Ahead of the march for the alternative, set to see thousands throng the capital to protest against the government cuts, the country’s biggest union reveals that many people in the UK are now “surviving, not living”. An independent poll tracked the concerns of 140,000 working people over four months from December 2010 until the...
Budget serves last rites on Big Society, says Unite
George Osborne read the last rites for the Big Society in his Budget, as he did not stump up the cash to revive the Prime Minister’s pet project. Unite, the largest union in the country, said that the Chancellor failed to plug the £4.5bn shortfall in funding for the not for profit sector and...
Is Compass losing direction?
The recent decision by Compass, the centre left pressure group, to open up to members of all parties has prompted a series of resignations. MATTHEW BROWN looks at the implications for advocates of progressive realignment. Last Saturday (12 March), a group of Compass members wrote a letter to the Guardian announcing their decision to...
25,000 demand Cameron stops the ‘Blood Money’
Unite’s campaign to stop the privatisation of the NHS Blood Service has received huge public support which is still growing. In under a week, the union’s petition demanding that David Cameron stops the blood money was signed by 25,000 people (go to http://action.unitetheunion.com/page/s/BloodMoney?source=UniteTwitter to add your name). The petition was launched last Friday 3rd...
Familiar problems, failed solutions
When confronted with a familiar problem, the wise either resort to the sure solution or, remembering past follies, try to muster an imaginative and novel way out of their bind. Sadly the current government hasn’t displayed such dexterity in fashioning responses to our economic crisis, rather it responds to familiar problems with failed solutions,...
Save our NHS
The drastic NHS reforms being pushed through parliament may do long-term damage to a much-loved institution. It isn’t too late to make your voice heard. Sign the petition: http://saveournhs.com/# About the bill The government’s proposed Health and Social Care BIll represents the most radical change to the NHS is its 60 year history. The...
Big Society ‘fantasy’ turns into ‘nightmare’
The Big Society was a short-term fantasy that turned into an enduring nightmare for thousands of charities, Unite, the largest union in the country, said this week. Unite, which has 60,000 members in the Not for Profit sector, said that David Cameron’s pipedream should be investigated immediately by the Commons Public Administration Select Committee....
The State of the State
The role and nature of the state has become a central feature of British political argument – should it be an ‘EasyJet state’ or a ‘John Lewis state’? Should the state give way for the arrival of the ‘big society’, or forms of mutualism or associationalism? In the context of deficit reduction and austerity...
Education is a social good, not a commodity
On 7 December, former New Statesman editor Peter Wilby wrote in The Guardian that Ed Miliband was wrong to oppose the government’s proposals to treble tuition fees. Here, BERNARD HUGHES says his argument is based on a view of education as a commodity not a social good. Peter Wilby’s argument has two main problems....
Education for people not profit
Compass has published a statement protesting at the government’s education reforms. We reproduce the statement here and provide a link to the Compass page where you can sign the petition. If you agree that education should remain a protected public good sign our petition! There is widespread anger over the government’s higher education reforms...
The Day of the Vote
AARON KIELY provides a student’s eyewitness account of police brutality at the tuition fees demonstration in Parliament Square last week. First, I have to state that I am a member of Labour Party, a candidate in the upcoming local elections, a Committee member of the NUS Black Students’ Campaign and an elected representative of...
False Economy
As campaigns against the spending cuts grow, readers may be interested in False Economy, a website for “everyone concerned about the impact of the government’s spending cuts on their community, their family or their job”. Devised by “local campaigners, those who rely on or support good public services and those who work to supply...