Today, the government took another step to increase the number of children in poverty. They have done this by cutting the Benefit Cap, first introduced by the Coalition government. Outside London, the number of people in need whose benefits are cut is …Read more…
Quintuple reasons for the triple lock
The State Pension triple lock has taken another bashing. A committee of MPs released a report calling for the picking of the so-called triple lock, dating back to 2010, which guarantees that pensions will rise by the higher of inflation (measured by the Consumer Prices Index), average earnings…Read more…
The Econocracy: the stunning new book from Rethinking Economics
The ‘rethinking economics’ student movement has been one of the few highlights of the dismal years since the financial crisis. In their new book The Econocracy: The perils of leaving economics to the experts, three of their number – Joe Earle, Cahal Moran and Zach Ward-Perkins – set out in full…Read more…
The independent review of online voting for trade unions is finally happening
As someone working in digital services in trade unions, the legal ban on using online voting for union statutory ballots has always wound me up. So I’m very pleased at the news that the government are finally starting their promised independent review into online voting for unions. Sir Ken Knight,…Read more…
Action on tribunal fees is key test of Theresa May’s commitment to workers’ rights
Figures we published today show that with each passing month thousands more workers are being priced out of justice by employment tribunal fees. In the year before fees were introduced (2012/13) on average 16,000 people a month took a claim against the…Read more…
High court puts #Brexit ball back in Parliament’s court
Today’s decision by the High Court that the decision about whether and when to trigger Article 50 and start the formal process of negotiating Britain’s exit from the UK will now go to the Supreme Court. The government does not want Parliament to have the decision-making power, so it is…Read more…
Climate Change and the US Presidential Election: is there a way forward?
Martin Wolf is on fine form in today’s Financial Times (£), writing about the imperative of addressing climate change. Specifically, Wolf describes with frightening clarity the warming of the planet and asks, rhetorically, if this is such an important issue, why has it not featured in the debates…Read more…
3 reasons why Philip Hammond should Fully Fund our NHS
SIGN THE PETITION HERE Your colleagues say it needs more money Yesterday the Health Select Committee – a group of MP’s with a Conservative majority – accused Theresa May and Jeremy Hunt of giving the “false impression” that the NHS was “awash with cash”, following the government’s pledge to…Read more…
Real Living Wage benefits 3K businesses and their workers. Let’s make it 30K next year
The new Living Wage rates for London and the rest of the UK will be announced at 9.30 this morning. The announcement will also be made simultaneously in Glasgow, Cardiff and Manchester. I shall be at the London launch with the Mayor, Sadiq Khan. The re…Read more…
#CETA: zombie trade deal is no recipe for #Brexit
Today the Prime Minister of Canada flew into Brussels to sign the EU-Canada so-called trade agreement known as CETA – the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement – with the European Union. For the past fortnight, the signing had been held up by the French speaking regional parliament…Read more…
Counting the cost of pregnancy discrimination
This week, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) released figures on the financial cost of pregnancy discrimination. For women who lose their jobs, the cost is between £47 million and £113 million, just in the first year. Losses flowing from long term impacts on their career have not…Read more…
Q3 GDP growth survives the referendum vote, but points to one reason for the outcome
In the wake of the Brexit vote, 2016Q3 quarterly GDP growth of 0.5% (down from 0.7% in Q2) is regarded as a ‘result’. Growth compared with the same quarter a year ago is 2.3%, the highest since 2015 Q2 (when 2.4%). In the industry detail, however, it’s business as usual. Contributions…Read more…
UK real wages are still down 6%, in the East Midlands it’s nearly 10%
Earnings figures put any economic ‘recovery’ into perspective. There has now been a two-year real wage revival (i.e. with earnings growth outstripping inflation), and in 2016 median UK full time earnings were up nearly 4 per cent on the low point in 2014. But that low point was nearly 10 per cent…Read more…
Five things we’ve learnt about pay today
Today – ASHE Wednesday in our office – saw the publication of the annual figures on pay across the UK (ASHE is the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings). Here’s five things we’ve learnt: The National Living Wage is making a difference The introduction of the National Living Wage in April this year…Read more…
Renewables, Coal and Industrial Opportunities
According to yesterday’s Financial Times (£) last year saw something of an environmental milestone, as renewables overtook coal as the world’s largest source of installed power capacity. The FT reported that around 500,000 solar panels were installed every day of 2015, while wind turbines were…Read more…
Putting the flesh on the government’s industrial strategy
Last Thursday (20 October) saw a backbench Commons debate on industrial strategy. This debate coincides with, but is distinct from, an inquiry by the BEIS Select Committee into industrial strategy, to which the TUC gave evidence. Jo Johnson, the Univer…Read more…
Who will lose out when we leave the single market? Civitas admit it would be the UK
Today, pro-Brexit think tank Civitas has released a report saying that the EU will lose out from the increases in trade tariffs likely to result from Brexit. Even from the campaign that brought you £350m a week to spend on the NHS, this is a quite remarkably bad argument. As their own figures show,…Read more…
Protecting the pension promise
When is a promise not a promise? In my household, safeguarding of confectionary and sharing of toys are both subject to frequent exemptions. But beyond domestic squabbles, the subject is getting an airing in the pensions world. In the firing line is th…Read more…
Protecting the pension promise
When is a promise not a promise? In my household, safeguarding of confectionary and sharing of toys are both subject to frequent exemptions. But beyond domestic squabbles, the subject is getting an airing in the pensions world. In the firing line is th…Read more…
Protecting the pension promise
When is a promise not a promise? In my household, safeguarding of confectionary and sharing of toys are both subject to frequent exemptions. But beyond domestic squabbles, the subject is getting an airing in the pensions world. In the firing line is th…Read more…