Like many people in the employment law world I get frustrated when I read about my subject in the mainstream media. Nearly everything I read is simply wrong! Partly the problem is that the subject is quite technical and the journalists writing about it don’t have the time, the expertise, or the inclination to get it right. Partly, however, the problem is that employment law is a political football. It stands at the centre of the bosses v workers, capital v labour, rich v poor divide and is frequently pressed into service by those who have a political agenda on one side or the other.

Employment law is easily hijacked by a ‘political correctness gone mad’ agenda. It is heavily influenced by European regulation and so we also have to contend with the whole Eurosceptic thing. Increasingly, employment law and human rights law are developing a relationship  – and that opens up a whole other can of worms.

As a result of all of this, employment law reporting tends to have little to do with what employment law actually says or means and the debate is often strident and overblown.

In this blog, my plan is to explain and comment on the employment law issues being raised in the news. This may help some people understand what is really going on, but chiefly it should give  me something more constructive to do than sit at my computer shouting at the Mail Online or the Daily Telegraph website.

It would be great if other people could join in the discussion – but please, keep your comments within the band of reasonable responses (geddit?).