In response to the growing and widely reported crisis in A&E across the NHS in England, David Cameron dismissed trade union “scaremongering” and referred to the issue as “short-term pressure”. Let’s recap the issues that David Cameron describes as “short-term pressure”: A financial situation…Read more…
Planned future spending cuts return us to the Geddes Axe of the 1920s
On the basis of the OBR projections for future spending cuts, the only more severe consolidation in over a century was the Geddes Axe of 1921-23. That these disastrous policies are the nearest precedent for any prospective economic action beggars belief.Read more…
Wages fell £500 last year – 2015 needs a pay rise
Despite the recovery, 2014 has been another miserable year for living standards. The average wage is now worth £50 a week less than when the government came to power. And current policies offer little relief. The Office for Budgetary Responsibility forecast, released with the Autumn Statement,…Read more…
A Tale of Two New Year Messages
A comparison of the New Year messages issued by the CBI and the TUC reveals a far more assertive and upbeat mood from the employers organisation. The CBI Director General John Cridland sets his stall…Read more…
Artists against Austerity
From time to time this blog has been known to go on (and on) about the importance of cultural work in the struggle for a socialist and just society, Occasionally it has been known to hanker for the…Read more…
Phoney Deficit Mania
Since the publication of the Con Dem Autumn Statement a new reverse paradigm has been introduced into the economic debate in Britain – cutting the deficit versus borrowing. Self serving Tory…Read more…
NHS porter’s workloads and stress go up as their wages go down, claims UNISON report
Wed 17 Dec 2014
NHS Porters are under pressure and their workloads are going up while the value of their wages are going down. The report also concludes that their training is patchy and there are reports of lack of equipment to allow them to do their job properly.
These are the conclusions of a study UNISON has conducted among NHS porters. This report also suggests a growth in zero hourRead more…
Breaking the link between funding and social needs – local government finance
The funding of local government has been notoriously complicated, subject as it has been to constant changes by governments in the methods of funding. However, since 1929 “it has been used to some degree to promote equalisation – that is, to ensure that the funding available to local authorities…Read more…
A welfare state for corporations not the people
An extensive article and research by Kevin Farnsworth on the Renewal website examines the extent to which UK public policy is skewed in favour of private companies – placing business tax cuts,…Read more…
Institute for Fiscal Shock Therapy
The past week’s debate sparked by the 2014 Autumn Statement has confirmed the marginalisation of trade unions from British current affairs. Even in the recent past the trade union response to…Read more…
Austerity – Just Say No!
‘Even if the government/OBR forecasts for the scale of the cuts prove to be unworkable they amount to a plan for permanent austerity, of ever deeper cuts. They are also a Tory trap for Labour, which…Read more…
Britain needs a pay rise, but this #AutumnStatement won’t give us one
Listening to today’s Autumn Statement, it’s clear the living standards crisis has wrecked the Chancellor’s strategy. He has failed his deficit reduction pledge as low-paid Britain is paying much less tax than expected – £17bn less in fact. And businesses won’t be able to find the…Read more…
Failure of ‘austerity’
Interesting to see that David Renard has signed a joint letter to the Observer with other Council leaders from all three main parties. It’s a shot across the bows of George Osborne in the run up to the autumn statement. It says that “further reductions (in local government funding) without…Read more…
Osborne’s “pointless machismo”
With the Chancellor’s autumn statement due next week, advance notice has been given of yet another political trick designed to put Labour on the spot. Osborne is proposing to introduce a law which will make it an obligation of the next government to end the ‘structural deficit’ by…Read more…
Not too late to abandon austerity
‘If Labour now repudiated austerity in favour of the far more effective way of cutting the deficit through public investment to expand the economy out of stagnation, generate real jobs, increase…Read more…
The FT throws a grenade at Osborne (and Balls)
Yesterday’s lead article on the front page of the Financial Times was positively incendiary (“Osborne faces doubling austerity cuts to £48 billion a year to hit targets“). David Cameron wrote last month that most of the cuts in the austerity programme had been achieved, with…Read more…
Under pressure – UNISON survey shows Scotland’s occupational therapists struggling to maintain service
Tue 11 Nov 2014
A report out today (Tuesday 11 Nov 2014) by UNISON shows that Scotland’s occupational therapists are struggling to maintain the level of service their patients need in light of budget cuts and staffing shortages.
Those surveyed in the report – Under Pressure: Scotland’s occupational therapists speak out – said they had huge concerns about the impact cuts are having on theRead more…
Government ‘economic fairytale’ unravels
In the first 6 months of the financial year, from April 2014, government borrowing was £58 billion. In September alone it was £11.8 billion. Total government debt in September was £100 billion higher than a year earlier, at £1.45 trillion. By the standard of its own aims this shows the failure of…Read more…