“In 1966 the powerful Cathy Come Home shone a light on the desperate housing problems gripping Britain at the time. When the programme first aired, the extent of the crisis shocked the nation – 3 million people were living in slums or stuck in a brutal private renting market. It was a far cry from…Read more…
Sunday Night Live: 30 July 2016 Social Movements – The end of politics as we know it?
“Prior to our pause for the August break, come join us at our Sunday Night Live Summer Salon where we’ll be discussing the rise social movements, implications for politics and political parties.
The fastest growing political movements across the left and right the world over are those who…Read more…
TUC found that between 2007 and 2015 in the UK, real wages fell by 10.4%, the joint lowest in OECD countries
I think this is one of the real reasons for Brexit. No wonder so many people feel angry and betrayed in the face of such a massive cut in wages.
Employment may be relatively high but evidently most of these jobs are insecure and have rotten…Read more…
Why EU citizens in Britain shouldn’t be used as negotiating pawns
The TUC is only one of many groups in Britain calling for citizens of other EU countries currently living and working in the UK to be given the right to remain when we leave the European Union. Others who support the position include the CBI, IOD, orga…Read more…
50 councils face residents’ objections to LOBO loans
Check out MJ article (Municipal Journal – you need to have a paid account unfortunately) on the up to 50 objections by residents in different Councils (including Newham) at the use of “controversial Lender Option Borrower Option (LOBO) loans,
Tanzania and Uganda stand up against unfair EU-East Africa Economic Partnership Agreement
There was hopeful news for trade unions in East Africa last week as Tanzania and Uganda refused to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and East African Community countries —…Read more…
No, don’t leave executive pay to the shareholders
Alex Edmans has a blog on executive pay on HBR here. It’s wrong-headed in my view, so here’s a largely sarcasm and swearing-free response to it.
Politicians typically make two suggestions for pay reform. First, to cap, or at least force the disclosure of, the ratio of CEO pay to median employee…Read more…
A fairer national minimum wage remains an ‘urgent need’
UNISON reasserts the ‘ultimate goal’ for UK minimum wage policy, in its submission to the Low Pay Commission
The article A fairer national minimum wage remains an ‘urgent need’ first…Read more…
Hinkley delay slammed
The Tory government announced a further delay on the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station last night (July 28) just hours after French company EDF gave the project the green light. The…Read more…
Day 8: From protest to politics
In the mid-1960s, not long after the March on Washington, the organizer of that historic protest, Bayard Rustin, wrote an article. It was called “From protest to politics”. Rustin argued…Read more…
Industrial Strategy – What Is To Be Done?
By David Bailey, Professor of Industrial Strategy at the Aston Business School The new government under Theresa May has brought with it a marked change of tone on industrial strategy. Whereas the…Read more…
Report of our last meeting in the Guardian
Umit Ozturk, speaking at the Craft Beer Co. Photo by Fred PipesReport by John…Read more…
The legacy of Chris Wilkes (18/12/57-18/03/16)
Dear Colleagues,
Yesterday at Ruskin College we held a memorial event to celebrate the life of Chris Wilkes, the Principal of Ruskin College who died unexpectedly on 18th March.
The event drew many current staff members, and a diverse body of ex-Rusk…Read more…
Special Branch Meeting Poster
EU must hold Turkish president accountable for press freedom violations
We can’t remain silent while journalists are being arrested by dozensRead more…
19th century Irish history – help needed
I’ve been researching my family for a few years with a view to writing their story. My mother’s family were the Bolands – major figures in the Irish revolutionary movements pre-independence and government ministers in the decades afterwards. I’m trying to go back over four generations. The more…Read more…
Day 7: Putin’s Party
A few years after the second world war, a strange book was published in New York City. It was called The Russian Menace to Europe and judging by the title, one would imagine it was one of many books…Read more…
Standing firm
Wood Group oil workers, around 400 members of Unite and the RMT, staged a solid strike on Tuesday (July 26) in what was the first North Sea strike in three decades. The 24-hour stoppage was in…Read more…
Bottom of the pile
British wages fell by 10.4 percent between 2007 and 2015 new TUC analysis has found, lower than anywhere else in Europe except Greece. UK workers suffered the biggest drop in real wages…Read more…
Too far, too fast
Unite called on Lloyds Banking Group to give a no compulsory redundancy guarantee today (July 28) as the banking group announced a further 3,000 job losses and the closure of 200 branches by the end…Read more…