Could this be the month when the general public start to worry about benefit sanctions? The Methodist church reported that approximately one hundred thousand children were sanctioned in 2013/14. This followed earlier work revealing that more than 100 p…Read more…
EU’s Paris Protocol – time to bring citizens to the table
EU Environment Ministers meet on 6 March to discuss and probably sign off the EU’s contribution to the Paris climate change talks, December 2015. The next day marks the national Time to Act on Climate Change march in London. The EU Commission’s proposal, The Paris Protocol: a blueprint for tackling…Read more…
End casino capitalism call
As taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland announces further job cuts, all while continuing to give its top brass millions in bonuses, the story reads much the same for another UK bank. On Tuesday (March 3), Antony Jenkins, chief executive of Barclays bank, graciously accepted a bonus that takes his total pay to £5.5m, up […]
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Further Education budget: slashed by 24%
The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) recently announced the 2015/16 funding settlement for adult skills in England. While funding for apprenticeships was largely protected, the adult further education (FE) budget is to be cut by 24%. This is an act of wilful vandalism against the principle of lifelong…Read more…
The time is now when it comes to housing
At a time of house price inflation, falling home ownership, more people privately renting and increased private rents, the recent English Housing Survey showed the proportion of people renting social housing remained steady at 17 per cent in 2013/14[1]. However, the number of people on local…Read more…
Voluntary services face bleak future as ‘servants of the Government’
The involvement of global corporations in the privatisation of public services is firmly on the nation’s agenda. But less well known is the way in which charities and voluntary groups have been seduced or cajoled by New Labour and Coalition governments into helping the outsourcing along. And, in…Read more…
Major job losses on the horizon
As UNITElive reported last week, the taxpayer-owned bank RBS announced that a major restructuring program was on the horizon but failed to give any details. But two unnamed sources familiar with the matter revealed to the Financial Times March 3 that up to four out of five jobs in the bank’s investment division might […]
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SELF-EMPLOYED – GOVERNMENT MOVES, BUT NOT ENOUGH.
Yesterday the Deregulation Bill completed its passage through the Lords. According to the Government, this Bill will ensure a “reduction of burdens resulting from legislation for businesses or other…Read more…
Vote boosters!
The searing cold sun shone on the big red vote boosting bus today as we rolled onto Sussex University campus, Brighton. We weren’t sure what to expect from the student body at Sussex, as their university has become a hotbed of protest and mass occupation during the past few years. This is how our […]
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Public ownership of rail is not only necessary; it is the only realistic option
A recent article in BBC News Magazine asks the question Would it be realistic to renationalise the railways? Using as a premise the recent passing of the East Coast main line from public to private hands, the article provides an interesting insight int…Read more…
Productivity: no puzzle about it
TUC work issued today contests widely-held views that weak growth in productivity is down to failures of skills and/or other defects with the structure of the economy. Our research shows instead that the government’s austerity policies should take most of the blame for the productivity…Read more…
The demand interpretation of productivity outcomes (technical)
This post follows up the main one on the productivity puzzle, and the fuller TUC report issued today. Most contributions to the debate on the productivity puzzle recognise both demand and supply must play a part. But any arguments about demand are norm…Read more…
UKIP immigration policies: making it even easier for bosses to exploit workers
Today Nigel Farage outlined UKIP’s immigration policy proposals which revolve around Britain leaving the EU and imposing an Australian-style points system on all non-British citizens entering the country. While Farage seemed to back away from making a commitment on a firm figure at which UKIP would…Read more…
IFS show incomes for most WORKING-AGE people actually FALLING over this parliament
In spite of what the IFS are reported as saying (eg ‘household incomes finally top 2008′), they confirm that real pay is down. They show median incomes for most working-age people actually fell: by -2.5% for those aged 31-59, and -7.6% for those aged 22-30 (between 2007-08 and 2014-15,…Read more…
“Social model of disability”: What’s that about?
In a week when the government is claiming credit for getting hundreds of disabled people a day into employment and global corporation Maximus is about to take over running the Work Capability Assessment from discredited ATOS, why should the TUC bother …Read more…
Taboo subject
Walking into a room of Unite members – bus drivers working on the South East coast, I mention the upcoming general election. This raises a grunt, followed by a laugh, and then a nervous silence. Politics has become a taboo subject, many don’t think it’s their place and certainly don’t feel comfortable discussing it […]
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Saying it with flowers
Domestic workers are one step closer to getting the justice they deserve, as the House of Lords passed an amendment to the Modern Slavery Bill last week which would free the migrant workers from being tied to one employer as a condition of their visa. Now, the bill must go through the House […]
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‘Funding for lending’ still fails to deliver as bank bosses reward themselves while cutting back lending to firms
As another bank boss was rewarded yesterday with another fat pay packet, (ironically timed) figures at the end of last week showed the ‘funding for lending scheme’ still failing to deliver. Banks continue to cut back on lending to firms (large and small), while soaking up cheap lending from the…Read more…
New Scottish Government Economic Strategy: Corp Tax and Inequality
There’s much to discuss in the 82 pages of the Scottish Government’s new/updated/refreshed economic strategy published today. I’ll try to return to other stuff over the next few days but confine this…Read more…
Pay deal victory
Workers maintaining tens of thousands of miles of UK motorways secured a much improved pay deal today (March 3). The Unite members, working for Amey in four different depots in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Buckinghamshire, accepted the two-year pay deal following the first day of an unprecedented week-long strike action. Amey’s workers, who grit […]
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