Two years on, IR35 protest brings Government to High Court
On March 13 1999, the first rumblings of discontent about an obscure Budget proposal, IR35, appeared on the net.
Exactly two years later – to the day – those initial flurries of emails and websites, had grown into the combined voice of 12,000 contractors whose collective determination had brought the Government before High Court to defend its legislation against a charge of illegality under European Court.
The precise details of how the PCG grew from a few motivated people into the country’s fastest growing representative body is a story which, one day, will no doubt be told. But the ability of the PCG to grow into the organisation capable of launching and pursuing this action is due to two factors: 1) the ‘can do’ attitude of the people who joined and owned this organisation and 2) the ability of members to harness the internet to build relationships, exchange information and “make things happen”
A real life example of this team work is the PCG Media Operations Department set up for the duration of the Judicial Review. An advance guard of members identified a room above a pub (The Cheshire Cheese) which was close to the High Court as well as the Chambers of the PCG QC, Gerald Barling. They moved in on the first morning and set up computer networks and communication links. An operational note was sent out to the press and the War Room, as it was termed, exploded into action as the first journalists arrived.
It buzzes with the sound of journalists’ urgent demands for information; the constant cacophony of mobile phones with tunes ranging from Thunderbirds to the 1812 Overture; the impossibly fast tapping of laptop keyboards and the infinitely more relaxed banter of contractors stealing an hour or two from work for a live update and a get-together. For PCG members it is a rare opportunity to meet in the flesh other members they have been speaking with at great length on the PCG site’s numerous forums.
Dermot, the Irish landlord of the Cheshire Cheese pub in which the PCG have set up shop is a very happy man. He remembers our names after talking to us only once and he runs coffee and bacon butties up and down the stairs tirelessly, feeding the troop and offering words of encouragement. (If pub landlords and London cabbies were sitting in judgement in Courtroom No 28, then the Revenue case would have been already blown out of the water)
The last couple of days’ newspapers lie around on tables, moved to the sides of the room to provide maximum space for movement as people shuffle tightly past each other holding their coffee cups and pint glasses aloft. External media coverage is closely monitored by the team who skim through the nationals, listen to the radio and scan media websites for anything carrying the magic words ‘IR35’ and ‘judicial review’.
Since yesterday morning, newspaper coverage has been significant with stories appearing in the press and every one of the online contractor-related news sites. Journalists coming through to the War Room looking for quotes, are briefed by real life contractors who make a refreshing change from the Government spin machine and looking at the coverage in the Times, Financial Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail and The Guardian, the PCG’s team is comprehensively “outspinning” the Government press machine.
Three minutes walk from the War Room is the High Courts of Justice. Open to all, the public can enter, walk through the large lobby resembling a cathedral hall, through the coffee shop, turn right and enter courtroom No. 28. The court is a surprisingly small affair. Cardboard boxes filled with reference ‘bundles’ obscure the court’s ability to see Judge; Mr Justice Burton from all but the most directly opposite seating position. The sides of the (generally packed out) court room are flanked floor to ceiling with legal records. On one side, facing the Judge sit the Revenue’s legal team whilst next to them sit the PCG team. PCG members, journalists and other interested parties sit by the side watching the case unfold.
At lunch time and when the session closes, the PCG’s legal team all disappear for a debriefing across the road at Brick Court chambers. Journalists ring in to check on progress and contractors come in to catch up with what is going on as well as to buy the team a beer (Large hint!) In the bar downstairs they replicate the flurry of posts to the PCG forum which take each scrap of information and extrapolate worst case/best case analysis. Colette Mason sits online, melting mobile phone lines as she captures information from the 12,000 strong PCG Judicial Review team
PCG IT director Ian Durrant said; “A few hours as an observer in the War Room is an illustration of why PCG has achieved so much in so little time. We have a team of 12,000 committed people who are working together to save their businesses. The country cannot afford to lose people of this calibre.”
When PCG started two years ago, it adopted a slogan of 'Join the PCG, Make a Difference'. Whatever will happen in the next weeks or months, that idea has now become a reality.
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Richard Powell, UKTECH