PFIs – lucrative and lethal
Remember Private Finance Initiatives? These 30-year lease-back deals to bring public money into private hands are now notorious as very bad value for money.
News/Views
On the march towards a European army
The current president of the European Commission wants it. So did his predecessors. And now the whole EU is taking steps towards the creation of a unified European military, along with unified defence research…
Brussels eyes procurement
The EU wants a single military procurement policy, coordinated by a newly empowered European Defence Agency.
How politicians created a childcare crisis
What happens when the government introduces a childcare scheme but fails to fund it properly? Nurseries are closing, childminders are quitting – and parents and grandparents are picking up the bill…
Out of control?
There is a wide variety of education and group care for pre-school children.
Negotiations: let's have clarity
It's time for the Brexit negotiators to show the same clarity as that of the British people in the referendum vote. We don't want opaque wording, we want out.
Pensions: Academic ballot
University workers across Britain are being balloted over whether to fight to prevent the closure of their University Superannuation Scheme, a final salary arrangement.
OU backs down on Cuba
The Open University has now agreed to admit students from Cuba after criticism from educational unions and others.
Highs and lows - from the 1930s to the 1980s
The high point of achievement for the British working class was 1945, and the post war years that followed. But how did 1945 happen?
Guards battle still raging
29 December 2017
Strikes to halt the removal of guards continue on many passenger franchises. The RMT announced further strike action extending into the new year in the separate disputes on Merseyrail, Northern, Greater Anglia, South Western Railways and Island Line.
EU: new call for integration
Martin Schulz, head of Germany’s Social Democrats, is calling strongly for ever-closer European integration to build a “United States of Europe” by 2025.
Work-in saves jobs
Decisive action by the workers at Burntisland Fabrication in Scotland has saved jobs at the oil and gas industry equipment maker.