George Tapp: 'Man questioned under caution'

A spokesman for the Greater Manchester Police told Northern Voices last night, that a man had been questioned under caution about the incident outside a building site near the Manchester City Etihad Stadium on Wednesday the 15th, May, involving a vehicle in which the veteran trade unionist, George Tapp,  received injuries from which he is still recovering.  The police said that their investigation into the case, which followed a demonstration by dozens of workers from the Unite union against blacklisting in the British building trade, was still 'on going'. 

The demo, part of a nationwide action called by the Blacklist Support Group and others in the campaign against the British blacklist, took place outside a building site operated by construction firm BAM which is alleged to have been affiliated to the Consulting Association (a body closed by the Information Commissioner's Office) in the now notorious blacklisting scandal that afflicts the UK construction industry.  According to the Manchester Evening News, last Friday, it was claimed by police that 'CCTV shows campaigners climbed on the bonnet of a car'.  But some of the campaigners present have disputed the police version of events.

A report in the Morning Star claims:
'The driver of a car which rammed anti-blacklist demonstrators in Manchester was laughing as he accelerated through them.  George Tapp, a 64-year-old electrician whose legs were broken as the car struck him, told from his hospital bed of how he clung to the car's windscreen wipers as he was carried for over 100 yards on the vehicle's bonnet - and that the driver, still laughing, switched the wipers on to dislodge him.'

George Tapp was then thrown off the bonnet, injuring his head on the kerb.  Mr. Tapp is a former Labour councillor from Salford who now has both his legs are plastered to the hip, and he is awaiting reconstructive surgery on his knees.  It is believed that no charges have yet been brought against the driver, but police are still taking witness statements.