 Lib Dems Pledges on Climate Change
Climate Action Now
• legally binding target to reduce net greenhouse
gas emissions to zero by 2045
• Targets consistent with Paris Agreement for all
• Implement G7 pledge to end fossil fuel subsidies
UK registered/listed companies + corporate duty
of care (environment/human rights)
• New Department for Climate Change and
Natural Resources + cabinet-level Chief Sec. for • Emergency programme to insulate all Britain’s
Sustainability to coordinate government-wide
action on climate change + accountability
• New national/local Citizens’ Climate Assemblies
to promote engagement; all local authorities to
produce/implement a Zero Carbon Strategy
• Government spending on climate/environmental
objectives to reach 5% of total by 2025; Green
Investment Bank + new funding for resource-
efficient infrastructure/ technologies
by 2025; ‘Just Transition’ funding for communities
negatively affected by transition
Energy/Warm Homes:
homes by 2030, inc. free retrofits for low-income
homes; programmes to be local council-led
• 80% electricity from renewables by 2030 (£12 bill
in funding over 5 years); permanent fracking ban
• All new homes/non-domestic buildings to be zero-
carbon by 2021/‘Passivhaus’ standard by 2025
 Lib Dems Pledges (contd.)
Green Industry, Jobs, Products:
• Expand market for green products/services
via public procurement targets; end UK
Export Finance support for fossil fuel-
related activities
• Zero-Waste and Resource Efficiency Act:
move towards circular economy (eg ban
on non-recyclable single-use plastics;
extend forthcoming EU ‘right to repair’
legislation to consumer goods)
Improving Transport:
• Convert rail network to ultra-low-emission
technology (electric/hydrogen) by 2035 + funding
for light rail/trams; all new cars electric by 2030.
• Open up rail franchise bidding process to public
sector companies, local authorities, not-for-profits
etc as well as private companies
Saving Nature and the Countryside + Animal
Welfare:
• New Nature Act + £18 bill over 5 years for water,
air, soil, biodiversity improvement
• Stronger penalties for animal cruelty; ban sale of
real fur, caged hens, etc.
 The election is on
Thursday 12 December.
This is your opportunity to
have your voice heard.
Voters queue to cast their ballot in South Africa’s first all-race elections, Soweto, Johannesburg, 27 Apr. 1994. Photo: Denis Farrell/AP