A week-long strike by EDF Energy workers carrying out Smart meter installations, due to start on Monday (November 30), has been suspended for talks to take place with the conciliation service, Acas….Read more…
War on the poorest
Media rumours about the death of austerity are premature says the Institute of Fiscal Studies as it and the Resolution Foundation highlight Osborne’s new attack on the poorest. George…Read more…
MEPs vote in favour of strategic framework on health and safety at work
The health and well-being of employees is a fundamental right for all European citizens. While there has been considerable progress in terms of protection of workers in difficult and hazardous roles, occupational safety risks are still in existence. A …Read more…
Whatever happens, this cannot be the end for carbon capture in the UK
This week saw the UK’s darkest day so far for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). At the CCSA, we and our members in the industry are still in shock. The same words keep repeating themselves; devastated, sad, bewildered. The question; Why? And why now? Amazingly, two days on the silence from…Read more…
How legal challenges and green workplaces can tackle climate change
Canada is tapping the expertise of UK unions in a project that will put unions at the heart of efforts to green workplaces. Earlier this month, I was invited to spend a weekend in Toronto to share my UK experiences with a Canadian green workplace proje…Read more…
Why no fanfare to the end of workfare?
Compulsory unpaid work experience (‘workfare’) has long and rightly been criticised by by the TUC and others. Yet it now looks like the government may be planning to quietly end it. Buried in the Comprehensive Spending Review document, on page 89 to be precise, is this little nugget:…Read more…
Defending manufacturing from Chinese dumping: #SaveOurSteel
Today, Trade Ministers from across the EU will gather in Brussels to discuss the threat posed to manufacturing by the dumping of products like steel and tyres on Europe by the Chinese. As part of the #SaveOurSteel campaign, the TUC has urged UK Trade Minister Lord Maude to reverse the…Read more…
No Racism: Refugees Welcome Here
The St Andrew’s Day Anti-Racism March and Rally this year has the theme ‘No Racism: Refugees Welcome Here.’ The rally will take place on Sat 28th Nov, Assemble 10:30am Glasgow Green. Below is a…Read more…
Osborne’s new (very modest) ‘Keynesian’ clothes
Paul Johnson of the IFS has rightly put a stop to the idea that the Spending Review (SR) signalled the end of austerity. But in a very modest way this event continued a ‘Keynesian’* turn. Yesterday I set out the accounting logic (here); the underlying macroeconomic logic could easily be regarded as…Read more…
Next step towards low-carbon UK requires 57% emissions reduction by 2030
As the Prime Minister heads off to Paris for the UN talks on climate change, the government’s independent advisers say that “new energy policies” are required to meet the UK’s carbon emissions targets. By the government’s own admission, the UK is 10% over its fourth carbon budget (4CB on our…Read more…
Osborne blinks first
Osborne – with his ‘Caesar’ haircut – stood at the Commons despatch box yesterday with his Labour political opponents in front of him and his Tory political enemies behind him. We all…Read more…
Are young people really just scroungers?
There is a growing rhetoric that young people are lazy, work-shy and have an astonishing sense of entitlement. Such smears have been stated by employers, have saturated the media and are echoed by eminent politicians. For example in 2014 David Cameron said: “I want us to end the idea that aged 18…Read more…
Defending the European Social Model in the Netherlands
Today, British Minister for Europe David Lidington MP is in the Netherlands to meet Foreign Minister Bert Koenders. The Dutch take over the Presidency of the EU on 1 January, so they will play a crucial role in orchestrating the EU’s response to David Cameron’s pre-referendum…Read more…
#SpendingReview 2015 – the Touchstone blog round up
George Osborne’s first Spending Review of the new parliament has hit the headlines for his spectacular U-turn over drastic cuts to tax credits. It avoids the hardship it would have inflicted on millions of low-paid families, though as Richard Exell points out, the cuts to Universal Credit are…Read more…
Become a film mogul & let everyone know how bravery took on apartheid
I’ve just left the launch of an exciting project to inform a new generation about a little-known element of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Grassroots film-makers Barefoot…Read more…
Just two cheers for the #spendingreview tax credit U-turn
The headline news in today’s Spending Review and Autumn Statement is the decision not to go ahead with the cuts to tax credits that were due to take place next April. So let’s remember the cuts that were due to come into effect next April, with no protection for the tax credit claimants who…Read more…
No Racism: Refugees Welcome Here
The St Andrew’s Day Anti-Racism March and Rally this year has the theme ‘No Racism: Refugees Welcome Here.’ The rally will take place on Sat 28th Nov, Assemble 10:30am Glasgow Green. Below is a…Read more…
Has the #SpendingReview fully funded the NHS?
There are two competing but related health service ‘narratives’ being promoted in the immediate aftermath of the spending review. The first is that George Osborne has listened and delivered the “biggest ever commitment to the NHS since its creation”. The second is that Simon Stevens, head of NHS…Read more…
Adult skills and apprenticeships in the #SpendingReview
In one respect the Chancellor’s announcements on skills and apprenticeships in the Spending Review has been viewed as another u-turn with the welcome news that there will not be the degree of cuts to FE colleges and the adult skills budget that was widely anticipated. In addition the Apprenticeship…Read more…
Local government funding slashed by half in #SpendingReview
George Osborne made the announcements that business rates will be localised and local councils will be able to add 2 per cent to council tax to fund social care with some fanfare. Both of those are questionable decisions to say the least – more of which later. But in a matter of a couple…Read more…