Stephen Holden

@WB_UK This was a primary focus on my thesis, and ultimately, the answer is the OSA and PIDA are fundamentally incompatible. From a purely legal perspective, it's impossible to have a whistleblower who breaches the OSA. This is a significant vulnerability.

How many #Whistleblowers understand the official secrets act and feel confident to report concerns?

@NC_Renic How else am I expected to keep myself entertained without them all looking pained as I say 'I saw a thing on the tick ticks...'

Lecturers: “I’ve got some great comedic references in store for you this semester, I assume you’re all familiar with The Simpsons between 1992 and 1998?” The students:

If my support for my students, as has happened with others in my profession, gets me put onto a dossier of 'far left extremists', then while utterly bizarre, so be it. It won't stop me representing and doing my best for their welfare and progress. I support them.

To be explicit - I endorse scholarship for black and other BAME students, and I support trans and other LGBTQ+ students. We, as academics, should not be cowed from supporting our students. This isn't political. I support my students and their welfare. They are important.

@kevinhollinrake @Daily_Express This will be massively overlooked, and the review of whistleblowing law does not have a public consultation, but subpostmasters with knowledge of institutional corruption could not have been a whistleblower reflective of self-employment. Huge gap in PIDA protections.

There are three parts to justice for postmasters; ✅redress ✅truth & accountability ✅that lessons are learnt to prevent anything like this from ever happening again We are delivering all three. Read my piece in today's @Daily_Express express.co.uk/news/politics/…

I have written an article addressing the incredibly concerning misapplication of the law in the FCA approach to whistleblowers. @TheFCA have a crucial role in fostering cultures of transparency and protecting disclosing parties. This is troubling. corporatecrime.co.uk/post/fca-overs…

Are we doing academic audiobooks of a thesis yet? Can I get @AmeliaTyler to do mine when it's finished?

"Every crime should be investigated by the police" Okay Rishi, start here - news.sky.com/story/21bn-of-…

@TheFCA But it raises a significant further question - Do regulators want whistleblowers? Do regulators see whistleblowers as a threat to their function, and something that represents a regulatory failure, as opposed contributing to a pluralist policing environment?

@TheFCA Even a cursory or passing knowledge of PIDA makes it very clear the disclosure does not even have to be correct to be protected, simply a reasonable belief in the accuracy and truth. This isn't a mistake, it is wilful negligence from a regulator and prescribed body.

Very concerning from the @TheFCA and their repeated failure to protect a whistleblower. Stating that a whistleblower waives protection if they are not anonymous is not simply a misunderstanding of the legislation, it is to make it up on the fly. cityam.com/fca-dismissed-…

@CllrBenBrown @MarcEva54772607 Of interest, this got me blocked. Others may disagree, but I don't think I was abusive, simply disagreed with a statement made and explained why. In one tweet he talks about democratic mandate, and in the next, refuses democratic accountability and shuts down dissenting views.

@CllrBenBrown @MarcEva54772607 You won by 22 votes on a turn out of 29.82%. 170 more people voted for other candidates than voted for you. You won 22 more votes than the nearest other candidate, but in no capacity where you elected with a majority.

Then we need proper and meaningful systems that recognise their actions, encourage future disclosures, fosters environments of transparency, and implements protections from retaliation. Because the alternative is an environment of secrecy that encourages wrongdoing.

I'm so incredibly sick of seeing story after story like this. Of whistleblowers doing the right thing, in the public interest, uncovering wrongdoing and harm, and suffering as a consequence. We need to ask ourselves as a society, do we want people like Dr Duffy, and if so...

@Jess_Gagnon @damien_page This. All of this.

The moral panic when students happen to achieve firsts at university after struggling in A levels is just overt classism. As a lecturer, if students do not have the chance to grow & thrive in my classroom, to aim higher & achieve greater, then I have failed them.

I hardly went to school for year 10 and 11, scraped through my GCSEs. I took two stabs at my A-levels. But apparently, me being about to submit my phd thesis, and holding an LLM at distinction and an LLB is somehow inexplicable? This is naked class warfare.

@sima_kotecha This is exactly why we need whistleblowing reform. We need systems of recognition and the protection that go far beyond the existing law, which is clearly failing. Happy to discuss

We’ve really struggled to get Tory MP to come on #Newsnight to talk about allegations of sexual misconduct around HoC. Offer still open. One female tory MP messaged to say:

@ellievarley13 has been incredibly brave breaking ranks to pierce an environment of secrecy, drawing attention to the wrongs of the powerful, and deserves our recognition. But, it should not be this difficult or dangerous to expect better of those at the heart of power.

discriminatory, or any other manner of wrongdoing within Parliament, and if a worker alerts to this they can be bullied, attacked, harassed, belittled, fired, passed over for promotion etc without recourse. And we wonder why more people don't speak out.

This is exactly why we need root and branch reform of the law around whistleblowing, and to expand the definitions. At the very heart of Parliament, our elected officials feel empowered to go around grabbing and harassing people who work in the HoC.