New Year protest against fare rises
3 January 2017
Rail unions and passenger groups are kicking off the new year with two days of protests against high fares.
News
News
Contractor seeks cleaning redundancies at hospital hit by norovirus
31 December 2016
A week after private provider ISS secured acontract at a Kent hospital, it proposed making 30 cleaners redundant – despite a history of norovirus outbreaks at the hospital.
Use Brexit to improve patient safety, say surgeons
30 December 2016
The Royal College of Surgeons has called on the government to use Brexit to strengthen language testing for overseas doctors and increase the time allocated to medical training.
New Brexit leaflet available
14 December 2016
With the enemies of Brexit lining up to lodge court cases to thwart the people’s decision in the referendum, the CPBML has produced a new leaflet calling for Article 50 to be invoked.
Economy: Brexit forecasts revised
The International Monetary Fund now accepts that its forecast of a post-Brexit vote financial crash has proved overly pessimistic.
Conservation: Natural Brexit
Wildlife and conservation charities are realising the opportunities created by leaving the EU.
Metrication: Bin the regulations!
Since decimalisation of the currency in 1970 there has been a continuous campaign by supporters of metrication, promoted by the EU, to enforce changes to weights, measurements and distances.
Rattling sabres - but rustily
One of the glorified gunboats deployed to pursue a Russian aircraft carrier broke down while playing war games and had to be towed home.
New flats open on former social care site
14 December 2016
The site of a former home for vulnerable adults is now on the market having been redeveloped for private housing.
Mitie quits home care
Specialist outsourcing company Mitie has decided home care isn't profitable any more and is leaving the domestic home care market.
Statement signals Brexit shift
Last year’s Brexit decision is starting to influence Britain’s economic direction, if Chancellor Philip Hammond's first Atumn Statement is anything to go by.
Real wages falling, says Governor
14 December 2016
Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, identified last week that real wages in Britain have fallen for the first time in 150 years.
'Owner-employees' fiddle to go
14 December 2016
The government has abandoned the attempt to spread the concept of “owner-employees”, introduced four years ago by the Coalition government.
Marching for libraries
Some 3,000 public library workers, users and authors marched on 5 November from the British Library, London, to Trafalgar Square.
Dyson Institute: planning out of the EU
13 December 2016
Sir James Dyson intends to establish an Institute of Technology in 2017. This positive initiative it raises significant questions for our class. We must become the front runners in preparing for life after Brexit; it’s not enough to leave the future of Britain to others.
Fire: Big rise in deaths
The latest figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government show that 294 people died in fires in England during 2015.
Crown post offices strike for survival
3 December 2016
Members of the Commuication Workers Union in Crown post offices across the country are on strike today, protesting against further “managed decline” of British postal services.
Fidel Castro, 1926 - 2016
Fidel Castro, who died last Friday, represented the struggle for the independence of Cuba from US control, for independence for the Cuban nation and the Cuban working class.
Judges seek to thwart will of people
23 November 2016
On 5 December judges on the Supreme Court will decide who is sovereign in this country – parliament or the people. They should allow the government to implement the Brexit referendum
No progress without unity -- and independence for Britain
31 October 2016
After the SNP lost the 2014 vote, many in Scotland joined the SNP. In England too, many joined Labour and the Lib Dems after the EU referendum. These are reactionary currents.
Manufacture defies the Remain lies
31 October 2016
The Remainers are professional denigrators of Britain, running down anything in an attempt to show they were right. Manufacturing is proving them wrong.
Sheerness steelworks to re-open
In a complete U-turn, the industrial consortium Liberty House has stopped demolition of the Sheerness steelworks in Kent. It now plans to renovate and re-open them by summer 2017.
Brexit frees up scheme to protect Britain's woodland
30 October 2016
A “Buy British” scheme is to be launched using Brexit freedoms from EU directives to protect our woodlands from pests and diseases brought in by imported trees.
Wages falling in real terms
Real wages in Britain have fallen by more than 10 per cent in the past ten years, according to government figures.
Eurozone stagnation in Italy
Italy’s GDP is up by only 0.8 per cent on last year. In this year’s second quarter, there was no growth at all.
NHS still tendering contracts across the EU
27 October 2016
NHS England is trying to defy the historic referendum vote to leave the EU by applying EU rules to the procurement of up to £15 billion of specialised services contracts.
No trade deal for EU and Canada
24 October 2016
Belgium cannot sign the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, the EU’s proposed trade deal with Canada because of opposition from local elected bodies. That may block the whole deal.
Southern rail: ASLEF to ballot over safety
The government wants massive cuts to staffing on Britain’s railways regardless of safety. ASLEF is to ballot train drivers in Southern rail against that threat, joining RMT guards in their increasingly bitter dispute.
Deutsche Bahn axes British rail jobs
Deutsche Bahn, the German state-owned rail company, has axed nearly 900 jobs, a quarter of its British workforce.
Unison: no movement on pay claim
Unison’s go-it-alone stance on local government pay has hit the buffers. Its additional pay claim for 2017-18 is not supported by other unions. Employers have refused the claim. New thinking is needed by workers to make progress.