A flaming liberty

The witch-hunting of Reform-supporting firefighters is intolerable

Paul Embery is one of the most interesting, insightful and original voices to have emerged in British journalism for some time — Douglas Murray

iStock.com / Chalabala

THE SPEED AT which the axis in British politics is shifting is startling.

I have spent over three decades as a foot soldier on the political left, much of it as an activist in the Fire Brigades Union (FBU).

While right-wing parties have always been able to attract the support of a layer of trade union members, it was the left, and usually the Labour party, which traditionally commanded their loyalty - especially those who, like me, worked in the public sector.

But I have recently begun to witness, via social media, a remarkable phenomenon. Growing numbers of my fellow FBU members and activists are openly stating that they will back Reform UK, a party of the populist right.

A former FBU official whom I served alongside for many years even stood as a Reform candidate in the May local elections. Another has become the chairman of his local Reform branch.

This anecdotal evidence chimes with a recent poll – conducted by JL Partners for the Times – which showed that support for Labour among public sector trade unionists has collapsed (down from 48% to 28% since the general election), while for Reform it has surged (up from 16% to 28% for the same period).

In that context, a recent internal communication circulated by senior managers within Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS), and which amounted to a direct attack on Reform, was as tone deaf as it was chilling.

An email dispatched to all staff by the joint heads of the service’s ‘race and faith network’ sought to provide ‘reassurance regarding some recent activity we’ve seen within the organisation’.

And what exactly was this ‘activity’? Well, some staff members had stood on a Reform ticket at the recent local elections. ‘We know this may cause concern within our network and wider,’ wrote the senior managers.

To which a legitimate response would, of course, be: ‘So what?’ After all, Reform is a lawful political party, and one that might very well form the next government. And, unlike the police, firefighters are perfectly entitled to stand for election to their local council. That’s democracy.

But the GMFRS overlords plainly had no truck with such sentiments. ‘The individuals involved have been spoken to, to make it clear that as members of GMFRS, our core values and professional behaviours must be displayed at all times.’

That term: ‘spoken to’. It’s pretty obvious what it means. It certainly would not have been an open and relaxed discussion. More like a dressing down. What in the British army they call an ‘interview without coffee’.

But there was more. The senior managers went on to reveal that the service was obtaining ‘formal legal guidance’. This, they advised, was to ensure that employees were ‘protected from all perspectives and that our inclusive culture remains safe’.

Really? Running off to the lawyers at public expense because some employees exercised their right to represent Reform in a council ballot? Did these managers truly believe that firefighters – who, as I know from personal experience, are among the bravest and most resilient of folk – needed to be protected from political opinions they didn’t like?

Of course, most firefighters would laugh out loud at the suggestion that their wellbeing at work was threatened by colleagues who stood as Reform candidates. Such ideas invariably surface not as a result of demands arising from the shop floor, but because they have been dreamed up by woke-obsessed institutional leaders.

‘Our priority is and always will be ensuring that every member of this network feels supported, respected and safe at work,’ the authors of the email signed off, before imploring staff to ‘reach out’ if the felt ‘impacted’ by these events.

They also advised that they would be consulting the FBU over the matter.

Well, as a former senior official of the FBU, I would suggest the union tell these managers where to get off. Their internal communication is utterly Orwellian. I have never voted Reform and have no intention of doing so. But, like it or not, the party is now very much a part of the political landscape of Britain, with representation in our national parliaments and on local councils throughout the country.

If managers within Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service do not support the party, that’s their affair. But they have no business using the communication channels of their organisation – which, let us remind ourselves, is a public body – to impart their own political prejudices on their workforce.

The implication, of course, is that Reform is somehow an illegitimate outfit whose representatives and activists do not merit a place in civilised society. In the minds of worthy progressives, the party is ‘toxic’ and ‘hateful’, even ‘neofascist’.

In reality, it is a party of Thatcherite economic libertarians and cultural traditionalists – the type of people who hold views that, until about five minutes ago, were considered by everyone, even those who opposed them, to be a valid part of mainstream political debate.

But so debased is our political discourse these days, and so captured the upper echelons of our national life by radical progressive ideology, that such views are now seen by those who run our public and corporate institutions as being akin to the sort of ideology once espoused by Mosley’s Blackshirts - and those who hold them as morally contaminated.

And this distorted worldview convinces these leaders that such standpoints are inherently harmful and must be suppressed. As my old pal Maurice Glasman, the founder of Blue Labour, observed, ‘There are none so intolerant as those who preach tolerance.’

The chiefs at Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service have done a grand job of illustrating precisely why faith in our public institutions has plunged. It’s because too often they are repositories for suffocating groupthink and rigid ideological orthodoxy.

If firefighters wish to stand for Reform in an election, they should be perfectly free to do so. We don’t have to vote for them, and we are entitled to oppose and challenge their ideas. But their bosses’ attempts to use their institutional powers to demonise and marginalise them constitutes an appalling abuse of authority. Those bosses deserve to have their feet held well and truly to the flames over it.

---

A reminder that you can follow me on ‘X’: @PaulEmbery

---

An edited version of the above piece first appeared on the GB News website.