January trade deficit at £10bn
ANY talk of ‘recovery’ has been well and truly scotched by the revelation that Britain’s trade deficit widened more than expected in January,...
Ealing Week-Long Strike!
150 workers began a week-long strike at closure-threatened Ealing Hospital in west London yesterday against the privateer Medirest. The porters, catering and domestic workers, all...
Ealing week-long strike action
GMB members employed by contractor Compass Medirest at Ealing hospital began a seven-day strike at 7.00am today until 7.00am next Friday, 21 March, for...
NO PAY CUTS! –take strike action for at least 5% for all
COALITION ministers have announced a basic 1% pay rise for the public sector, in reality a wage cut with CPI inflation running at 2%. However,...
Stop mass NHS closures!
MPs passed the Care Bill on Tuesday night, including the hospital closure Clause 119, giving Health Secretary Hunt power to begin a mass...
GREEK PUBLIC SECTOR 24hr STRIKE
GREEK public sector workers went on a 24-hour national strike on Wednesday against the so-called government ‘mobility scheme’ to bring in tens of thousands...
Stop hospital closures!
OVER 100 workers and youth lobbied parliament yesterday afternoon ahead of a vote on the government’s Care Bill which includes the hated ‘Clause 119’...
Defeat Tory hospital closure plan! – says Unite at demonstration today
UNITE is demanding that Clause 119 of the Care Bill, which awards Tory Health Secretary Hunt sweeping powers to close down any hospital he...
Stop Clause 119 – Stop The Hospital Closures!
THE government faces a revolt over Clause 119 of the Care Bill today. This clause would give health secretary Hunt and appointed officials powers to...
Greek Riot Police Attack Demonstrators
SACKED Finance Ministry cleaners demanding re-employment, occupied the Athens district tax office in Kallithea yesterday morning. At the same time, state teachers on the ‘mobility...
NO TO TWO-TIER JUSTICE! say 3,000 marching lawyers
‘THIS is the biggest gathering that I can remember of solicitors, barristers, probation staff and the many people we represent,’ solicitor Paul Harris told...
Police spied on Lawrence family –convictions took 18 years
A JUDGE-LED public inquiry will be held into the work of undercover police following a review into the original Stephen Lawrence murder investigation. It found...
11bn euro loan to Ukraine – will mean savage cuts
THE European Commission has offered Ukraine 11 billion euros, falling well short of the $35 billion needed to service immediate debt repayments and avoid...
Chase Farm ‘needs its A&E back – not a new sign!’
ON 15th January a two-year-old child died at North Middlesex Hospital after having been taken to Chase Farm Hospital. The baby’s name was Muhammad Hashir...
Workers Revolution in Ukraine worries Putin
PRESIDENT Putin said yesterday at a Moscow press conference that an unconstitutional coup and an armed takeover of power had taken place in Kiev. He...
Cleaners mass picket at SOAS
THERE was a lively mass picket at SOAS University, Central London, yesterday at the start of a two-day strike by cleaners. SOAS Unison Assistant Branch...
Nuneaton hospital faces private takeover
GEORGE Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton is in danger of becoming the second NHS hospital to undergo a private sector takeover The foundation trust hospital...
Elderly & youth under attack!
ELDERLY and disabled passengers are losing vital bus services because of cuts in government funding, councils in England are warning. The Local Government Association (LGA)...
5.4m workers doing unpaid overtime says TUC
EMPLOYEES across the UK worked a record amount of unpaid overtime last year, with over 5.4 million workers putting in around £640m worth of...
Stop Hunt Closing Hospitals!
OVER 150 people lobbied the Houses of Parliament yesterday in an angry demonstration against clause 119, which if passed gives Tory Health Secretary Hunt...
Fearful Kiev ‘warns’ Russia
THE SELF-STYLED Ukrainian interim President Olexander Turchynov yesterday warned Russia against any ‘military aggression’ in Crimea. He said Russia’s troops from its Black Sea Fleet...
Hunt dissolves Mid-Staffs Trust!
HEALTH Secretary Hunt announced yesterday that he is to dissolve the trust that runs Stafford General Hospital, with services set to be downgraded or...
