Last chance to support PLR in the face of cuts

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Published by: EmmaD on 30th Sep 2010 | View all blogs by EmmaD

Last chance to sign the petition to the Secretary of State in support of PLR. PLR is a legal right, not a nice treat, and for many authors is the only thing which means that they're able to keep writing at all.

Click here to sign the petition, jointly set up by the Royal Society of Literature, the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society and the Society of Authors.

Please share this as widely as possible, and ...follow the link to sign up.

Writers' organisations can support it, as can individual non-writers: see the link for more details.

Emma

Comments

22 Comments

by Steve 1 year ago

Very good call, Emma. Done. This is also going straight in the Word Cloud News Group headlines as some actual important real news. Petitions like this need 10,000 signatures, right?
by Debi 1 year ago

According to an email I rec'd earlier, over 4,500 people have signed so far. The outcome of the review will be announced 20th Oct, but the petition closes 1st Oct. That's tomorrow, so please do sign today.
by AlanP 1 year ago

I am one of those cynics who believe that politicians ignore public opinion, except at election time. So I have little hope that this will influence anything.

Nevertheless I shall go and sign it. Can't hurt, can it.
by Spangles 1 year ago

I think one of the problems with the general perception of PLR by the public (and which therefore influences politicians) is that the first writer they think of is JK Rowling. The second one is probably Martin Amis. Both aren't exactly counting the pennies, therefore they assume all writers must be rolling in it. How wrong they are.
by Liss 1 year ago

Signed.

Didn't even need to read in depth, if the good Cloud folk say it is needed then it's needed. I'll see if my friends will sign xx
by Amarantha 1 year ago

Done. Thanks for blogging this.
by EmmaD 1 year ago

Yes, it's doing well.

Alan, I know what you mean, but don't forget that a) a goodly proportion of that 4,500 are journalists, and b) not a few MPs are writers themselves. All we need now is someone like Pullman to clamber on the platform and start talking...

Spangles, you're right. Which is why it's important to point out that PLR payments are capped, so they can do more good to more of the writers who really need it. I know for myself (and I'm sure you do) that the PLR cheque makes a real difference to the domestic economy. And it's not as if the grant for it is more than a drop in the ocean for the Treasury.
by Spangles 1 year ago

Exactly, Emma. The cost of PLR is niggardly when compared with the amount of money that's squandered. And I imagine that if it's abolished a lot of writers will have to apply for benefits (assuming those still exist), and that will doubtless cost a lot more money in terms of bureaucracy, etc.
by Tony 1 year ago

Thanks for the prompt, Emma. Duly signed. Interesting spotting Cloudy surnames on the list of signees. Hee hee.
by MinxieAD 1 year ago

Tick...
by Em 1 year ago

Just signed it - and discovered an old schoolfriend on there. Haven't heard from her in 20 years and now discover she's an author :)
by MarkR 1 year ago

Signed thanks - would not have been aware otherwise
by JonB 1 year ago

Thanks for the link
by Gerry 1 year ago

Just signed. Am top of the list. (Unexpected honour - I imagine I stay there, do I?)
by Slippers 1 year ago

Signed #4714 and knocked you off the top :-)
by Chocoholic 1 year ago

Signed a while ago. They'll never find me :0
by Natalie James (Tors) 1 year ago

signed!
by Natalie James (Tors) 1 year ago

Also stuck it on my facebook.
by maryluv 1 year ago

Number 4717 - wonder if that's significant?
by Kiki 1 year ago

Just signed!!
by Caducean Whisks 1 year ago

Just to add my name here - I also added my name there, sometime this morning - and have forwarded it on to everyone I can think of. Good luck to one and all! Tee hee. It's gone viral!
by EmmaD 1 year ago

I'm so thrilled that so many people have signed. It really is an important cause, not just for authors and aspiring authors, but also for the book life of the country at large.

(Now, could we have a petitionto ask them to pay out just before our tax is due at the end of January, instead of two weeks after?... )