Kerr by name and Cur by nature. Police held regular meetings with Blacklister!

The following report which we list below was sent to us by the Blacklist Support Group and is a precis of the evidence given by Ian Kerr, the blacklister of the 'Consulting Association', who gave evidence this week to Scottish Affairs Select Committee:

"One revelation after another today as convicted blacklister Ian Kerr broke his silence today and gave nearly 4 hours worth of evidence to the Scottish Affairs Select Committee investigation into blacklisting.  Among the more jaw dropping evidence:

Kerr has been a full-time blacklister since 1969 - previously employed by the Economic League before he became the Chief Executive of the Consulting Association.

Cullum McAlpine - Director of several companies within the Sir Robert McAlpine group was the first Chairman of the Consulting Association after providing a £10,000 start-up loan following the demise of the Economic League.

Consulting Association meetings took place in the Sir Robert McAlpine London HQ.

Sir Robert McAlpine paid Ian Kerr's £5,000 fine, solicitors fees, and costs associated with closing the organisation including redundancy money for the 4 staff to the order of £25,0000 in order to keep McAlpine's name out of the scandal.

Kerr was paid £50k per year + car + bonus + BUPA + life insurance.

Kerr's wife worked as the organisation's book-keeper.

The main contact for each company was at Director level or similar.

Police held regular meetings with senior members of the blacklisting operation with information flowing both ways.

Union officials provided information about their own members that ended up on the blacklist files. Ian Davidson MP described this as "the union putting the kybosh on someones employment."

Kerr and other blacklist spies were sent undercover into union meetings.

Widespread blacklisting took place on the Olympics construction project by McAlpine, Skanska and Balfour Beatty.

Crossrail - "An awful lot of discussion took place at Consulting Association meetings about the Crossrail Project."

200 Environmental activists were blacklisted (these files were not seized by the ICO).

All documents and computer records have now been burnt or destroyed.
Other blacklisting operations were in existence including Caprim Limited which was set up by the former managing Director of the Economic League.

Kerr refused to answer the question as to whether he was part of the official vetting operation for Irish workers on MoD projects - after a long pause he asked if he could answer that question in private.

Safety Reps were blacklisted if they were too persistent and likely to delay a project.

the Consulting Association breaches at least 2 articles of the European Convention on Human Rights - Pamela Nash MP."

Full video coverage: http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=11939

Dave Smith - Blacklist Support Group said:

"Kerr himself is a pathetic figure. But a pathetic figure that got rich and lived the high life by running an illegal blacklist that put thousands of innocent decent hard working people on the dole for years. Kerr's actions took meals from our kids tables. He may feel no remorse but we are angry and we want justice.

It was the matter of fact way that he described the systematic abuse of power by big business that I found most shocking. As if we were just an inconvenience in the way of companies wanting to make big profits.

It has taken years of campaigning to get Ian Kerr to spill the beans in public. I have a message for the supposedly respectable Directors of multi-national construction firms, police officers and corrupt union officials who were all part of this conspiracy - get a good lawyer, cos we're coming after you next.

Blacklist Support Group represents blacklisted workers involved in the High Court claim against Sir Robert McAlpine for "tort of unlawful conspiracy". Guney Clark and Ryan are the representing solicitors with Sir Hugh Tomlinson QC the Lead Counsel."