THE POPULAR FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF CPSA
FIGHTING ON IN OUR 45th YEAR BUT A BIT RETIRED NOW
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ONE CIVIL SERVICE UNION,
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REVOLUTION UNTIL VICTORY!
JOBCENTRE PLUS ET - DAYS 2 & 3
by Barrabas 25/02/03
Day 2 of the Tie Trial saw the DWP brief kick off proceedings with their closing submissions. Not wishing to go into the legal arguments that nobody understands, the DWP brief could only be described as putting in a lacklustre performance, not really coming up with much to attack Thompsons case, nor producing any case law out of the hat to gain victory.
Next up Ms Monaghan for PCS commenced to earn her money by enlightening the crowd with her story of sex discrimination from the 1975 Act to present time. She proceeded to chuck in every piece of case law about sex discrimination known and even took the opportunity to add a piece on Lord Denning from a decision he made in 1979. Whilst she didn’t endeavour to win on the specific’s of Thompsons individual case, her application of the law left the DWP brief looking as he if had just got just his GCSE in law at grade C. In fact she went into that much depth the local hacks on the back row got their newspapers out.
There was a short interlude however when just as she reached the crux of her submissions, someone's phone went off. Was this some dirty DWP trick to unsettle the PCS brief and stop her mid flow you ask? Regrettably not as all eyes turned to Dave Burke whose phone commenced to give the gallery two verses of ‘what shall we do with the drunken sailor’, much to the crowds' amusement.
Meanwhile Terry Moron DWP NW regional director, had the distinction of being criticised by the PCS brief, the DWP brief and even the Chairman, ‘not very helpful evidence’ his own brief said politely. ‘Our Terry’ was that confident of success that he had two speeches lined up for the local hacks. The ‘we won aren’t we great’ speech versus the ‘we lost its not fair’ speech. Terry gave the ‘no comment’ speech instead.
Caught off guard by the amount of case law dropped in his lap, the Chairman directed that the hearing be adjourned to allow the Tribunal to read all the case law provided. Which translated means they are taking a day to make their minds up and write the decision out properly, the chairman knowing full well that with this much media interest he had better get his finger out and make his decision look convincing.
To round up, result expected tomorrow afternoon, its looking good for Thompson, but DWP may be able to sneak a victory if they are very lucky.
DAY 3
Decision deferred. Much reading up to be done. Watch this site for further reports.