Monthly Archives: February 2017
THE NHS crisis is ‘like being in a war,’ Patrick Carter, who advises Tory health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, told the Royal College of Anaesthetists’ annual dinner on Tuesday. In his speech, Carter said: ‘We need to be incredibly proud that our hospitals are running so hot, and yet they haven’t...
THE Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) issued the following statement in response to the Senate confirmation of billionaire public education novice Betsy DeVos as US Secretary of Education: ‘Choosing Betsy DeVos to lead the Department of Education was one of the first in what will surely be a series of horrific...
PRESIDENT Bashar al-Assad stressed in Damascus that Syria is owned by the Syrians and that the peace is two things. First, fighting terrorists and terrorism, and stopping the flowing of every kind of logistical support. • Do you think Belgium can play a role in Syria? President Assad: Let me...
ON Wednesday night, a spokesman for the Tory government delivered a blunt message to the House of Lords that they either accepted Brexit or face abolition, adding: ‘The Lords will face an overwhelming public call to be abolished if they try and frustrate this Bill – they must get...
LABOUR leader Jeremy Corbyn yesterday accused ministers of agreeing a ‘sweetheart deal’ to ensure a Conservative-controlled council dropped plans to raise council tax by up to 15% through a referendum. On Monday, Surrey County Council restricted the increase, to help fund growing social care costs, to 4.99% – meaning no...
THE International Monetary Fund has warned that Greece’s debts are on an ‘explosive path’ in its first annual review of the country’s economy since 2013. The IMF warned on Tuesday that ‘Greece cannot be expected to grow out of its debt problem, even with full implementation of reforms.’ It finds...
PRESIDENT Bashar al-Assad stressed in Damascus that Syria is owned by the Syrians and that the peace is two things. First, fighting terrorists and terrorism, and stopping the flowing of every kind of logistical support. ‘Second, a dialogue between the Syrians to decide the future of their country...
SPEAKER Bercow, with his condemnation of any invitation to US President Trump to address both Houses of Parliament, has shown just how split and divided the British ruling class and its political servants are over how they are going to survive in a period where the world crisis of...
IRAN has rejected any foreign meddling in its domestic affairs, and says it is ready to defend its missile programme ‘with full strength’ in the face of interventionist policies by other states. ‘The missile issue and Iran’s internal affairs are the Iranian government, its leadership, and people’s business,’ Foreign Ministry...
THE NUMBER of zero-hours contract and low-paid self-employed workers has rocketed by a quarter since 2011 to three million, new research released yesterday by the TUC has disclosed. That means that one-in-ten workers in the UK today are ‘insecure workers’. Even more startling is the number of teachers, waiters and...
YESTERDAY the Tory government was forced to concede that that a further 23,000 tax credit claimants whose benefits had been had been cut by the private contractor Concentrix would have their cases reviewed. These 23,000 are part of the 59,000 people and families whose benefits were cut or stopped altogether...
THE Uber CEO retreated from the White House Business Advisory Group after organised immigrant drivers protested at the ‘Muslim ban’ and #DeleteUber went viral. New York City taxi drivers are celebrating a resounding victory after the shame-faced Thursday resignation of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick from President Donald Trump’s business advisory...
THE first deputy speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) has said that Palestinian national reconciliation could not be achieved amid the continued security coordination between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). During Friday’s Khutbah (Islamic sermon) in a mosque in Gaza City, Ahmad Muhammad Bahr said that the current...
THE RMT has reacted furiously to the TUC/Southern Rail betrayal of safety and the conductor grade. General Secretary Mick Cash said: ‘This so-called agreement is a shocking and historical betrayal presided over by the TUC of not only the conductor grade and drivers, but also passengers, including disabled passengers, who...
‘WE WANT support from the whole airport and wider,’ striking BA mixed fleet cabin crew member and Unite rep Charly Bacon said yesterday. She was speaking at the Hatton Cross picket line at Heathrow airport as the approximately 3,000 cabin crew started a new phase of strike action over poverty...
THE Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Saeb Erekat has denounced the ongoing escalation by the Israeli government against its Palestinian citizens as ‘fascist’ and ‘extremist’, in the wake of a continuing demolition campaign targeting homes belonging to Palestinian citizens of Israel. ‘This escalation, characterised by home demolitions and...
THE TRADE Union Congress (TUC) organised the knifing in the back of the Southern guards’ and drivers’ struggle on Thursday, brokering a ‘deal’ which removed the safety critical role of the guard from the trains, at talks from which the RMT had been excluded. The leadership of the ASLEF...
DONALD Trump’s White House signalled a tougher stance toward Iran on Wednesday, condemning a recent missile test and declaring America was putting the Islamic Republic ‘on notice’. In his first public remarks since taking office, National Security Advisor Michael Flynn accused Barack Obama’s administration of having ‘failed to respond adequately...
THE Bank of England delivered its first announcement of 2017 on the economy yesterday, claiming that British capitalism had defied all expectations of a slowdown after the Brexit vote. According to the bank’s governor, Mark Carney, the economy had grown by 0.6% in each of the last three quarters and...
THE ‘MANAGING out’ of pupils in order to ‘game’ government league tables is rife among academies, Education DataLab revealed on Wednesday. ‘The NUT has long heard anecdotal evidence that some academy chains are “managing out” pupils to boost their position in league tables,’ National Union of Teachers (NUT) General Secretary...
RUTHLESS cuts on London Underground made by former mayor Boris Johnson ‘seriously threaten the safety of Londoners’, the RMT said on the eve of the next round of strike action. Meanwhile, transport bosses have been forced to admit that the strike action over the course of four days, beginning at...
THE early morning traffic began to ease as the funeral procession departed from Bethlehem’s city limits, and cars sped up on their way to the nearby village of Tuqu, in the southern occupied West Bank. ‘Look, look,’ said one of the drivers in the funeral procession, pointing upwards to a...
THE RMT has re-iterated its call for a reversal to Tube station staffing cuts in the light of a major fire-related incident at London Bridge yesterday. The fire, underneath an escalator, prompted a full evacuation, and only the vigilance and professionalism of the staff at the scene prevented tragedy. RMT...
THE just-published Resolution Foundation’s annual audit of living standards shows that the May government, far from seeking to lighten the load of the poor, is driving hard towards ‘the largest rise in inequality since the Parliament when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister’. It finds that ‘Britain is on course for...
THE TORY government has admitted that 5,500 schools face years of financial misery and that they are on the ‘funding floor.’ The Education Select Committee was yesterday told by Nick Gibb MP, Minister of State for Schools, that 5,500 schools will have their cash funding cut by 3% on...
MORE than 2,000 senior NHS doctors have signed a letter calling on Prime Minister Theresa May to increase spending on health and social care because ‘unacceptable levels of safety concerns’ mean things ‘simply cannot continue’ the way they are. The doctors who organised the letter – Anita Sugavanam, consultant anaesthetist,...
WITH home care for the elderly in a huge crisis as private companies go broke and councils declare that they cannot afford to meet the bill for elderly care, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Community Health and Care, David Mowat, has come up with the Tory solution –...