Adrian Williamson

Adrian Williamson

Adrian Williamson QC

Adrian Williamson QC has practised as a commercial barrister since 1985. He completed his PhD at Cambridge in 2014, supervised by Professor Martin Daunton. This is now published as Conservative Economic Policymaking and the Birth of Thatcherism, 1964-1979 (Palgrave Macmillan: 2015). He has also published on the Bullock Report on Industrial Democracy.

The Trade Union Bill 2015: history repeats itself?

29 January 2016

By Adrian Williamson QC, Keating Chambers

The Conservatives argue that their Trade Union Bill is a necessary response to current union abuses. In truth, the Bill is reminiscent of the debates leading to similar legislation passed by a Conservative government in 1927, the Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act (‘the 1927 Act’). The 1927 Act was, at the time, highly significant and contentious. It was so resented by the Unions, and the Labour movement more generally, that it was a running sore until its repeal by the post-war Labour government in 1946.

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