It’s been interesting watching the Tory media over the election period as they panic more and more as the election draws near. Distortions give way to outright lies as they seek to sow the…Read more…
Choose hope over fear
`By the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone.’ So it says on my Labour party membership card, the card I’ve carried with me throughout my adult life, nestling…Read more…
Manufacturing in the balance?
From the latest official figures, it looks as if manufacturing’s share of GDP is hovvering well below pre-recession levels. A TUC briefing, Manufacturing in the balance suggests that our ‘foundation industries’, the productive heartland of UK manufacturing, are losing businesses and jobs at a…Read more…
Stop London’s ‘social cleansing’
Unite Community is launching a London-wide campaign bringing together residents whose estates are threatened by regeneration schemes which divide communities and force families from the areas they…Read more…
Labour’s rural lifeline
Labour has pledged to replace the Agricultural Wages Board with a new taskforce – it revealed yesterday (April 28) in the launch of its new rural manifesto. Outlining how Labour would ensure…Read more…
House of cards
The Tory election campaign has been built on one premise and one premise alone – that it was their government who was responsible for an economy now bouncing back, and that it was their austerity…Read more…
Examining the reactions to our flagging GDP (a.k.a. the slowest recovery on record ever getting even slower)
A number of themes emerged in the different media commentaries on yesterday’s poor GDP results that are worth further examination: the idea expressed that the figures are highly uncertain and will be heavily revised; that weaker UK growth is in the context of ‘rising instability abroad’ (an…Read more…
Remembering those we have lost
Unite members in North East Lincolnshire have played a major role in today’s International Workers Memorial Day (WMD April 28) events in their area. This is the 13th year in which…Read more…
I predicted this catastrophe in teacher supply. It should have been avoided.
And here’s another thing… Our new weekly blog by ATL general secretary Mary Bousted. Tristram Hunt has pledged that Labour would reform School Direct, the school based ITT model introduced by the…Read more…
What do health workers want from this election?
Health and social care continues to dominate the election. Party manifestos have been published promising more funding, more services and more staff. As you might expect, a detailed look at these…Read more…
Never forget
Today (April 28), International Workers Memorial Day, Unite general secretary Len McCluskey dedicated a bench in Red Lion Square, London, to never forget those who have died at work. To hear…Read more…
A really clear choice
“We’ve got a brilliant, diverse community here – everyone from retired miners to young families call Midlothian home, and my job is to fight hard for a better future for everyone.”…Read more…
Line in the sand
A Unite workplace rep – blacklisted by his employer, Interserve Industrial Services because of his union activities while working at a power station at Runcorn, Cheshire – has won his…Read more…
Hope is back on the agenda
Let us finish the job. “These,” Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said, “are the scariest words in the English language.” These words are also the Tories’ favourite mantra – a…Read more…
New evidence nails the “no NHS privatisation” lie
The government habitually dismiss accusations of NHS privatisation. However a new analysis of NHS contracts produced by the NHS Support Federation shows how they will have to confront reality. Ministers say that very little NHS money goes to private co…Read more…
Fighting ‘culture of fear’
Last night (April 27) hundreds of thousands of viewers watched Channel 4’s Dispatches programme, The secrets of Sports Direct, which exposed a zero hours contract workforce in constant fear of losing…Read more…
Tory win could see HSBC leave UK
Not even the sound and fury of a general election campaign could obscure the magnitude of worry in recent days over HSBC’s future in this country. The banking giant has indicated it is giving…Read more…
The slowest ever recovery slows down again
Quarterly GDP growth is estimated at only 0.3% in 2015 Q1, half the rate of 0.6% seen in both Q3 and Q4 of 2014, and only a third of the 0.9% growth seen a year ago in 2014 Q1. The median view of commentators was for 0.5%, and 0.3% coincided with the most pessimistic of those…
The post The…Read more…
Working UK-style 2015
Some of the stories coming out of billionaire Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct warehouse are barely credible. But the stories remain undocumented because many of the staff – most of them from…Read more…
Incalculable human cost
On Workers Memorial Day we remember the dead and fight for the living. With only days to go for the most important general election in a generation today’s (April 28) Workers Memorial Day has…Read more…