Unquestionably the focus this Thursday will be on the knife-edge general election long predicted by pollsters. However it’s worth remembering that around England a series of local elections…Read more…
ConDem nation
They’ve hurt us – plain and simple. Since the ConDem Coalition came in they’ve tried to sell off the NHS while running it into the ground. Legal aid has been slashed, university tuition fees…Read more…
The case for an Independent Pensions Commission
This is my contribution to an NAPF publication on the need for an Independent Pensions Commission. I argue that this is not “taking the politics out of pensions” – an absurdly impossible task – but rather a chance to bring social partnership to another field of policy…Read more…
Counting the cost of austerity for councils and communities
The Austerity Audit, published today by UNISON details the damage caused by the unprecedented squeeze on funding that has had such a dramatic impact on local council services in England and the people that provide them. The government has already cut the funding to local councils by £12.5bn or 37%…Read more…
Education has remained in the shadows of the election debates
And here’s another thing… Our new weekly blog by ATL general secretary Mary Bousted. Education policy has not been a prominent feature of the election campaign. Political parties have vied for the…Read more…
Inaction Replay: Qatar Reannounces Unkept Promise
It’s a strange tactic to take the anniversary of a promise you didn’t keep to make exactly the same promise. One year ago, with great fanfare, Qatar’s government promised the world…Read more…
Growing scourge of hunger
Food bank use in austerity Britain has skyrocketed under the coalition government – this is a fact widely reported in the media, as well as here on UniteLive. Full Fact, an organisation that…Read more…
Ed is the real deal
You might be forgiven for thinking that celebrities would vote Conservative given that they are up there with the country’s top earners, paying the highest tax. However many celebrities from…Read more…
Stop diluting workers’ rights
“I really do believe in fairness and equality but you don’t get that by wishing for it,” says Jim Sheridan, who was first elected in 2001 and has lived locally for 35 years. “The closer the…Read more…
Total failure
Back in 2010, the ConDem government promised us the world. But did they deliver? To find out, we’ve drawn up a 10-point exam, which we’ve marked – the facts speak for themselves. So how…Read more…
Rise in assaults and self-harm in prisons, new Ministry of Justice statistics reveal
New Ministry of Justice statistics reveal that in the year up to December 2014 incidents of self-harm and assaults in prisons have increased significantly, revealing a system under serious strain where safety standards have plummeted. Most astonishing …Read more…
There’s a long road to true LGBT equality…
Pride in London has issued a call for politicians to support a pledge, a commitment to the steps needed “to make London the best LGBT+ city in the world”. The TUC warmly welcomes this, the first time that Pride in London has done anything like this.
The post There’s a long road to true LGBT…Read more…
Radical alternative for change
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey spoke to LBC Radio this evening (May 1), urging the British people to take stock of the enormously important decision facing the electorate on May 7. …Read more…
Rooted to hopes of working class
There’s a no-nonsense streak to Ian Davidson which can only be a strength on the doorstep during the cut and thrust of an election campaign. “The issues here are a lack of income and under…Read more…
In search of the impossible
Grand Central, a luxury development to be constructed on a derelict site in Cambridge, will only have eight affordable homes. This is in an area where over 2,000 people languish on council house…Read more…
Behind the statistics: The impact of government policies on disabled workers
A report from the Public Interest Research Unit on behalf of Disabled People Against Cuts shows the cumulative impact of the Coalition government’s policies on disabled workers in employment. Although the report’s author, Rupert Harwood, acknowledges the self-selecting basis of his study of…Read more…
Finely in the balance
What did last night’s Question Time with the “three leaders” tell us? Certainly that the public likes it political meat raw and there remains real anger out there at the “political class”. …Read more…
Shock redundancies
Over 300 workers from the Markinch paper mill Tullis Russell met in Glenrothes yesterday (April 30) with emotions running high following 325 shock redundancies earlier this week after company…Read more…
Another world is possible
“The biggest assault on workers’ rights for a generation” is how Katy Clark characterises the past five years of Tory-led government. “Measures such as tribunal fees and cuts to health and…Read more…
May Day 2015: Justice at work
Today is International Workers’ Day, the first of May. Since 1890, May Day has seen trades unionists come together to celebrate the core values that we stand for. It’s a day for us to strengthen our…Read more…