#4Oct British trade unions are facing a full frontal attack. Government spending on public services and the welfare state is being rolled back decades. It has never been more important for trade…Read more…
Memorial to 5 Beckenham Fire Fighters killed by Enemy Action in West Ham Ward
Last Saturday I posted on a London Loop walk here http://grayee.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/london-loop-walk-section-4-west-wickham.html in rural Croydon, South London.
I was astonished to later find out that a memorial in a Church grave yard in West Wickh…Read more…
The secret sanctions figures
The government is stopping payments to nearly three times as many jobseekers as their official figures suggest, according to new research by the Guardian newspaper. And the numbers being…Read more…
It just isn’t working
One of the present Tory government’s favourite mantras, that its “long-term economic plan” is “working”, is a classic example of effective propaganda – repeat it often enough and, in the minds of the…Read more…
How the exit payment cap will hit career public servants a long way from senior management…
Yesterday, I congratulateda colleaguefor highlighting the Government’s consultationon the “exit payment cap”. This has been presented as being about limiting excessive severance payments to public sector “fat cats” – with a ceiling on payments of £95,000.
However, because the “cap” will include the…Read more…
Stranger danger
It’s a busy Friday night in Leeds city centre and thousands of people are enjoying the myriad clubs, pubs and restaurants on offer. Most are here to enjoy a social evening with their…Read more…
‘Hope finally on offer’
Liam McCafferty, postgraduate education officer for the University of East Anglia’s students union, is one of Unite’s newest members – he just signed up this week. McCafferty, 23, has been…Read more…
Dying for your iPhone: Another suicide at Foxconn factory in China
A 28-year old male worker at the Foxconn factory at Zhengzhou has committed suicide by jumping from a building.Read more…
Carney-age at the Bank
As the Bank of England dumped a data reservoir of cold water over Osborne’s claims of a ‘motoring’ economy and economic miracle, the Governor is spinning in no man’s land between the two views….Read more…
Chancellor’s dead hand on community energy schemes
George Osborne clearly intends to put a brake on community-led solar power schemes just at the point when they are cutting carbon, reducing green energy costs, creating jobs and winning public support. Unfortunately, his Treasury-led, austerity-led pla…Read more…
Victory for community action
Unite community member Paul Rooney, a Bromley resident and full-time carer of his severely disabled daughter, has been granted a stay of eviction today (August 7) after being mistakenly served with a…Read more…
The Global Money Addiction (interest rate dilemmas in context)
“Faced by failure of credit, they have proposed only the lending of more money”, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his inaugural address, 4 March 1933 Debate around UK monetary policy recognises all is far from normal through the idea that when rate rises finally come, they will be limited in extent….Read more…
Private equity is still a "force for good"
A few years back, I noticed that the phrase “a force for good” was being used with remarkable consistency by people in, or working with, the private equity industry. So I thought I’d do a quick google to see if that was still the case. No real surprise…Read more…
COSATU slams violence on South African trains
South African union federation threatens strike action if safety concerns on Cape Town commuter trains are not addressed.Read more…
Swazi unions win AFL-CIO Human Rights award
The George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award in 2015 recognizes the courage and persistence of Swaziland’s workers in demanding their rights in one of the world’s most autocratic countries.Read more…
What sort of industrial policy do we really need? Part One.
By David Bailey, Phil Tomlinson and Keith Cowling It seems that the new BIS Secretary Sajid Javid is undertaking a ‘fundamental review’ of the government’s industrial policy as he wonders what a…Read more…
What sort of industrial policy do we really need? Part Two.
By David Bailey, Phil Tomlinson and Keith Cowling The last coalition government’s record in relation to industrial policy has been mixed. George Osborne made promising noises in the early days about…Read more…
Dare To Dream: Shape the future of London
On Tuesday evening I went to the launch of #Daretodream in South London with fellow Newham Cllr Rokhsana Fiaz OBE. This was an amazing networking event for young people on how to shape the future of London. The theme was that politics matters to …Read more…
UNISON General Secretary Election – A New Hope
http://www.unisonmanchester.org/national-news/unison-general-secretary-election-tuc-demonstration-in-manchester
I am pleased once more to find myself in agreement with the officers of UNISON’s Manchester Branch – this time about who to recommend to mem…Read more…
Rural employment race to bottom
The National Farmers Union (NFU) of Scotland demanded yesterday (August 5) that the Scottish government abolish the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board (SAWB). Unite has slammed the NFU warning…Read more…