The Prime Minister recently claimed that everyone who had been in work for more than a year had had a 4.1 per cent pay rise (see: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2840753/Britain-gets-1-pay-rise-Weekly-earnings-just-0-1-unless-work-year.html) ON…Read more…
Cuba in the top 10 world rankings for number of women parliamentarians
Cuba has the second highest number of women MPs in the Americas and the fourth highest in the world, according to a new report by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). The current percentage of women…Read more…
Sinn Féin to oppose welfare bill in Northern Ireland Assembly
BBC Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness has said the Northern Ireland Assembly is facing a “very serious crisis” over the issue of welfare reform. His party has blocked the passage of the…Read more…
UK General Election 2015: Focus on opinion polls
Analysis: This general election will see more opinion poll activity than has ever been available not just from the 10 firms carrying out national polls but we have also had separate polls for…Read more…
Retail sales are strong because of intensified deflation, not subsiding deflation
Another ‘good deflation’ story in the FT today: ‘fears of damaging deflationary spiral subside’. Strong retail sales growth is regarded at odds with ‘pessimists’ predictions’ of ‘falling prices and weak demand tainting the world economy’. But an alternative interpretation of the same figures is…Read more…
We need a new Equal Pay Act
It has been 45 years since Barbara Castle’s Equal Pay Act – and we still don’t have equal pay. So what would an updated act need to cover? Emily Thornberry explains. by Emily Thornberry…Read more…
Blacklisted – the book
A new book, ‘Blacklisted: the secret war between big business and trade union activists’, delivers a searing indictment of the collusion between the state and the construction industry that saw…Read more…
On the Public Consultation into Housing related Support Services on the Isle of Wight
Housing has become a major debate issue in the run-up to the General Election. What is being discussed is, “What kind of house-building programme do we need”? Housing is acknowledged as a key source…Read more…
The decision to not pay the living wage at the IOW Council has to be reversed!
The recent pay talks between unions and the Council have reached a poor settlement. Low paid workers on the Council cannot afford to live on the pay packets awarded them for their hard work. The…Read more…
The Backward Logic of Privatisation
Public sector workers are not a cost to the economy; quite the contrary, they are producers of value Those that want to get rid of our Council imply that others can do it better, that there is…Read more…
Socialism: PHASE 4
Socialism has historically passed through four main phases. Phase One: The early 19th century socialism of the utopians, Robert Owen, Fourier and St Simon. The early trade unions and co-operativists…Read more…
‘Funding for lending’ still fails to deliver as bank bosses reward themselves while cutting back lending to firms
As another bank boss was rewarded yesterday with another fat pay packet, (ironically timed) figures at the end of last week showed the ‘funding for lending scheme’ still failing to deliver. Banks continue to cut back on lending to firms (large and small), while soaking up cheap lending from the…Read more…
Fidel meets the Five
On February 28, the Cuban leader received the Five anti-terrorists and conversed about the many years of injustice they suffered Author: Fidel Castro Ruz | internet@granma.cu march 2, 2015…Read more…
Striking FBU members take to the streets around Westminster
February 26, 2015, Tim Lezard Source: USI “I’ve never seen such anger” – striking firefighters close down Parliament Thousands of striking firefighters yesterday brought central London to a…Read more…
Youth Theatre for Peace:
Jugendtheater für den Frieden — Youth theatre for peace http://www.visionbakery.com/deutschland-england-italien WHO WE ARE We are Ubiquity Theatre (www.ubi-leipzig.de), a Leipzig based company….Read more…
A Living Wage is a Right
Regardless of the amount of value created, a Living Wage should be made a constitutional Right. It is not a question of a job being sacrificed, as justification for low pay, sustainable jobs…Read more…
IOW Education; The Academy Trust has specific Strategy and Tactics, so must the Teachers.
What is becoming clear is that the Academy Trust has specific strategy and tactics in light of the national failures of the Academy arrangements. The Gove strategy was to continue support of…Read more…
Survey Highlights Plight of Teachers:
The excessive workloads and working hours facing teachers in the UK have been clearly established in figures published by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) to mark its annual Work Your Proper Hours…Read more…
John Pilger: The Menace of Fascism
By John Pilger Global Research, February 26, 2015 The recent 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz was a reminder of the great crime of fascism, whose Nazi iconography is embedded in our…Read more…
Dr Louise Irvine talks to the BBC about DevoManc
Dr Louise Irvine talks to the BBC about #DevoManc NHA – South West Surrey Group Posted on February 25, 2015 by swsurreynha £6bn a year of health spending is to be handed to Greater Manchester. It is…Read more…