Surrey bus drivers ballot for action
6 May 2015
More than 100 bus drivers working for Abellio Surrey at its Byfleet depot are being balloted for strike action in a dispute over pay and conditions.
Mayor removed after blistering court judgement
4 May 2015
The directly elected mayor of East London borough Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman, was summarily removed from office when an election court found him guilty of corrupt practices at the end of April.
Blundering to disasters
2 May 2015
This excellent book, recently updated, is a manual of policy-making and implementation. It analyses many of the most conspicuous policy disasters committed by governments in recent decades.
Unsustainable policies
2 May 2015
This biography of the new SNP leader by David Torrance is well-informed and full of ideas. His is both appreciative and critical of his subject. His objectvity brings out the flaws in the SNP position.
Midwives and radiographers in first N. Ireland walkout
2 May 2015
Hundreds of members of the Royal College of Midwives and the Society of Radiographers struck for the first time ever in hospitals across Northern Ireland on 30 April as part of the public sector pay battle.
Children forced into Sikh free school
1 May 2015
Parents in Leeds have been shocked to discover that their local authority has allocated places to their children in a Sikh free school, despite their not having chosen the school.
'Worst attack in history' on further education as government cuts bite deep
29 April 2015
If the government continues with its planned cuts to the adult skills budget, by 2020 adult education and training in England will have ceased to exist.
A best-seller 167 years on
29 April 2015
Something interesting has occurred with the Bookseller list of current bestsellers. The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels is a new entry into the top ten list of general paperbacks.
Unity needed – to stop the EU pulling us apart
The parliamentary parties are for saving capitalism and enhancing its profits. And the EU is the instrument designed for this…
Zero for us, subsidies for them
As capitalism continues its drive to reduce workers to utter penury and, worse, compliance in that drive, the number of workers on zero hours contracts has soared from 200,000 in 2010 to 1.8 million in 2015.
Politics and survival
By the time you read this, the election will probably have morphed into a grand negotiation about a coalition. This they call politics.
US backs down over Cuba
Every year workers throughout the world celebrate May Day. Forty years ago, it coincided with the liberation of South Vietnam. This year, May Day comes hot on the heels of the US’s massive climbdown over Cuba – brilliant news.
Something for nothing
With Scottish universities among the highest users of zero-hours contracts, it is fitting that the University and College Union (UCU) should hold its annual congress this May in Glasgow.
Science for the people: Away with superstitions
If all Britain had in the way of scientific research were just what is contained in London, we would be a global scientific power.
The DevoManc debacle
There’s been very little support for splitting up England whenever it has been put to the vote. Two years ago the people of Manchester voted not to have an elected mayor. They could not see why they needed yet another politician.
1975: Victory in Vietnam
Vietnam’s long struggle for independence culminated in victories for this small country against the military might of France and of America…
Barts: start talking
THE LARGEST NHS trust in Britain is blundering towards the precipice of bankruptcy – flawed from the inception of the Barts PFI deal, delivered under the last Labour government.
The battle for the arts: people versus profit
Should the arts be expected to create capital, and capital expected to fund the arts? Or are the arts an essential human function that ultimately cannot be controlled by capital?
Unity 'frees camp' from ISIS
Reports have reached Workers that the combined force of all the armed rival Palestinian factions in the giant Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria, plus the Syrian Arab Army, have liberated most of the camp from ISIS.
Pay turmoil in Unison
Unison’s local government sector has been thrown into turmoil following the hijacking of the union’s democratic procedures after last year’s local government pay fiasco.
Steel - Strike ballot goes ahead
Steel workers employed by Tata Steel in Port Talbot, Scunthorpe, Rotherham and other sites are to ballot during May on strike action over imposed changes to the pension scheme.
Scotland - The £7.6 billion hole
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has concluded that Scotland would be left with a £7.6 billion gap in its finances if it pursued fiscal autonomy, because falling oil revenues would leave the country with a tax shortfall – to be met by cuts or taxes.
RMT protests against subsidising European rail services
A series of protests across the north of England are highlighting the way British rail passengers are subsidising rail services in other European countries.
National strike looms over rail pay
Rail unions RMT and TSSA look set to call around 20,000 Network Rail staff out on strike in a fight over pay after talks at ACAS broke down.
Paying the cost of university
A report at the end of March showed that almost half of the 9 per cent increase in household debt in 2014 in Britain was accounted for by young people trying to fund their way through university.
Cancer care in Britain needs improving
3 April 2015
Britain lags behind in cancer treatment according to Macmillan Cancer Support. NHS England and the Department of Heath suggest progress is being made, but their claims don’t stand up to scrutiny.
No pot of gold for South Yorkshire
3 April 2015
Judges have upheld a reallocation by the Department of Business Innovation and Skills of £50 million EU structural growth funds from South Yorkshire to Scotland and Wales.
Barnsley College workers strike for conditions
3 April 2015
Barnsley College workers are in dispute over restructuring plans that will bring worse pay and conditions. A series of strikes restarted with four more days' action in the week ending 20 March.
Archaeologists unearth map secrecy
31 March 2015
Archaeologists working on the remote Cumbrian island of Walney and on the Isle of Grain in Kent have revealed what were secret trench training grounds forgotten for over a century.
TB in some London boroughs 'worse than Eritrea'
31 March 2015
Figures released by Public Health England at the end of March show that rates of tuberculosis in some London boroughs are worse than some of the poorest countries in the world.