“It’s clear the Tories are destroying the welfare state and we have to do whatever we can to stop them,” said ILP chair David Connolly as he drew the organisation’s well-attended Unbalanced Britain seminar on the housing crisis to a close in Leeds last weekend. Connolly’s cry for action came at the end of a...
Housing in Crisis: Still Time to Book
You have one week left to book your place at the ILP’s next Unbalanced Britain seminar, Housing in Crisis, to be held in Leeds on Saturday 5 March. The impressive line-up of speakers includes Dr Quintin Bradley, senior lecturer in planning and housing at Leeds Beckett University, Fabian Hamilton, Labour MP for Leeds North East...
Unbalanced Britain: Housing in Crisis
The Tory Housing Bill and Britain's housing crisis will be the subject of the ILP’s next Unbalanced Britain meeting in Leeds on Saturday 5 March with Dr Quintin Bradley, Fabian Hamilton MP and Ellen Robottom from Hands off our Homes....
Challenging the Welfare Myths
GERRY LAVERY of Unite Community Leeds reports from a conference in Birmingham set up ‘to challenge the myths around welfare and build a coalition to fight for our safety net’. The well-attended conference on Saturday 31 October was called by Unite Community (Unite the Union’s community wing) and the Public Services and Commercial Services Union...
Momentum Mobilise Against Tax Credit Cuts
Momentum are gathering a series of video messages from people around the country to highlight the impact on families of George Osborne’s proposed cuts to tax credits....
Make the Living Wage Compulsory
While recent rate increases are welcome, the Living Wage Foundation’s voluntary approach to employers is not working, says ERNIE JACQUES....
Remembering the Rent Strikes 100 Years On
The life of ILPer Mary Barbour will be centre stage at Glasgow’s Tron Theatre in November when a heralded play about the 1915 rent strikes returns to the city to mark the centenary of that historic struggle....
The Politics of Panic and Failure
Despite what Alan Johnson says, the rise of Corbynism is a symptom of New Labour’s failed legacy, claims ERNIE JACQUES....
‘Blatant’ Union Bill Designed to Damage Labour
The Trade Union Bill published by the Conservative government today (Wednesday 14 July) is designed to damage the Labour Party financially and will poison relations between workers and managers, according to the GMB union. The Bill introduces turnout threshold of 50% for strike ballots, and requires unions in the health, education, fire, transport, water, security...
TUC Attacks Tax Credit Reforms
Trade Union Congress general secretary Frances O’Grady this week attacked the Conservative government for consigning millions of working families to poverty thanks to its proposed welfare reforms....
Labour’s Housing Problem
ERNIE JACQUES argues that Labour’s ‘curate’s egg’ of a manifesto is a long way from being social democratic or balanced. It’s a confused approach exposed most clearly by its housing policy. While there are undoubtably progressive nuggets in the Labour Party’s manifesto, which sets it apart from the nasty party, it is nevertheless remarkably timid...
Unbalanced Britain: The Living Wage and Labour’s Future
The Rose Bowl at Leeds Beckett University was the venue for the ILP’s second Unbalanced Britain seminar on 14 March, examining the campaign for a living wage and Labour’s response. The recession and its lop-sided recovery have left millions of working people in poverty, claimed Tom Chigbo of Leeds Citizens. Addressing the latest ILP seminar...