The papers are full-on when members or ex-members of the government make a fool of themselves behaving badly when they can’t get their way – Andrew Mitchell foul-mouthing a policeman with the toxic ‘plebs’ allegedly added in because he couldn’t ride his bike through the No.10 gates, and David Mellor ranting at a black cab […]
Posts under ‘Poverty/Low Pay’
The way back from Rochester, Strood and austerity
Nov 24th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.Mark Reckless’ UKIP victory over the Tories serves notice on all the parties. The Tories, having sworn to “throw the kitchen sink” at retaining it in Cameron’s words he must now regret, see a near-10,000 Tory majority in 2010 turned into a 3,000 (7.3%) UKIP lead. Labour, which never had a chance of winning, loses nearly […]
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Workers of the world unite against the new generation of trade deals
Nov 18th, 2014 by Adrian Weir.David Cameron’s ringing endorsement at the G20 of the proposed EU-US trade deal, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), was perhaps predictable but also has opened up the topic of TTIP and its like to greater public awareness. Until Brisbane discussion of this new generation of multi-lateral trade agreements was very much a topic […]
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Your right to know what’s done in your name with your money
Nov 14th, 2014 by Grahame Morris.Openness, transparency, and accountability. These three values underpin the public service ethos, they are the foundation of good government and a healthy democracy. As a taxpayer you have a right to know and to question how your money is being spent. However, your ability to question is being slowly eroded piece by piece as our public […]
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The Labour market determines pay based on power not fairness
Nov 9th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.What is an employee worth? Whatever the market pays is the conventional answer. But the market is not based on merit or justice, it’s based on power relations. Those who have the power will exert it to get more and more, while those who have little or no power will get squeezed and pushed down […]
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Labour’s crisis: It’s the sense of security, stupid
Nov 6th, 2014 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.At the start of the summer, prospective parliamentary candidates enjoyed a breakfast audience with His Royal Blairness. There was none of the “proper” post-prime ministerial coyness that our Tony normally pretends to. He was frank and open. Sort of. He was asked what he thought of Labour’s chances going into the next general election, to […]
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Let’s be bolder on tackling poverty pay during Living Wage Week
Nov 6th, 2014 by Dave Watson.During Living Wage Week we should focus on ensuring that the 400,000 workers in Scotland on poverty pay are paid the living wage. The idea behind a living wage is very simple. A worker should be paid enough to live decently and to adequately provide for their family. It helps prevent in-work poverty and ensures workers are […]
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The economy, the state and my crisis of faith
Nov 5th, 2014 by Daniel McAteer.Last week I had a crisis of faith in Labour. Looking at the Scottish polling, it looks as if Labour’s journey back to government may be longer and harder than we thought. Yet that is not what caused my questions to synchronise into a cacophony of doubt. My worries are for what happens if we do get […]
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You can’t de-politicise the minimum wage
Nov 4th, 2014 by Diane Abbott.Julia Unwin’s article in Rupert Murdoch’s Times newspaper this week would be laughable if it was not also symptomatic of a wider problem. Julia is the Chief Executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust and this week she took to the pages of the national newspaper to chide the leader […]
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Labour should make inhumanity of Tories a key electoral issue
Oct 30th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.The Tory government’s decision to withdraw from the search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean where tens of thousands of refugees are fleeing their war-savaged homelands is an act of pitiless inhumanity. Already this year alone some 25,000 people have arrived in Italy, and similar numbers from Eritrea, with thousands more from Iraq, Nigeria and […]
