As a group of campaigners for the disabled met Harriet Harman, the Secretary of State for Social Security, a Labour- supporting record company executive attacked the government's Welfare to Work scheme for stifling budding musicians. Alan McGee, head of Creation records and a member of the Government's Creative Industries Task Force, said the programme was "incredibly naive" and was also unworkable for people hoping to be musicians.The new system would force ambitious young musicians to take jobs which would prevent them from pursuing their musical goals, he said."You cannot be promoting this `Cool Britannia' image that the Government's promoting - which is fair enough because it's never been better for 20 or 30 years - and then put the next generation of Noel Gallaghers and Primal Scream singer Bobby Gillespies into jobs doing plumbing," he said.The Government could not expect to gather in the accolades being handed out to Britain's revived entertainment industry while wiping out the chances of the next generation of stars. They will receive the equivalent of 90 days' pay (nearly 13 weeks) instead four weeks in many cases at the moment.John McMullen, employment law partner at solicitors Pinsent Curtis, a leading firm which specialises in advising employers, said companies would have to bear in mind the cost of trimming the workforce after the new regulations, tabled to ensure Britain complies with European Union law, came into force. Where there is no union, more stringent regulations are envisaged aimed at ensuring that employees' representatives are properly elected and independent.Mr McCartney proposes higher compensation for workers who have not been properly informed of employers' plans. This summer new legislation is expected to introduce "clear rules" making it more difficult for companies to avoid consulting their workers in cases of "downsizing", or where an undertaking is transferred from one employer to another. Proposals tabled by Ian McCartney, the trade and industry minister, will also remove the ability of employers to "adjust the number and timing" of redundancies to get round the law. Mr McCartney intends removing a threshold relieving employers of obligations where fewer than 20 job losses are planned within a 90-day period.The minister will attempt to ensure that unions are part of the consultation process where they are recognised.
Delivered in front of a purple backdrop, his reform document was titled The Fresh Future.Some sections of the party remained unimpressed, though. Aidan Rankin, secretary of the newly-formed Conservative Democratic Movement, said the party was still not listening enough to its members."Although the party is imitating the new Labour strategy, in reality it is more like old Labour There is still a `them and us' atmosphere. It looks in many ways as if one member, one vote for the leader is an excuse to press conformity on the rest of the party and to centralise power," he said.The trade minister, Barbara Roche, claimed the Tories were still less democratic.. MINISTERS yesterday proposed much tougher redundancy laws which lawyers believe will lead management to "think twice" before getting rid of employees. The Conservative Women's Network will aim to ensure that more women are elected to Parliament in future.There will also be a management board, with one-third of members elected by a national convention of members, and a new disciplinary panel to deal with cases of misconduct by MPs.In a move with strong echoes of new Labour, Mr Hague descended a staircase in London's Atrium restaurant to the strains of "Spirit of the Future" from "Millennium" by Richard Harvey.
They will also vote in a ballot on a single European currency though when this will happen has not been decided. New party leaders will be elected by a ballot of members, though old leaders will still only be unseated by a vote among MPs.The Young Conservatives, Conservative Students and Conservative Graduates will all be replaced by a single organisation, Conservative Future. He added that he would comply with the recommendations of the Neill Committee which is currently looking at the issue, but donations over pounds 5,000 would also be published.For the first time, party members will be given a chance to vote on policies for the next general election in a ballot. As one observer put it, Mr Hague emerged looking more like Michael Foot than Tony Blair. Constituency associations are strongly opposed to plans for a Conservative Women's Network, according to the results of an internal survey. Nor do they like the idea of a national membership database, or a new area framework with smaller groups of constituencies.Announcing the changes yesterday, Mr Hague said: "These reforms are not just mine; they belong to the hundreds of thousands of party members from all over the country who have taken part in meetings and ballots and debates on reform since last summer.In fact, it became clear that the party dropped plans to ensure that a quarter of interviewees in candidate selections were women after they were opposed by members. Only one-third of members supported them.Only 15 per cent of associations strongly agreed with a programme of encouragement for women candidates, and 15 per cent strongly supported the idea of a women's network, while more than one-third disagreed with it.The national membership database had more support, though only four in 10 strongly supported it.
