Sign the petition to parliament and help make sure nursery schools in England are properly funded
The article Add your name to the call to save nursery school funding first appeared on the UNISON…Read more…
‘Peace plan’ talks
A crunch meeting to discuss a ‘peace plan’ to settle the five-month bus drivers’ dispute in Weymouth is due to take place in London on Friday (November 25). Senior management from First Group,…Read more…
The Necessity for Analysis of the Contemporary Conditions
– K.C. Adams – Since Karl Marx presented his economic analysis to the world, the proletarian movement has gained enormous experience and maturity and extended its reach throughout…Read more…
The Birth of the New
99th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution Celebration of the 99th anniversary of the Great October Revolution in Samara, Russia’s sixth largest city, November 7, 2016. November…Read more…
Autumn Statement – little Scottish cheer
Today’s Autumn Statement failed to live up to the rhetoric. There was little for those who have suffered the most from austerity and nothing for our beleaguered public services.
The main significance…Read more…
Trump and the Clinton Campaign (24 November): NHS Campaign Day (26 November): West Ham Xmas Quiz (9 December)
Dear West Ham Labour Member
NHS Campaign day – this Saturday
Labour is holding a National NHS Campaign Day this Saturday (26th). Here in West Ham we’ll be talking to voters at a steet staill and by knocking on doors in Stratford. We hop…Read more…
An Autumn Statement for Everyone? Looks like we’ll have to wait for spring
Last week we set out five tests for the Chancellor to meet for an Autumn Statement that works for everyone. Here’s how we think he’s done. Test 1: Set out a plan for a Brexit that protects working people’s jobs and rights. As the OBR make clear, Brexit is the biggest factor affecting the economy…Read more…
#AutumnStatement Universal Credit changes won’t make up for cuts that hit families and low-paid workers
The Chancellor’s announcement of a small cut in the Universal Credit taper rate goes nowhere near making up for the cuts his predecessor announced in July 2015, which will leave many low-paid working families hundreds – even thousands – of pounds worse off a year. As the End Child…Read more…
More money for housing in Autumn Statement – but also more Right To Buy
This afternoon in the #AutumnStatement Philip Hammond announced a number of measures that go some way to addressing the crisis we are facing in both the private and rented housing sectors. These include: A Housing Infrastructure Fund of £2.3bn by 2020-2021, funded by the NPIF (National Productivity…Read more…
Productivity and the #AutumnStatement: an antidote to Brexit?
Philip Hammond committed to raising productivity in today’s Autumn Statement. A National Productivity Investment Fund worth £23bn will focus on infrastructure, including digital communications, and research and development. £23bn sounds like a lot of money; as Geoff has blogged elsewhere, it is…Read more…
NHS and social care funding crisis completely missing from #AutumnStatement
“Departments will continue to deliver overall spending plans set at the Spending Review 2015” That was how the Chancellor used the Autumn Statement to respond to the crisis in our NHS and social care services. The NHS, deep in funding crisis, wasn’t mentioned once –…Read more…
Slash, Trash, and Privatize – or Transform the NHS?
By Robert Jones I’ve been involved with the NHS, mostly but not exclusively on the Island, for at least 15 years now. I’ve served on the CHC, PPI Forum, LINk (local involvement network); having been…Read more…
Growing unrest
The prospect of industrial unrest at the Dounreay nuclear decommissioning site in Caithness is growing after DSRL, the company which employs most of the staff on site, indicated it was not prepared…Read more…
JAM tomorrow? Not much in the Autumn Statement for those Just About Managing
In the last few days the press has been full of claims that this afternoon’s autumn financial statement would be all about the ‘just about managing’. This was the first chance for the new Conservative leadership to show how they would build an ‘economy that works for everyone’ and to turn Theresa…Read more…
#AutumnStatement minimum wage rises leave 21 to 24 year olds £450 a year out of pocket
The government has accepted the Low Pay Commission’s recommendations and will increase all national minimum wage rates from 1st April 2017. The government’s national living wage (introduced in April of this year) will go up by 4.2%, a 30p increase, to £7.50 an hour. That’s good, but there’s a fly…Read more…
And the cuts go on
The new Tory government under the leadership of Theresa May has sought to distinguish itself from its predecessor by claiming time and again to be on the side of working people – or in the latest…Read more…
#AutumnStatement minimum wage rises leave 21 to 24 year olds £450 a year out of pocket
The government has accepted the Low Pay Commission’s recommendations and will increase all national minimum wage rates from 1st April 2017. The government’s national living wage (introduced in April of this year) will go up by 4.2%, a 30p increase, to £7.50 an hour. That’s good, but there’s a fly…Read more…
Prime Minister reconfirms commitment to workers’ representation on company boards before #Autumn Statement
Speaking immediately before the #Autumn Statement to a packed House of Commons, the Prime Minister clearly said that the government would bring in worker representation on company boards: I believe that we should see workers’ representation on boards. I make no apology for the fact that this…Read more…
The racist tide will only be driven back by anti-racists standing up and confronting it- Talat Ahmed, Stand Up to Racism, Scotland
A racist offensive is sweeping Europe, with governments and the right-wing media using migrants, refugees and Muslims as scapegoats for an economic crisis and wars they did not create.
The recent…Read more…
All too little
Chancellor Philip Hammond has failed to throw a lifeline to those on low wages or to demonstrate that this government will lay the solid economic foundations needed for a successful Brexit. Unite…Read more…