DEMONSTRATORS outside Kirkwall cathedral (pic from the Orcadian) and below, marching on Carmichael’s Shetlands office (BBC).
FORMER Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael, the last Lib Dem MP…Read more…
Has Europe come up with a better ‘better regulation’ initiative?
Last week, European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans launched a ‘better regulation’ initiative. Once you’ve lived through a few dozen of these, you do get a bit jaundiced (I go back to Michael Heseltine’s ‘bonfire of red tape’ in 1994 although the Daily…Read more…
Weald Country Park Walk (avoiding “Plonkers Lane”)
Off message but this was a lovely 5.5 mile, Essex pathfinder walk only 30 minutes by car from Forest Gate, London. I have been silently suffering for the last week with the “dreaded lurgy” (aka as “Man flu”) so did not feel up to a full Lond…Read more…
Union members pay the cost of ISIS conquest of Ramadi
When ISIS takes over a city like Ramadi, near Baghdad in Iraq, the news bulletins are full of discussion about the future of Iraq, who’s to blame for the ISIS advance, how to reverse it and the…Read more…
EU Response to Migrant Deaths Frowned Upon:
Oppose Further EU Military Intervention in Responding to Humanitarian Catastrophe: Criminal Response of EU to Shocking Deaths of Migrants Last week the EU Foreign Affairs Council announced that it…Read more…
Demonstrations against Austerity: Brutal attacks by Police: March broken up
Demonstrations against Austerity Agenda Following Conservatives’ Electoral Coup Bristol demonstrationFollowing the General Election of May 7, thousands of people took to the streets in…Read more…
Queen’s Speech 2015: What to Expect:
Representatives of the Greens, Plaid Cymru, the SNP and UKIP demanding electoral reform in Downing Street, May 18, 2015The Queen’s Speech on May 27 will set out the the government’s…Read more…
Europe needs to commit on aid
Tomorrow, foreign ministers from across the EU will be meeting and will consider what to do about Europe’s pledge on overseas aid. For the first time, the British minister will be attending with a legal commitment to spend the UN recommended 0.7% of GNI (Gross National Income) on official…Read more…
Portraying the Red Clydesiders – and young women of the East End!
A couple of events to draw your attention to today. Firstly an event slightly detached from its original slot in the Mayday celebrations – it was postponed from the original date of May 5 as that…Read more…
Choose the next Labour Leader and London Mayor – Sign up to be a Labour Supporter
It is not the most enticing advert but I assume people are working on it and something better will come out soon.
If you agree with this :-
“I support the aims and values of the Labour Party, and I am not a supporter of any organisation opposed to it.”
Then for only £3 you can become a “Labour…Read more…
West Ham “on the knocker” for John Biggs
Picture collage from yesterday of West Hammers (and a East Ham comrade) “on the knocker” for John Biggs as Labour Mayor for Tower Hamlets.
West Ham Labour Chair, Charlene McLean, led our team “assisted” by her campaign hardened 9 month old baby daught…Read more…
New Ukrainian Anti-Communist Laws Honour Nazis
Left: monument to fascist and Nazi collaborator that stands in Lviv, Ukraine. Right: a statue of V.I. Lenin in Kharkov, Ukraine is brought down, September 28, 2014. (RIAN) On May 15, a bill honouring…Read more…
Obama’s Maxim
– DPRK Permanent Mission to UN – Failure teaches a lot — this is an axiom that often trips off Obama’s tongue. Then what is the lesson the incumbent U.S. President must learn…Read more…
The importance of manufacturing for a modern economy
The importance of manufacturing for a modern economy cannot be overstated. The home economy requires means of production and articles of consumption without interruption. This can be accomplished…Read more…
Trends in Manufacturing Employment
From 2004 to 2008, more than one in seven manufacturing jobs, nearly 322,000, disappeared in Canada. At the same time, job growth in other industries has been relatively strong. In fact, from 2004 to…Read more…
Join the fight against union repression in Swaziland
This week Members of the European Parliament have condemned Africa’s last feudal dictatorship in Swaziland for its repression of trade union and human rights. One of the authors of their…Read more…
Doing our bit in Swaziland from Brussels
The Swazi people experience some of the most horrid living conditions on the planet. Under King Mswati II’s absolute rule, very low living standards have become even lower, very high AIDS/HIV prevalence has become even higher. Poverty is widespread, and the rule of law a distant ideal. We…Read more…
So we have to be “Left” economically and “Right” socially to win in 2020?
Some more thoughts on May 7th and the aftermath.
First check out this post in TouchStone by Newham’s finest, Nigel Stanley, on the post election day TUC survey.
Nigel argues that this evidence (of voters who considered Labour but ended up votin…Read more…
UNISON demands pay uplift for further education staff
Sun 24 May 2015
UNISON today calls for Angela Constance, Cabinet
Secretary for Education, to intervene in national pay negotiations for
further education staff, which have all but broken down.
UNISON leaders are astonished at the responses they have recovered from further education employers.
UNISON lodged its pay claim on 3 February 2015. The
union is looking to agree a newRead more…
Nice work if you can get it?
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/4/part/3/enacted
Trade unionists are often complaining about the number of jobs which have been eliminated as a result of the savage spending cuts of the previous Government, now set to be accelerated.So we should probably celebrate the creation of some…Read more…