Massive Crimea clashes–Red Army exercise called
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin has ordered an urgent military drill to test the combat readiness of the armed forces across western and central Russia. The...
‘Say No’ To Academies
ONE of the largest chains of academies in England is to be stripped of the control of ten schools, the Department for Education (DfE)...
‘WE WON’T INTERFERE IN UKRAINE’–Lavrov
RUSSIA’S Foreign Minister Lavrov, said yesterday that Moscow will not interfere with affairs in Ukraine. The Kremlin has reacted with barely-disguised anger...
47m medical records sold to insurance companies!
UNISON and the GMB yesterday reacted angrily to the revelation that the hospital records of 47 million NHS patients have been sold to insurance...
Kiev ‘Terrorist Regime!’
THE EXTREME right wingers making up as the self-declared ‘new Ukrainian authority’, yesterday issued an ‘arrest warrant’ for the President of the Ukraine, Viktor...
General Practice brought to its knees by funding crisis!
MORE than 34 million patients in England will this year fail to get an appointment with their GP, when seeking treatment, because of the...
Hague Wary Of Russian Intervention
UK Foreign Secretary Hague yesterday said there needed to be ‘urgent’ action to ‘stave off an even more serious economic situation’ in Ukraine. He...
Ukraine compromise offer – as right wing gunmen mass in Kiev
UKRAINIAN President Viktor Yanukovych yesterday announced early presidential elections and a compromise agreement with the pro US-EU ‘opposition’. He said that the constitution of 2004,...
98 GP PRACTICES FACING CLOSURE! – says BMA
AT LEAST 98 GP practices are threatened with closure as a direct result of Tory coalition funding cuts, doctors union the BMA warned yesterday. The...
Right wing ignores Kiev truce
THREATS of sanctions against the Ukrainian government look like blackmail, and a demand for early elections is a way to force Kiev towards the...
Jobless rate up to 7.2%
THE rate of unemployment in the UK has risen from 7.1% to 7.2% the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed yesterday. The ONS figures...
Right-Wing Mobs Take To Arms In Ukraine
As well as Lviv, the occupation of government buildings by anti-government activists and confrontations with police were reported yesterday in the western cities of...
House price inflation reaches 8.4%
RETAIL Price Index (RPI) inflation, which includes housing costs, grew by 2.8% in the year ending January 2014, up from 2.7% in December 2013. This...
Yorks ambulance workers fourth strike against cuts
AMBULANCE workers in Yorkshire walked out on strike yesterday afternoon for the fourth time in an escalating battle against cuts and changes in...
Strikebreakers are being organised for the teachers strike!
NATIONAL Union of Teachers (NUT) representatives yesterday condemned the government’s drive to organise strike-breaking during their national strike on March 26.
In revised ‘advice on...
ERT workers fight on
OVER 1,500 workers and youth were present at a solidarity concert in Athens last Thursday evening for the sacked workers at ERT (Greek state...
Public sector faces 40% cuts
THE Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) yesterday warned that the public sector, excluding the NHS and education, faces an ‘alarming’ 40 per cent cut...
Second day of Ealing Hospital strike
EALING Hospital porters, domestic, catering and help desk workers held their second 12-hour strike yesterday. More than 100 GMB members employed by the privateer Medirest...
‘Staggering rate of evictions’
HOMELESS charity Shelter has denounced the ‘staggering’ amount of families who are being forcibly evicted from their homes, the highest since records began. Figures released...
Ealing Hospital strike action!
MORE than 100 Ealing Hospital porters, domestic, catering and help desk workers took their first day of strike action from 6am-6pm yesterday and are...
Flooding – Call For Five Year Reconstruction Plan
THE flood-hit South West of England needs a joined up, five year reconstruction and development plan to rebuild the economic, transport and social fabric,...
Tube Strike Suspended
THE 48-hour London Underground strike was suspended yesterday afternoon by both unions, the TSSA and RMT. The strike, due to start last night...
Barclays to sack 12,000 – while bonus pool for 2013 rises to £2.38bn
BARCLAYS bank yesterday announced plans to sack 12,000 bank workers and in the very same breath announced whopping bonuses for its top bankers. The...