Each successive Secretary of State for Education tightens the noose of state control around schools, and the current one, Nicky Morgan, is no exception. The Schools and Adoption Bill currently making its way through parliament is a short bill with a long arm.
The SNP is weighing in behind those who want to see an end to the BBC as we know it. Scottish Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop has just outlined her plans for a “federal BBC with at least a Board for each nation” with a budget controlled in Scotland.
The Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) is calling for support for its campaign to save adult education. The area is under increased threat in the run-up to the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review.
In Washington the US Federal Reserve is preparing to raise interest rates, even though this would destabilise already fragile economies across the world.
24 October 2015
The Schools and Adoption Bill currently making its way through parliament aims to speed up the rate of “conversion” to academy status – this time by force.
23 October 2015
After successful demonstrations on 17 October in London, Nottingham and Belfast against the new junior doctors’ contract, the BMA has announced that ballot papers will go out to its members in early November.
20 October 2015
Traffic wardens working for outsourcing company NSL in Camden, north London, have agreed a settlement which breaks through the ceiling of the “London living wage” and avoids the need for further strike action.
20 October 2015
The Volkswagen diesel emissions crisis is the worst ever to hit the motor industry. But what has Britain been doing? Nothing…
20 October 2015
Unions in London are waiting to hear whether the English National Opera grant has been saved from redistribution: in short, whether proper national funding will continue.
20 October 2015
Workers at the National Museum (Amgueddfa Cymru) of Wales, which is spread across a number of sites, are on strike today in the latest of a series of actions against plans to scrap anti-social hours payments for weekend working.
18 October 2015
“I do not take my mandate from the European people,” said EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström in an interview when challenged about the extent of opposition to the transatlantic trade treaty.
18 October 2015
A grassroots organisation of scientists and supporters of science and research in Britain is warning of plans for huge cuts to the science budget – and vowing to campaign against them.
17 October 2015
In what appears to be the first case of a free school being forced to accept an academy sponsor, Grindon Hall Christian school in Sunderland looks set to be pushed into the arms of the Bright Tribe academy chain.
17 October 2015
The US government now intends to keep US troops in Afghanistan beyond President Obama’s departure from office in January 2017, breaking his promise to end the war on his watch.
12 October 2015
On 12 October the liquidator of SSI Redcar announced the death of that steelworks. Over 2,000 workers will lose their jobs directly at the plant and more will be out of work as a result. This signifies a threat to Britain’s whole steel industry.
12 October 2015
The US Federal Reserve is preparing to raise interest rates, even though this would destabilise already fragile economies across the world – which are being told to prepare for a rise in corporate failures.
12 October 2015
Against the advice of the independent Electoral Commission, the government has reduced the time frame for establishing the new electoral roll. The move is likely to reduce the number of voters in non-Conservative areas.
12 October 2015
In yet another attack on civil liberties, the government has announced plans to to change the law so that councils may only disinvest, boycott or adopt sanctions if the action is in line with government policy.
12 October 2015
The new National Infrastructure Commission has less to do with planning than with stealing money from workers’ pension funds to do what the government should be doing anyway, and isn’t.
12 October 2015
New figures from the Office for National Statistics show that production and manufacturing output in three months to August 2015 were 9.4 and 6.5 per cent, respectively, below the levels reached in the first quarter of 2008.
5 October 2015
Striking museum staff met outside the National Gallery today (5 October) and went back in to work together after 100 days on strike since February.
5 October 2015
The announcement that the Conservative trade unionists organisation, disbanded over 25 years ago, is to be reconstituted should show everyone in the trade union movement just how weak and desperate government really is.
5 October 2015
The phrase “housing crisis” is a daily media prod to the London commuter. Blink and it’s still there. But we’ve been stood immobile and blinking for far too long.
29 September 2015
Junior doctors flooded Westminster in their thousands last night (Tuesday) to protest against planned changes to their contracts as the British Medical Association ballots members on industrial action.
29 September 2015
NATO governments are scheming to win support for intervening in Syria – using the refugees to create chaos in Europe and provide the excuse for an illegal war.
20 September 2015
1 October is Older People’s Day, when the National Pensioners Convention will make the case – in leaflets to be distributed across the country – for a state pension that people can live on.
19 September 2015
Germany wants to dictate immigration policy to Europe – and it is causing chaos across the continent. On 13 September Merkel had to introduce temporary border controls.
19 September 2015
Finland’s national trade unions held a mass demonstration on 18 September at Helsinki Railway Station, combined with widespread strikes, against government plans to cut pay and benefits.
19 September 2015
Teachers can’t afford London, says the newly formed London Teachers’ Housing Campaign, as tthe average price of a home soars above £500,000 and rents continue to rise by over 10 per cent a year.
13 September 2015
A referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU will happen by the end of 2017. There’s no chance of the EU restoring powers to Britain beforehand and no prospect of a revised treaty.
