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Parliament Staff Are No Longer Powerless Against Bullying By Our Most Powerful
The damage done by past abuse may never be fully repaired, but Parliament has just took a big step to end its rotten working culture, BBC Newsnight’s Lucinda Day writes.

When House of Commons staff first presented serious allegations of bullying and sexual harassment to Newsnight back in late 2017, they had little faith that the culture in their workplace – and the behaviour of a minority of problematic MPs – would ever change.
They recalled horror stories of sexual harassment and bullying endured by themselves and their colleagues by Members of Parliament. They consistently highlighted how, without a truly independent complaints procedure, they were the ones doomed to suffer further – both emotionally and professionally – if they raised their concerns around their experiences. Tuesday night marked a historic turning point in the quest of those staff to restore trust in the institution they loved working for, changing the culture of the House for generations to come. Two years on from our initial investigation, MPs finally voted to implement a truly independent process for handling allegations of bullying and sexual harassment. This new system, whereby an independent panel of experts will investigate complaints and determine sanctions, finally prevents MPs from exploiting their power and their parliamentary privilege to influence HR outcomes. It drags Parliament, as a workplace, into the 21st century.
It’s been an emotionally exhausting, sometimes traumatic, and often demoralising journey for the apolitical staff who bravely came forward to achieve this outcome, and their efforts must now be commended – not questioned – by the MPs who pushed back against them for so long.
The culture of “deference, subservience, acquiescence and silence”, outlined by former High Court judge Dame Laura Cox in the wake of our reporting, will not change overnight. A mere five votes determined the outcome of Tuesday’s vote, signalling how both MPs and House management must continue to learn from the lessons of the past.Despite Dame Laura’s very clear assertions that a fully independent complaints procedure, free from the influence of MPs, was wholly necessary to protect the interests of staff, the past two years have seen many MPs either choosing to remain silent or throwing their energy into casting public doubt over the validity of certain allegations, rather than sorting out the rotten working culture to which a significant number of them contributed.
In the very worst cases, we found that the inadequate response to the staff who raised issues led to emotional breakdowns and departures from Parliament.
While some MPs were rightly outraged by our extensive reports of harassment and bullying that had, in some cases, ended the careers of talented staff, many made it clear that they were outraged on the contrary – that Members should face a “trial by media” for their alleged inappropriate behaviour. What those adopting this argument failed to grasp, however, was the extent to which the people who worked so diligently for them had lost all faith that their concerns would ever be taken seriously – and dealt with effectively – through internal processes. They came to Newsnight not for any limelight, but as a last resort.
While lacklustre HR processes lie at the heart of this story, so too do people. In the very worst cases, we found that the inadequate response to the staff who raised issues led to emotional breakdowns and departures from Parliament. The “best case” scenarios saw people moved from jobs they loved after complaints were made, as though they were the problem as opposed to the perpetrators. This not only undermined the morale of victims and staff, but the integrity of the institution and public trust in our parliamentarians more widely.
During Tuesday’s vote, many feared their best efforts to ignite change would be fruitless, due to the inclusion of a government clause whereby MPs could debate cases of bullying and harassment in the House after the independent expert panel had investigated allegations and recommended sanctions. This, yet again, risked undermining the implementation of the independent process that Dame Laura cited as essential.
An amendment put forward by Labour’s Chris Bryant enabled MPs to vote in favour of a truly independent process that rejected the spectacle of MPs debating on cases. At last, Members of Parliament rightly judged that this would have humiliating consequences, and act as a deterrent for complainants, if it were adopted.
While the collateral damage caused to staff – past and present – along this laborious journey may never be fully repaired, MPs have now reclaimed their integrity by voting in favour of an independent complaints and grievances policy that is free from political interference, for all parliamentary staff.
More importantly, those who have spoken out, time and again, both internally and externally, both publicly and from behind the scenes, can finally feel satisfied that future generations of parliamentary staff will not be powerless to prevent abuse by the powerful.
That is something worth celebrating.
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IT didn’t take long for the first fatal stabbing to happen in the capital in the new year.
Sadly it appears that knife crime is still plaguing London as we move into 2020.

How many stabbings have there been in London this year?
January 3 – The first fatal stabbing of this year happened on January 3 after Uber Eats worker Takieddine “Taki”Boudhane was knifed to death near Finsbury Park, North London
January 3 – Police launched another murder probe after the remains of William Algar, 53, were found in Barnes. A post-mortem revealed the cause of death as a stab wound to the chest
January 13 – A Bulgarian man, Krasimir Kartikov, 60, was named as a victim found dead in Croydon. A post-mortem examination revealed he died of multiple injuries
January 19 – Three men, Harinder Kumar 22, Narinder Singh, 26, and Baljit Singh, 34, who were all members of the local Sikh community, were stabbed to death in Seven Kings, Ilford
January 24 – The victim, believed to be a Polish national in his 60s, was found with stab injuries at an address on Mount Pleasant Lane, Clapton
January 27 – Louis Johnson, 16, was stabbed in front of shocked commuters during evening rush hour at East Croydon station in south east London
February 2 – Sudesh Amman, 20, was shot dead by police after stabbing two people in Streatham, South London
February 5 – A 19-year-old boy was stabbed in a knife fight on Kingsley Road in Hounslow, West London. Met Police confirmed a man, in his early 20s, and a 15-year-old boy, were arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm with intent
February 5 – The 16-year-old victim was rushed to hospital after being stabbed in broad daylight in upmarket Highgate
February 5 – A horrified dogwalker discovered 15-year-old Babacar ‘Babz’ Diagne stabbed to death on grassland in Coventry

London’s knife explosion has fuelled the capital’s highest murder rate in more than a decade with 149 people killed in the capital in 2019 – 90 in stabbing attacks.
Westminster was the worst blackspot with 212 arrests. The borough is also the worst in the country for knife attacks.
Ten people on average are caught with blades EVERY DAY on the streets of London.
Why is there so much violence in the capital?
One of the reasons why violence in the capital has spread is because of the brutal “county lines trade” where urban dealers force children and other vulnerable people to take drugs to customers in more rural areas.
The National Crime Agency estimate there are more than 1,000 “county lines” in operation – a 40 per cent rise in just one year – raking in an estimated £1.8billion annual profit.
Each county lines route is making as much as £5,000 a day – £7million between them all.
The county lines gangs regularly entice boys, largely from broken homes, into a life of crime with promises of money, kudos and a sense of belonging often lacking in their troubled home lives.
In London itself, gang warfare is increasingly being driven by a ruthless battle to control the drugs market in a move away from “postcode wars”.
Middle class cocaine users have come under fire for helping to fuel this increasingly violent battle in Lawless London.
Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said the growing demand from well-off users for the Class A drug was leading to a surge in violent gang crime.
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