#DontSubmitToStonewall - suggested quick action by Legal Feminist

[stumbledin]

(From twitter post)

A follow up on the Stonewall long read: this one is a very short call for a simple (2-3 minute) action.

Please share widely. #DontSubmitToStonewall twitter.com/hashtag/DontSubmitToStonewall?src=hashtag_click

Please share and submit a request or two. Whatdotheyknow.com makes it very straightforward. If you don't dare ask your own public authority employer, maybe swap with a friend.

legalfeminist.org.uk/2021/02/04/shining-a-light-on-stonewalls-activities/?_thumbnail_id=451

Some gems here I look forward to reading later.

This shocked me based on the cost alone, and at a time when all available money should have been thrown into funding the Covid response surely?

"Total cost for the whole exercise
and card, the cost of the badges and the including all postage costs was
total cost of postage to all employees £12,661.20 inclusive of VAT"

Was this a staff morale boost tied in with Stonewall membership? £13k might not seem like much but I wondered how many respirators it would buy...admittedly it would break down to much in the way of a pay rise which I imagine would have been more welcome by NHS staff. Can they not say thank you by email?

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/costoffproudrainbowssbadges_do?nocache=incoming-1793899

@CardinalLolzy

I missed this thread when it was started but have just read this one posted upthread and

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/information_about_your_dealings_495#outgoing-1117785

The final response from J. Whitby-Fretwell is superb

Excellent response.

But this NHS trust is wrong about what is a valid name. This is from the ICO's own guidance:

A requester named Robert Jones could call themselves ‘Rob Jones’, ‘Bobby Jones’, ‘R Jones’, ‘Bob Jones’ or ‘Mr Jones’. However, they could not just use ‘Robert’, ‘Bob’, ‘Bobby’ or ‘R.J’.

ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1164/recognising-a-request-made-under-the-foia.pdf

So J. Whitby-Fretwell is a valid name.

Hmm. Looking through other FOIs to that hospital it seems they also spent £2783 on rainbow lanyards and badges.

Extrapolate that across the NHS, along with the £12661

Anyone know if the company making all these badges and lanyards is connected to stonewall?

I found this on twitter. Looks connected to me.

@BrizzleGirl

Interesting to see the reply to this!!!!

• Dear Lancaster University, This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). Please provide any information that you hold answering to any of the following descriptions: Any correspondence between Lancaster University and Stonewall in 2021 relating to the formulation of a response to the Freedom of Information request that was submitted to Lancaster University on 4th February 2021.*

Right across the NHS. It must be a huge expense nationwide.

Excellent titchy BrizzleGirl

I shall look forward to the reply to that!

Um???

Just in case it wasn't clear!

That's brilliant. I'm guessing that FOI needs to return with some further questions....

@BrizzleGirl

Um???

It doesn't get anymore blatant does it?

@BrizzleGirl

Um???

Good God!!!

@FannyCann

Hmm. Looking through other FOIs to that hospital it seems they also spent £2783 on rainbow lanyards and badges.

Extrapolate that across the NHS, along with the £12661

Anyone know if the company making all these badges and lanyards is connected to stonewall?

This is outrageous

Can someone who's on Twitter, please, please ask the University of Bedfordshire about this blatant lie to FOI!

You couldn't make it up!!

FYI - every oxbridge college is a FOI authority in its own right. I can’t submit requests myself, but if anyone else fancies it...

Just looking at the FOI I did for Ofcom. Monies paid to Stonewall.

1. Details of the total amount of money you paid to Stonewall (i) in 2019; (ii) in 2020, whether

or not as payment for goods or services.

We paid the following amounts to Stonewall in connection with our Stonewall Diversity Champions
programme membership fees, conference costs and training:

• 2019 - £3000 (including VAT)

• 2020 - £9,028.20 (including VAT)

That's a lot of money in 2020. A lot of money.

molly for the love of the wee man! That's mental money from Ofcom! Madness!

Paid by us? The taxpayer?

Oh what a coincidence @KleineDracheKokosnuss, just after your post FOIs have been made to the first 10 Oxford colleges as per the list on the wiki page.

A friend told me you can only do 10 requests a day, wouldn't it be helpful if someone could start at the bottom of the list and get FOIs out to all of them.

Then maybe start on Cambridge!

It's worth having a look at Stonewall's accounts here:
register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charity-details/3992465/accounts-and-annual-returns

Latest figures are for 2019 (details p.28 onwards).

They receive grants from the DfE, FCO, and Scottish and Welsh Governments. Total income from government sources in 2019 was £702,295.

Fees received from membership of programmes such as the Diversity Champions programme and Schools Champions, plus speaker fees and 'consultancy requests': £3,269,477. Fees from other 'training': £633,954.

Much of this is also public money. Sex Matters estimate that about 250 Government departments and public bodies are members of Stonewall schemes. If they pay around £3,000 p.a. each for membership, this is around £750,000, plus any additional fees paid for extras such as 'training'. There is also income from state schools.

Nearly half of Stonewall's income (about £8.3m in 2019) comes from their Champions programmes and training. They stand to lose a lot if organisations pull out of these schemes.

@KleineDracheKokosnuss

Looks like replies are coming in quickly from the Oxford Colleges!!

@Manderleyagain

Hehehe I laughed out loud. Not sure why it tickled me.

Possibly because there's a distinct air of "well if you're going to play silly buggers, so can I"?

I’ll do it.

Yesterday my jaw dropped when a post office van pulled out in front of me totally “rainbow washed” with some hashtag Pride slogan on the back.

I’m not quite sure who pays who in this instance - ?? But from what I have read about Pride gatherings with their groups of people in fetish gear on display in broad daylight and the claims that Pride are family friendly events 🤨🤨 I wonder what the CEO of Royal Mail would make of it??

[quote Mollyollydolly]This medium article is about the FOI's from a TRA point of view. I do not endorse the opinions in this article obviously, but thought some of you might like to read how 'the other side' see it. It's an archived link not to give them the clicks.
archive.is/jSVsD[/quote]
The article informs me, loud and clear, that we are making waves. The pushback is having an impact. Great stuff

I don't understand the link in that Medium piece between FOIs to other public bodies and why this means Stonewall themselves can't do other projects? Why are Stonewall's resources being "drained" by FOI requests to different orgs? Surely they shouldn't be getting involved, so there shouldn't be a direct link as this person is claiming.

This vexatious use of the system as a means of getting bigoted propaganda infront of government organisations

They think FOI requests are being used to write and persuade orgs to change their policies? They clearly have no idea about how FOI requests work in an org. And if the public want to make their views heard they'll most likely write to the CEO or equivalent, not try and hide it in an administrative FOI.