Tory Ministers Caught Spinning EU Safety Law Lies Headlines

Yet again the Tory-led Con-Dem(ned) government has been using health and safety protection for workers as a shield to hide behind during a period of bad news headlines for the government.

Such is their complete contempt for the safety of people at work, they have been busy feeding the newspaper media with ridiculous and lieing headlines justifying the government's deregulatory plans.

The series of headlines ridiculing workplace safety rules were part of a strategy cooked up by Tory high command to try spin the government out of trouble, a The Independent newspaper has claimed.

Among the stories highlighted by the paper was one previously reported by Unionsafety, that of employment minister Chris Grayling, who on 10th April spewed out his disapproval in the Daily Mail about what he called the 'EU nanny state' latest health and safety directive that would enforce regular breaks for hairdressers and ban them from wearing high-heeled shoes at work.

The minister had intended to use a related jibe in a speech last week to the Policy Exchange, but pulled the reference at the last minute after the TUC pointed out there were no plans for either a Euro hairdressing directive or a ban on high heels.

Another headline linked by The Independent to a Conservative strategy to court true blue supporters with populist right wing policies, was the Daily Mail's 11 April headline 'Panel set up to bust health and safety myths'.

A Whitehall source quoted by The Independent said: “Downing Street has been desperate to move the news agenda on from the Budget and has been scouring Whitehall for things to announce. They want to show we're on the front foot and are looking for issues that are consumer friendly. The trouble is finding them.”

The question of course that this raises as what other ‘collusion and media manipulation’ has gone and has this extended to TV news? Given the almost complete lack of health and safety news coverage, unless to distort and promote the government’s line; many trade unionistst and safety reps will be forgiven for believing that media collusion and manipulation by the government is total across all genres of media news outlets in the UK.

Source: TUC Risks

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