Leaders of ten leading UK charities concerned with protection of the environment have written to the Prime Minister, alarmed that: “early policy choices being made are running counter to the strong intentions you outlined in your pre-election climate pledges and in your manifesto, to…Read more…
Different vote, same old myths
As the last day to sign up to vote in the Labour leadership election quickly approaches next week (August 12), the anti-union media frenzy is now in full swing. It’s set to be the most…Read more…
Stop pinching our tips
Pizza Express waiting staff are to stage a series of demonstrations outside selected restaurants in protest at the multi-million-pound business stealing their tips. Staff have estimated that…Read more…
Community action celebrated
On the August 5, 1874 the people of Portsmouth rose up and took back a piece of Southsea Common that had been fenced off by the Pier Company preventing local people from accessing the beach. …Read more…
Crude caps on public servants’ redundancy payments are not value for money
Despite a settlement on redundancy terms agreed with the last Minister for the Cabinet Office, Matt Hancock’s Cabinet colleague, Francis Maude, which he described at the time as “for the longer term” the government seems intent to rush yet another change less than five years after the…Read more…
Still easily the slowest recovery of GDP per head on record
In the coverage of the GDP figures last week, some attention was paid to the ONS observation that on a per head basis GDP in 2015 Q2 is likely to be back to the pre-crisis level. This may be all well and good, but is hardly a measure of economic performance. The relevant measure is…
The post…Read more…
No support for abolishing the Child Poverty Act
The government can’t be accused of pussy-footing about. In this Parliament we’ve already had the most radical Budget for 20 years, an attack on trade unions that out-Tebbits Norman Tebbit and cuts to tax credits that will force thousands of low-paid workers and their children into…Read more…
‘Sick and tired’
Over 1,200 construction workers involved in the decommissioning and renewal project at Sellafield in Cumbria have begun a work to rule and overtime ban in a campaign to improve health and safety and…Read more…
Food fight!
Cooking for large numbers of people often seems a daunting task, but, it doesn’t need to be that way. Following the tremendous success of last Saturday’s (July 25) Left Fest – whereby…Read more…
Honour national agreements call
Local authorities are being asked to say how much they are paying to use the energy-from-waste plant being built at the Wilton complex on Teesside in a bid to prove that the cash-rich employer can…Read more…
Burnout Britain?
The summer holiday season is in full swing, and working people up and down the country are taking time off to visit friends and family, travel or simply relax. But a new report has revealed…Read more…
US says trade trumps safety
I have blogged here several times about the possible effects on health and safety of the proposed free trade agreement between the European Union and the United States – the Transatlantic Trade…Read more…
Bank of England lending data echoes reliance on consumer demand, with corporate borrowing falling again
Bank of England lending data issued earlier this week (here) showed a reduction in the pace of growth of lending to the private sector for the third month in a row. But as lending to financial and non-financial firms fell, lending to households expanded. Lending growth, month on a year ago As the…Read more…
TUC Economic Quarterly Report 7
This quarterly TUC report provides an analysis of UK economic developments over recent months; focuses on the current labour market compared to pre-recession levels; and includes a spotlight feature on productivity since 2008. Summary Economic activity appears to have weakened a little from the…Read more…
A dangerous move
Ministerial plans to relax the laws around driver hours in an effort to ease congestion caused by Operation Stack, as transport movement between the Channel ports seizes up, is not the answer, Unite…Read more…
No compulsory redundancies call
The plans by Centrica to axe 6,000 jobs were branded as ‘unnecessary and driven by the pursuit of excessive profits’ by Unite today (July 30), as profits doubled at its British Gas business. …Read more…
Consultation on Modern Slavery Act
In the last days of the coalition Government the Modern Slavery Bill became law. As I reported in my blog, at the time, the Government was consulting on the reporting requirements for businesses in relation to the Transparency in Supply Chain clause. T…Read more…
A Kafkaesque nightmare
Unite community member Paul Rooney, a former social care worker who gave up his job to care for his severely disabled teenaged daughter, looked through his post one day to find a council tax bill for…Read more…
Enter the new kid on the block – a “sustainable free market”
I dont know if we have a climate sceptic Chancellor. But global surface temperature are now passing more than 1 °C of global warming, relative to the second half of the 19th century. Is this the right time for the Treasury to cast out the UK’s ten key green energy policies for an untried,…Read more…
Burnout Britain Mapped: employees missing out on paid holidays by nation and region
New figures indicate that 1,669,000 employees are missing out on their minimum legal entitlement to paid holidays. That’s an average of 6.4% of workers not taking up their legal rights. But this problem isn’t uniform across the UK, nor across all sectors, as you can see below. Missed…Read more…