Thunder Bolt
Silly old bat
I agree. The Tories take very small steps to achieve their aims, so the public excuse the little steps not looking back to see how far down the rabbit hole we've come in any direction. Boiling frog syndrome.I understand his employment status, but it's a moot point really. If the organistion wants a silence/neutrality clause, they would just put it into the contract of the self employed person, rather than into the T&C's of the employee. My main concern is that these clauses, under the cover of 'balance' are really just being used to try to cow any disagreement by a management that has been appointed by, and is primarily serving the interests of, the present government.
Watching Paul Whitehouse's recent documentary about river health, I was reminded that, before the privatisations of utilities happened there was a sustained period of government underfunding and political criticism of the public sector bodies that were running water, phones, rail, gas etc. Talk it down for a few years, underfund it to make sure that there are some grounds for your complaints, then suggest that private companies could do it so much better. It happened to all of them. It then happened to schools before the push for academisation. It's now happening to both the BBC and the NHS. It's obvious what the long term desire is.
Another problem is that much of the public only read the headlines, and not the detail.