NUS Scotland motion mandates officers to break the law

An emergency motion was passed yesterday at the National Union of Students Scotland Conference that mandates Full Time Officers to publicly break the Lobbying Bill (referred to as the “gagging bill” by critics.)

“Break the Gagging Bill” was passed on Sunday afternoon, controversially telling students and the NUS to “break  the law and act as if it wasn’t there.”

Delegates and Officers took to Twitter and Facebook, highlighting the motion that would “beat the gagging law by breaking the gagging law.”

Rob Henthorn, the President for Education and Employability at Aberdeen University and now also the Education Convenor on the NUS Scottish Executive Committee, resolved “to mandate NUS Scotland and the NUS Scotland Full Time Officer team to intentionally break the gagging law and publicise widely their doing so.”

The motion (in full below) states that “the Gagging Law represents a chilling curtailment of freedom of speech” and that it is “a direct attack on NUS’ and Student Unions’ ability to campaign and organise.”

It goes on to read that “the student movement has a proud tradition of using civil disobedience to stand up for progressive ideals in society.”

Such “civil disobedience” could land Full Time NUS Officers in prison if and when they choose to intentionally break – and publicise their breaking of – this law.

Many are celebrating the motion as a triumph, with one Twitter user, Fergus Boden, tweeting, “LOVE that there’s a motion on the gagging bill- biggest attack on our democracy in decades #nusscot14“.

However, there are also concerns being raised that breaking the law is not the best way to engage with the student bodies they will need support from, with one student saying:

“Do you think having a narrow left wing pressure group representing every student is actually going to represent every student? Or just the NUS types?”

What exactly is the “gagging bill”?

The “gagging bill” was passed on Tuesday 28th January 2014 and referred to by Graham Allen, the MP in charge of scrutinising the bill, as “a dog’s breakfast.”

Critics of the bill interpret it as the government disallowing those who are most able to affect policy from doing so.

What this law does, simply put, is to prevent charities and campaign groups from voicing concerns and advocating whatever they support at times when the decision making process is most accessible.

This law only applies to the year leading up to an election, however, because of the frequency of elections, the bill could be imposed nigh-on permanently.

According to Paul Staines, Editor of Guido Fawkes (a prominent right wing blog), “it’s not quite Putin’s Russia but it’s heading in that direction.”

Lord Harries, who chairs the Commission on Civil Society and Democratic Engagement representing more than 100 groups, warned it would be a “bureaucratic nightmare” and accused ministers of imposing a “huge regulatory burden on campaigning groups”.

Charities and campaign groups will be limited to £9750 spending in any constituency, in any year leading up to an election, which equates to roughly £800 a month. Meanwhile, MPs can spend whatever they want, until the formal campaigning period, and then they have limits too.

Essentially, in their ‘political spending’, if groups are helping the homeless they can spend as much as they want – but they can’t spend more than £800 to ask the government to do something.

The Current Government Agenda is to aim this at big left-wing campaigns and trade unions, thus preventing them from negatively impacting their candidates.

The belief amongst the NUS is that there will be pressure at the UK conference to pass a similar motion.

“Break the Gagging Bill” motion:

Believes:

1. The Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill was brought in as the UK government’s answer to the issue of commercial lobbying.
2. This bill has been rebranded by a wide civil society campaign as the ‘Gagging Law’.
3. The Gagging Law places limits on the resources non-political party campaigning organisations can spent, including staff time, in the period leading up to an election.
4. The Gagging Law has been criticised by everyone from the Royal British Legion to Oxfam for silencing campaigning activity
5. Many of the motions submitted to this conference, were they to pass, would be impossible for NUS Scotland to carry out due to the implementation of this bill.

Further Believes:

1. The Gagging Law represents a chilling curtailment of freedom of speech.
2. This law is a direct attack on NUS’ and Student Unions’ ability to campaign and organise.
3. It is no surprise that this law has been brought in by a government which has consistently broken its promises and attacked society’s most vulnerable.
4. The student movement has a proud tradition of using civil disobedience to stand up for progressive ideals in society.
5. Our movement changes lives – we can’t let the important work we do be impeded by this undemocratic attack on our rights.
6. The only way to beat the gagging law is to break it.

Resolves:

1. To publicly oppose the Gagging Law and denounce it as undemocratic.
2. To call for the repeal of the Gagging Law.
3. To mandate NUS Scotland and the NUS Scotland Full Time Officer Team to intentionally break the gagging law and publicise widely their doing so.