Unison accepts NHS pay agreement
Members of Unison, the largest union in the NHS, have voted overwhelmingly to accept the latest pay agreement.
EU flounders over R&D and Brexit
9 June 2018
In research and development (as in so many other things) the European Union desperately needs to cooperate with Britain. It’s time we realised its weakness.
Myth and manoeuvring over the Irish border
8 June 2018
The whole issue, “backstop” or none, is being used as a backdoor way of delaying and perhaps denying Brexit.
Fears hyped over US steel tariffs
8 June 2018
Remain-backing MP Stephen Kinnock is trying to use new US steel tarrifs to damage Brexit – but the real danger to Britain’s steel comes from Brussels.
Scandal of EU fishing discards ban
7 June 2018
The EU is enforcing a discard ban during the proposed Brexit transition period that could bankrupt most of the UK fishing fleet.
Choral revival for Marx's bicentenary
A major contribution to the current celebrations of the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth – and the 170th of the Communist Manifesto – has been the remarkable revival of a long-forgotten choral setting of passages from the book itself.
The disadvantage of being British
The vicious treatment of the Windrush Britons – who arrived from the Caribbean as children from 1948 to 1971 – contrasts starkly with the position of EU nationals under the Brexit transition agreement.
Foreign firms line up to plunder rail network
As parts of the rail network fail and the government’s Whitehall farce leads to ever more absurdities, the campaign to bring railways back into public ownership is gathering momentum around Britain…
Outsourcing: the vultures feeding off billions
The tsunami of outsourcing over the past decade has led to a culture of rotten business practices. When the merry-go-round finally comes to an end, it’s the workers and the public who are left to pay the bill…
Hands off Syria
With an opinion poll indicating that only 22 per cent of people in Britain support military action against Syria, Theresa May ordered the RAF to launch strikes – pre-empting debate in parliament.
We can make food safer: the responsibility is ours
Food safety and animal welfare concern or even alarm many of us. But the public debate is misleading at times. The EU has no more interest in animals than it does in workers…
Skills and education for the future of Britain
One of the consequences of Brexit must be that employers will no longer be allowed to dodge their responsibility to invest in training…
RMT in Westminster rally over guards
26 April 2018
A national protest against Driver Only Operation outside Parliament on 25 April drew rail workers and union banners from many towns and regions across the country.
Brightest and best?
A focus on importing skilled labour denies skill here – and damages foreign countries…
British trade unions: early origins
The British working class was the first proletariat in the world to emerge out of the land. It had to make a stand or go under…
Populism and reaction
Despite the supposed threat to democracy from populism, the anti-populist reaction is worse…
Stop the EU war machine!
During the 2016 referendum those who warned that the EU was developing its own army were dismissed as fantasists. Instead, we were told the EU had kept the peace in Europe. The truth is totally different…
Small can be beautiful
Britain could take a world lead in a new nuclear technology, and boost its energy self-sufficiency too…
NHS staff consider pay offer
It’s bad enough that the NHS has been lagging behind inflation for seven years but take the rise in travel costs, accommodation and food into account and the gap between the pay “rise” and RPI becomes even starker.
Boats 'transition' protest
Fishermen brought about 200 fishing vessels to six ports around the coast on Sunday 8 April to stage mass demonstrations against the government’s “transition” arrangements allowing the EU to control British waters until 2020.
Debt at record high
Global debts have risen to a new record high of £167 trillion, a rise of £21 trillion compared with 2016, according to the Institute of International Finance.
A year for engineering
26 April 2018
A new campaign aims to tackle the engineering skills gap and widen the pool of young people who join the profession.
Health - Avoidable deaths
Across Britain an average of 229 avoidable deaths was recorded for every 100,000 people between 2014 and 2016 – a total of around 138,000 people a year.
Apprenticeship problems raised
25 April 2018
The head of Ofsted has highlighted key problems foundin pilot inspections of apprenticeship providers since the new levy scheme came in.
Stop the bombing of Syria!
16 April 2018
Like its predecessors – the governments led by David Cameron and Tony Blair – our government has shown it is willing to allow British blood to be shed to back up US imperialism.
Industrial action sweeps across France
16 April 2018
While French President Emmanuel Macron cosies up to Donald Trump, his country is in uproar over his government’s anti-working class policies.
US private equity muscles in on rail
16 April 2018
American private equity firm Apollo Management has made a bid for one of Britain’s largest bus and rail companies, First Group, which has rebuffed the initial bid.
Truce in universities pensions fight
16 April 2018
The long-running dispute over pensions conducted by members of the University and College Union has been suspended after they voted decisively to accept the employers’ latest proposals.