9 Oct 2013 – BIS idiocy continues
9 October 2013
Hello Robert
I see the idiocy continues.
Please speak on my behalf when you attend [any meeting].
Incidentally, you’ve distracted me into doing some “meandering” on the internet…
At www.local.gov.uk I searched for “pedlar” and got this page returned… #
What caught my attention was the second item returned… #
It is from November 2012 and contains these rather interesting paragraphs….
Responding to Government plans to scrap the Pedlars Act and remove council powers to refuse applications from street traders based on the number of existing shops and traders in a particular area, Cllr Mehboob Khan, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Safer and Stronger Communities Board, said:
“Councils are working hard to boost growth and support local businesses and will always consider applications from street traders based on their merits. Removing the ability of residents, businesses and local authorities to have a say on where street traders can set up would be both unnecessary and counterproductive.
“This could potentially turn the nation’s high streets into a free-for-all for street traders, while scrapping the Pedlars Act risks jeopardising the progress councils have made in tackling the rising tide of bogus cold callers who prey on the elderly and vulnerable.
“The work local authorities do to regulate street trading is not just about protecting customers, but ensuring other businesses can prosper too. Far from boosting growth and free enterprise, allowing a street trade free-for-all is likely to drive customers away from the high street and create an unlevel playing where legitimately run shops and market stalls find themselves struggling to compete.
“Scrapping the Pedlars Act is likely to lead to an increase in door-to-door cold calling and could potentially put the public at greater risk of falling victim to rogue traders and rip-off merchants.”
If this LGA press release is to be taken at face value then the threat of repealing the act is entirely down to BIS not listening to pedars AND not listening to the LGA – and when a government department isn’t listening to “us or them” then there’s something fishy going on!
It is then interesting to see the first (and most recent) of the search results, dated 31 Jan 2013, following the BIS about-turn, where the LGA reiterates their concern about the “relaxation” of (street traders and) pedlars.
Maybe you’ve seen it before. Maybe you haven’t.
Oh, and finally, I’ve just checked the website for Avon and Somerset Police and their bizarre list of no-go sellables hasn’t been changed since the start of the year’s posting on the forum. I “spouted” via their feedback page to point out that it’s other legislation that restricts the sale of their “prohibited” list and that they should sort out their confusional wording. Which in turn prompted me to join the forum and post my first comment as CulletGrozer (stained-glass speak for someone who nibbles away at scrap glass with grozing pliers!)
Frank
pedlars.info reply:
Frank
Thanks for responding and for your endorsement… we’ll keep you posted.
For us it’s more sinister than “idiocy”…
My colleague Nic has endeavoured to communicate with Cllr Khan during January… to no avail… no surprise!
I personally had positive discussions with LGA’s Ian Leete prior to LGA’s policy reply to the consultation… agreeing that LGA had got the wrong idea about pedlars and pedlars.info and that the LGA agreed with pedlars that the proposed BIS policy to repeal the Pedlars Act would be unhelpful.
We asked BIS to publish all replies to the consultation asap to enable all stakeholders to coordinate their own reports on the replies but of course in a non-transparent process BIS reserve privilege to do their own slam-dunk to silence those opposed to what it intends to bring forward under Statutory Instrument and end further public debate.
For some years we have naively thought that a department whose SoS & minister have liberal democracy credentials could not, in principle, allow the Social Contract of the Pedlars Act that provides economic access by the public to the public, to be bulldozed by formulating policy to ignore all consequences and further public debate in parliament… the proposed legislative vehicle, a Statutory Instrument, was used in 2009 to harm some pedlars and now, to cover-up that erroneous decision, BIS intends to replicate the harm on all pedlars by subjecting them to local authority hired enforcement hell-bent on driving pedlars out of their fiefdom protectorates.
The spin that BIS national policy formulation will assist pedlars is a vulgar lie… and they know it… but refuse to discuss the lie or reconsider BIS original policy to amend the Pedlars Act as drafted into pedlar’s proposed Third Option.
This authoritarian form of governance conflicts in principle with parliamentary liberalism… there it is… exposed… the people’s public servants allowing the dictate of fascist ideology.
Please let others know and forward this communication to respective MP’s with a covering note inviting them to engage with this legislative social crisis by reading any of the 15 links in pedlars alert 34.
Robert