31 August 2015
Crew members and others who staff some of the Thames river boats, such as Thames Clippers and City Cruises, have voted unanimously to go out on strike for improved pay and conditions.
The assumption that the national minimum wage was good for workers was always wrong.
In this issue we carry a number of articles about the dire position faced by young people in Britain today. They are scarcely out of the womb when the government’s testing regimes are applied to them.
It’s time to stop magical thinking, time to allow experience to conquer false hope.
Unemployment is clearly related to poor mental health in young adults. Students worried about studying and money – and these concerns are increasing – also have relatively poor mental health.
Young people struggle to find decent housing. Few are able to build up the cash for a deposit, so they are locked out of the housing market.
A forward-looking, optimistic, collectively minded society will nurture and encourage its youth, ensuring they know how important they are now and for the future.
Young people are not enthused by traditional politics – but that doesn’t mean they are apathetic. Harnessing and directing interest where young workers have economic power is not easy.
The long-running dispute over the introduction of a 24-hour rail service on London’s underground took a positive turn when RMT, TSSA and Unite called off two further 24-hour strikes scheduled for the last week of August.
Why are governments (Tory, Labour) so obsessed with school testing? The latest wheeze is to test the youngest children within a few weeks of starting full-time school, when most are still just four years old.
Workers leaving school or university now have to pay individually to fund a non-guaranteed pension due in forty years’ time. That would seem an odd idea to previous generations of British workers.
In their election manifesto, the Conservatives said that by April 2016 they would cap charges on residential social care and limit the liability of any individual needing long-term care, along with a rise in the level of personal assets above which people would be ineligible for state help.
