Since the government’s reforms of employment tribunal legislation curbing employment rights in 2013, the trade unions have challenged them through a series of judicial reviews.
13 January 2016
The Trade Union Bill passed its second reading in the Lords on 11 January. In the face of a seemingly inexorable journey towards the Bill becoming an Act, the TUC’s response is a tepid Valentine’s stunt.
With the fascistic Trade Union Bill – attacking membership and finances – shortly to become law, we need organisation and clarity of thinking.
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.
New restrictions on the right to strike, including a 50 per cent voting threshold for union ballot turnouts, plus in some “essential public services” 40 per cent of those entitled to vote must vote for industrial action.
The Trade Union Bill announced in the Queen’s Speech has resurrected every wish-list governments ever had of smashing the working class. It embodies every anti-worker measure they’ve previously tried to implement and every shred of vindictive class hatred they have had in their ranks reaching back to day one of modern capitalism.
If it came from local authority leaders or senior NHS managers, the proposal to spend between £5.7 and £7.1 billion restoring the Houses of Parliament over a 40-year period would lead for calls for them to be sectioned.
15 July 2015
The recent Budget cynically repeated well rehearsed lies masquerading as truths. Fundamentally, there is no financial soundness in the “austerity” regimes.
We have said that the main danger of fascism in Britain comes from the heart of the establishment, parliament. If you doubt this, take a look at the Trade Union Bill announced in the Queen’s Speech.
Chancellor George Osborne will deliver another government budget on 8 July. Familiarity with the themes of “austerity” and “balancing the books” should not blind us to what is going on behind the figures
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.
The run-up to an election is a strange time. There is much talk of democracy while in reality a range of tactics is deployed to remove citizens from the electoral roll.
In March next year the Audit Commission will be abolished. With it will go an important principle of public life – that the audit of money spent by public bodies should be as genuinely independent as possible.
