The new government starts work with commitments to benefit cuts that will be difficult to deliver but politically impossible to avoid. All the options open to the government will cause serious hardship but still won’t deliver the scale of savings the Chancellor wants. It’s very likely that one…Read more…
Fighting the battle of ideas
Richard Angell recalls the moves a couple of years ago to have Progress, the organisation he directs, excluded from the Labour Party. Ungenerously, he omits to record that Len McCluskey spoke…Read more…
Sadiq Khan proposes a London Living Rent
Hat tip Labour List. I will look at all the London Mayoral UNISON candidates Housing policies. A living rent policy would be fantastic. What is the point of a Living wage if you did not have a Living Rent policy?
“Sadiq Khan, who’s in the running to be Labour’s candidate for London Mayoral,…Read more…
ACT NOW! The next few days are vital for EU-US trade deal
On Thursday, the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee (known as INTA) will vote on a series of amendments to a draft report on the EU-US trade deal TTIP (the Trans-Atlantic Trade…Read more…
EU says shareholders do not "own" companies
There’s a good summary of what is going on in the Shareholder Rights Directive here. Arguably the most significant part of it is below –
Shareholders do not own corporationsThe directive will explicitly acknowledge that shareholders do not own corporat…Read more…
Where will I be working by 2017?
Share: Facebook Twitter Google Plus LinkedIn As a result of the latest news about the proposed new Council offices in Colindale, staff have been asking “Where will I be working by 2017 and who…Read more…
Feeding the meter
More than half a million people struggling with debt have forcibly had prepay gas and electricity meters installed by their energy suppliers, a BBC investigation has found. Figures reveal that…Read more…
UNISON Greater London Labour Link Survey on Mayoral Candidates
This survey was sent out today to 60,000 UNISON members in Greater London Region who choose to affiliate to the Labour Party. I have deleted the link to the survey from this post for obvious reasons. If you are a APF member then please take part in th…Read more…
Pre-payment meters masking fuel poverty
Pre-payment energy meters are being used to mask the real levels of fuel poverty in the UK.
An investigation by BBC 5 Live has highlighted that more than half a million pre-payment energy meters have…Read more…
Housing sell off: ‘sheer stupidity’
David Cameron has confirmed that his right to buy extension to all housing association homes will now be part of the Queen’s Speech tomorrow (Wednesday May 27). The scheme, in effect, is…Read more…
Taking away workers’ rights will make Brexit more likely says TUC poll
As Nigel Stanley reported on Touchstone last week, we had an opinion poll in the field immediately after the election, to find out more about why people voted the way we did. We held a few of the…Read more…
Blacklisted workers apply for ‘core participant’ status in government-ordered undercover policing inquiry
The Blacklist Support Group (BSG) is applying to the Home Office for ‘core participant’ status in the Pitchford public inquiry into failures in undercover policing set up by Teresa…Read more…
BAE Apprenticeships and the Skills Crisis:
We are reproducing the County Press article as an example for how the neo-liberals and its Government are attempting to “solve” the existential crisis. It shows that the importance of wealth creation…Read more…
EU referendum: workers’ rights and the right to vote are at stake
Tomorrow’s Queen’s Speech will announce an EU referendum bill which will be published on Thursday (although the issue of who gets to vote was trailed over the weekend.) Last Friday, the Prime Minister began his campaign to ‘renegotiate’ Britain’s membership with other…Read more…
When political tricks misfire
DEMONSTRATORS outside Kirkwall cathedral (pic from the Orcadian) and below, marching on Carmichael’s Shetlands office (BBC).
FORMER Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael, the last Lib Dem MP…Read more…
Has Europe come up with a better ‘better regulation’ initiative?
Last week, European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans launched a ‘better regulation’ initiative. Once you’ve lived through a few dozen of these, you do get a bit jaundiced (I go back to Michael Heseltine’s ‘bonfire of red tape’ in 1994 although the Daily…Read more…
Weald Country Park Walk (avoiding “Plonkers Lane”)
Off message but this was a lovely 5.5 mile, Essex pathfinder walk only 30 minutes by car from Forest Gate, London. I have been silently suffering for the last week with the “dreaded lurgy” (aka as “Man flu”) so did not feel up to a full Lond…Read more…
Union members pay the cost of ISIS conquest of Ramadi
When ISIS takes over a city like Ramadi, near Baghdad in Iraq, the news bulletins are full of discussion about the future of Iraq, who’s to blame for the ISIS advance, how to reverse it and the…Read more…
EU Response to Migrant Deaths Frowned Upon:
Oppose Further EU Military Intervention in Responding to Humanitarian Catastrophe: Criminal Response of EU to Shocking Deaths of Migrants Last week the EU Foreign Affairs Council announced that it…Read more…
Demonstrations against Austerity: Brutal attacks by Police: March broken up
Demonstrations against Austerity Agenda Following Conservatives’ Electoral Coup Bristol demonstrationFollowing the General Election of May 7, thousands of people took to the streets in…Read more…