While the political temperature is rising over the fiscal framework negotiations, let’s not forget the Barnett Formula.
The fiscal framework is a key element in the devolution of income tax to…Read more…
Save our insurance jobs
Unite members at insurance giant Legal & General’s (L&G) flagship site in Kingswood, Surrey, have voted today (January 6) in favour of industrial action to save over 1,500 jobs. In an…Read more…
Scottish budget ducks tax and shunts austerity to councils
If yesterday’s budgetis “a Scottish response to austerity” then we are in very deep trouble. A response to austerity has to be more than simply administering George Osborne’s efforts to wreck our…Read more…
Long-term job security call
Staff at Legal & General’s flagship site in Kingswood, Surrey, have moved closer to strike action in the New Year with the launch of a final industrial action ballot. This follows September’s…Read more…
Why union branches have to follow the money…
Picture from last weeks packed Greater London workshop on branch finance in the UNISON centre. NEC Chair of the Finance Committee, Josie Bird, led the training supported by National and Regional officers.
The aims of the training were:-
To understand …Read more…
Don’t tell George
Chancellor George Osborne spoke today (October 5) at the Tory Party Conference, just hours after it was announced that the government will continue with its sell-off of its remaining 12 per cent…Read more…
Number of families with problem debt up by more than a quarter since 2012, new report reveals
The number of households with problem debt has increased by 700,000 (28 per cent) since 2012, according to new TUC and UNISON-commissioned research published today (Tuesday). The report,…Read more…
The budget headline is wages, but dig a little deeper….
The Chancellor’s summer UK budget today was long on spin, but the substance was less impressive once you delve into the detail.
The headlines are about wages with the introduction of a new national…Read more…
More unnecessary spending cuts
Osborne’s latest budget announcement is driven more by his ideological desire to cut the state than any concern for deficit reduction.
The UK government has decided to cut a further…Read more…
Tory win could see HSBC leave UK
Not even the sound and fury of a general election campaign could obscure the magnitude of worry in recent days over HSBC’s future in this country. The banking giant has indicated it is giving…Read more…
UK Budget 2015
If you are going to tell porkies, tell big ones. That seemed to be the Chancellor’s strategy in today’s budget.
It was as if the past five years didn’t happen. The worst fall in real earnings in…Read more…
Gers report shows Devo-Max is a gamble too far
The annual publication Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (Gers) has brought the debate over the merits of Full Fiscal Autonomy (FFA) or Devo-Max into sharp focus.
The report shows that in…Read more…
Supporting public services
It’s often said, ‘all politicians are the same’, well in this UK General Election it simply isn’t true, at least for public services and those who deliver them.
Today is the pre-election Scottish…Read more…
Budget blues
The consequences of austerity economics dominate budget setting at UK, Scottish and local authority level.
The Budget Bill was presented to the Scottish Parliament this week. Over five years the…Read more…
The real chill in the Autumn Statement
A budget package in December may not be Autumn, but it certainly had a real chill for those least able to afford its consequences.
This was a classic Osborne budget statement. Massive real cuts,…Read more…
Civil servants to join public sector strike for higher wages
Our pay freeze is actually a 20% pay cut against inflation. That’s why the PCS union will join the mass strike on 10 July
Is it any wonder public sector workers are angry? They have seen executive…Read more…