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One of PCG's founding members has published a new book which tells the story of how the organisation was founded to fight IR35, and how the campaign used the power of the web to moblise support.

The book, 'The Freedom to Freelance' was penned by PCG's first Director of External Affairs, Philip Ross.

It chronicles the contractors' group early struggles against the Government's plans to clamp down on 'disguised employment' via the implementation of IR35.

In its early days, the UK's first online trade association (originally known as The Professional Contractors Group) raised funds to fight IR35 (one of the first examples of 'crowdsourcing'), organised a 'flash mob' of over 1000 contractors to lobby Parliament, presented one of the first e-petitions, and took the Government to the High Court and subsequently Court of Appeal in its battle to overturn IR35.

Inspiration behind the book

We asked Philip what inspired him to write the book:

"At the end of the day it was because I wanted to tell the story about what really happened, it is a great story and a real drama. But this isn't an official history, it is written from my point of view, I was concerned that the PCG's history seems to have had events and people airbrushed out of it. My aim was to paint them back in."

When asked if he thought IR35 would be any different now had the PCG not existing, Ross told us:

"The short answer is that we would have ended up with a scheme like that for temporary construction workers if it hadn't been the PCG..."

Further information

You can buy a copy of the book (priced £22.50) here, and for more information - read the author's blog.

You can find out more about PCG, and the benefits offered to members here.