Yesterday the ONS reported headline CPI inflation in July 2015 at 0.1%, marginally higher than last month’s zero and market expectation of no change. But subsequent attention has focussed heavily on the rise in core inflation to 1.2%from 0.8%. As we have often argued, core figures are likely…Read more…
TU Bill: no justification
IndustriALL, the world-wide trade union, has hit out at the government’s trade union Bill, calling for it to stop the attacks on trade unions and start a dialogue. IndustriALL warns the…Read more…
Fares still unfair
Regulated rail fares are set to rise by 1 per cent in January, after inflation figures released today (August 18) show an unchanged Retail Price Index (RPI) in July. Over the last two years,…Read more…
‘Guilty’ young exiled to bootcamp
What does the word bootcamp conjure up for you? Military recruit training? A type of correctional facility or penal system? Imagine being a young person, fresh out of school, trying your…Read more…
Tip top tunes?
American actress, jazz singer and author Molly Ringwald, who is performing at Pizza Express in London this week, has been asked to back Unite’s campaign against the company’s controversial ‘tipping’…Read more…
Put students at the heart of the curriculum, not political ideologies
Anne Heavey is an Education Policy Adviser at ATL. Stanley Park High recently hosted a visit for ATL members. In my last blog, I explained about their Excellent Futures Curriculum, and the pupil-led…Read more…
When two rights make a wrong
It’s taken 35 years for the disaster of the Tory sell off of council homes known as right to buy to fully evolve as the hidden hand behind our current housing crisis. It turns out that now the…Read more…
All through the night
Working nights has become a new norm, a recent TUC survey has found. More than 3m people now regularly work through the night, an arrangement that can have a devastating impact on not only…Read more…
Parallel pay universe
As the average worker languishes on stagnating wages and ever increasing living costs, those at the top are enjoying unprecedented levels of pay, new research has found. Pay for chief…Read more…
‘Causing a stink’
Bromley residents face the prospect of uncollected rubbish as about 100 refuse collection staff employed by waste disposal giant Veolia gear up for three days of strike action in a pay dispute….Read more…
Academies are the government’s childlike solution – to everything
Laura McInerney, editor of Schools Week, gives us her take on the first 100 days of a Conservative government. There’s a moment in every child’s life where they happen upon the secret to all of…Read more…
Stop turning every wild idea into policy
Nansi Ellis, ATL assistant general secretary (policy), gives us her take on the first 100 days of a Conservative government. When I start a project, I usually spend some time scribbling ideas. I let…Read more…
Boon for business
Workers in the hair and beauty industry are more likely than others to be stiffed of their entitled National Minimum Wage. That’s why in July, the HMRC launched a campaign specifically targeting the…Read more…
Hitting the gangbusters
Jim Sheridan, the former Labour MP whose law targeted illegal gangmasters exploiting migrant workers and ripping off the tax and benefit system says the law must be updated and extended. Jim…Read more…
Taking the fight for workers’ European rights to top bosses
Prime Minister David Cameron has revamped his Business Advisory Group, and their first task will be to advise him on his EU renegotiation strategy ahead of the referendum on Britain’s…Read more…
Migration Advisory Committee report: no evidence for government net migration target
Today the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), the independent research body that advises the government on migration policy, published its report on whether raising salary levels might reduce the number of migrants entering the country. The government asked the MAC to undertake this research to…Read more…
This politicisation of public examinations must not be allowed to happen
On Sunday, schools minister Nick Gibb is reported to have expressed ‘greatest concern’ in response to Ofqual’s report on OCR’s problems in marking exam papers in time last summer. Apparently,…Read more…
Dangers for lone wardens
To some the term city wardens might conjure up images of eager ‘jobsworths’ doling out as many parking tickets as they can. But for wardens in Aberdeen it’s about so much more than just parking….Read more…
What’s happening to earnings?
This is one of those ‘one chart says it all’ posts. Yesterday I was too busy looking at the regular labour market figures from the Office for National Statistics to notice they’d also published a Supplementary Analysis of Average Weekly Earnings. It’s well worth a read, and…Read more…
What should China do now?
Global markets are understandably jittery at what has become the biggest fall in the remnibi, China’s currency, since the 1990s. Duncan Weldon explained what is going on with his customary clarity on last night’s Newsnight programme. In a nutshell, between the reforms of the late 1970s and the…Read more…