Responding to the announcement that university applications for nursing and midwifery courses have fallen dramatically, UNISON head of health Christina McAnea said: “The government said replacing…Read more…
UNISON Greater London Regional Council AGM 2017 results
I was re-elected today at the Greater London UNISON AGM as the Regional Finance Convenor for the 10th time. Many, many thanks for the continued support of London delegates.
Next to me is our (new) Regional Publicity Officer Francesca Hammond, Regional…Read more…
Brexit is inevitably anti-working class
Members of Parliament have voted to support Theresa May’s Brexit Bill on its second reading.
This was (and is) an anti-working class measure which threatens, in particular, the rights of those workers who are citizens of other EU nations – but it also threatens all of us who depend upon legal…Read more…
We should all be pension geeks now
All of a sudden, pensions are rarely out of the news. From changes to the state pension, through to transparency of investment charges and outright fraud. Largely as a result of auto-enrolment,…Read more…
David Gauke’s response to our NHS funding campaign just isn’t adding up – #FullyFundourNHS
Our petition calling on Philip Hammond to commit to a financial reset for the NHS in the Autumn Statement received 11,764 signatures. We delivered it to the HM Treasury – only to find NHS funding was completely missing in the Autumn Statement. We have a number of concerns over the response we…Read more…
Working class musn’t pay for Brexit
Workers from leading companies across the north west will gather in Liverpool for a conference tomorrow (February 2) specially convened by Unite, the UK’s biggest manufacturing union, to press for…Read more…
Out of the mouths of babes
Croydon NHS is being forced to take the milk out of babies’ mouths in an attempt to save £30m this financial year. According to Croydon Council Commission Group it spends £395,000 per year on…Read more…
Celtic Connections 2 – and Beyond
A selection of shorts re a number of shows that are not going to get onto my reviews in the Star (the first one of which is due in tomorrow’s paper (Thursday 2).
One thing that is already in…Read more…
How can we respond to Trumponomics?
How to respond to the populism and protectionism of Donald Trump will be one of the biggest challenges facing mainstream economists and politicians in 2017. A good starting point for that debate might be Martin Wolf’s wide ranging article in today’s Financial Times (£), ‘Donald Trump’s tough…Read more…
Save Our Services: How cuts are hitting Black people
Black workers are usually the first to lose their job in a recession – and this has been true for services provided by local government in the latest recession
The article Save Our Services: How…Read more…
A corporate governance agenda for the Left
1. Explicitly remove shareholder primacy from the UK system. This should be argued on the basis that it hasn’t worked, the shareholder base has changed too much to make the model work for the public (shareholders now primarily split between the City – …Read more…
The Future of the Left in Britain: Newham Compass & Fabians event 21 Feb 2017
Should be interesting. Read more…
Priced out of justice
The government today (January 31) published a review into the introduction of Employment Tribunal (ET) fees and their impact, which showed a dramatic fall in the number of cases brought forward….Read more…
‘Bonkers’
Although trade unions are at the forefront of delivering and supporting apprenticeships across all industrial sectors, it was revealed on Friday (January 27) that not one trade union representative…Read more…
The government should admit employment tribunal fees were a mistake and scrap them
The government’s decision to demand a fee from anyone taking their employer to court was ill-judged, has failed to save the taxpayer money, and prevented thousands of badly treated workers from…Read more…
Community nurses’ jobs slash shocker
Demonstrators will gather outside the East Yorkshire headquarters of the Humber NHS Foundation Trust tomorrow (February 1), to protest against plans to slash health visitors and school nurses by 25…Read more…
English sixth form workers accept pay offer
New agreement sees 1% pay rise backdated to September and abolition of three lowest pay rates from 1 January this year
The article English sixth form workers accept pay offer first appeared on the…Read more…
Policing is changing
We caught up with police and justice service group chair Caryl Nobs to talk about the changes to policing and why she hopes police members vote in the terms and conditions ballot taking place in…Read more…
MPs debate Brexit: we want to know what will happen to our rights at work
Today, the second reading debate for the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill 2016-17 begins. Or in shorthand, MPs will finally start debating Article 50, or the start of the Brexit negotiations. It has taken a long time to get something substantive debated – something more than…Read more…
My Question On Risk to Full Council before it was cut
This is the question that I submitted to the Newham Council meeting that was cut.
Dear Kim
Please submit the following question
Question to Cllr Lester Hudson
“I refer to Agenda Item 12 “Annual Treasury Management Report 2015/2016 page 51 of the Yellow Book item 3.8.
While I would agree with the…Read more…