Legislation paving the way for new-style collective pensions was one of several achievements in Steve Webb’s tenure as the Coalition government’s Pensions Minister. Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) pensions are a mainstay of the Dutch pensions system and have been used in other…Read more…
Diplomatic relations between Cuba and U.S.
Statement by the Revolutionary Government With the reestablishment of diplomatic ties with the United States, the lifting of the blockade, among other issues, will be essential to the ultimate…Read more…
Fighting for the future of the BBC
Morning Star Free-market vultures are circling round the BBC – but their media offerings don’t compare to it, writes MICHELLE STANISTREET “PAYBACK time,” screamed the Sun on the announcement of John…Read more…
Winchester could be split over plans to form a devolved super authority for south Hampshire
Winchester could join Southampton and Portsmouth in a new Solent City authority Hampshire Chronicle Duncan Geddes, Reporter ( Nov. 2014) WINCHESTER district could be cut in half under plans to form…Read more…
Scottish ferry workers strike in privatisation row
RMT members at CalMac walk out over prospect of Serco winning contract to operate services across Clyde, inner Hebrides and Western Isles. Severin Carrell Scotland correspondent Islanders and…Read more…
Community leaders march on Parliament:
England’s 9,000 parish councils are marching on the Houses of Parliament on 30 June 2015 in a ‘lobby day’ to meet with Members of Parliament. Scores of local (parish and town) council representatives…Read more…
Same old story: households having to run down savings and calling a halt to deleveraging
For 2015Q1 GDP growth is now estimated at 0.4% (revised up from 0.3%). Growth was last lower than this in 2012 (Q4 when it was -0.4%), at the height of worries about the double dip, and with the Chancellor poised to reign in his austerity policies. Whi…Read more…
Isle of Wight Council to be Combined Authority
It has long been known that the Isle of Wight Council would eventually be dismantled by the Government. A recent letter to Government by Isle of Wight council is open to the idea of being brought…Read more…
TUC to organise national demonstration during Conservative Party Conference
The TUC will organise a national demonstration in Manchester this autumn against the government’s austerity agenda and attacks on trade unions. It will take place on Sunday 4 October and will begin…Read more…
Hullabaloo About Magna Carta:
From the article by Pauline Easton, “Hullabaloo About Magna Carta and Denial of Modern Definitions of Equality and Rights”. http://www.cpcml.ca/Tmlw2015/W45026.HTM#2 …According to the pundits, three…Read more…
The Modern Demand for Equality:
– Hardial Bains – Excerpt from A Future to Face written during the Referendum on the Charlottetown Accord in 1992. *** The demand for a right is the expression of the extent to which the…Read more…
Magna Carta:
Background to Magna Carta The 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, meaning “Great Charter,” is being marked this year. In the Anglo-American world, Magna Carta is considered one of the…Read more…
NEST sings a sweeter song than Osborne’s Destination Anywhere
With the honourable exception of The Marvelettes, those embarking on a journey typically have an end point in mind. Yet, Destination Anywhere has been the soundtrack to the recent pension liberalisation changes. The publication by NEST, the state-backed pension provider, of a blueprint for…Read more…
Trucast Pay Deal?
June 26th, 2015. A pay dispute has caused unrest at Docasters Trucast in Ryde. Workers might have to take strike action if a resolution is not found. According to Unite union rep, Gerry Rawlinson,…Read more…
Austerity is not an isolated thing in itself.
The neo-liberal offensive includes Austerity but it is part of a capitalist offensive, ant-austerity is one means to block the offensive and turn things around to develop the counter-offensive, but…Read more…
CCS stuck on Amber
Three times today at the CCSA’s annual reception the Energy Secretary, Amber Rudd, was pressed to clarify the extent of government support for carbon capture & storage (CCS). Can the supply chain bank on two CCS projects and look forward to further CCS projects? “You are asking for more…Read more…
London Demo: END AUSTERITY NOW!
Unhappy Birthday: 5 years on, Osborne’s austerity Budget has failed as public debt still heads for 90 % of GDP (Maastricht definition)
Five years ago today, George Osborne published his austerity budget. His philosophy of action was set out a few months ahead of the election in the Mais Lecture (25th February 2010). Deploying the (now somewhat discredited) work by Reinhart and Rogoff (issued in January 2010), he argued “So while…Read more…
Armed Police try to intimade workers’ demo in Wolverhampton:
Gun-toting coppers fail to intimidate Sita protests Conrad Landin Morning Star WORKERS whose demos against the “social dumping” of labour have been met with gun-toting bobbies yesterday defied police…Read more…
The economy demands planning:
To Plan or Not to Plan – K.C. Adams – To plan (be) or not to plan (be), that is the question: Whether ’tis Nobler in the mind to suffer The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,…Read more…