Tag: budget
Portuguese economic and political crisis reaches explosion point!
PORTUGAL’S borrowing costs have jumped to over 7%, meaning that it will shortly have to seek another IMF-EU bailout, by offering even more cuts...
Action needed to stop them smashing the NHS
NHS England warned yesterday that by 2020-21 the gap between the NHS budget and rising costs could reach £30bn, meaning that when the current...
‘We must stop the A&E closures’ – Doctors reply to Nicholson
‘IT can’t be done’ Southwest London hospital consultant Dr Philip Howard told News Line yesterday in response to a call for more A&E closures...
£14.4bn BLACK HOLE THREAT TO 70,000 MORE JOBS!
A £14.4 billion funding black hole threatens to swallow public services, say the council leaders of the Local Government Association. A LGA statement said: ‘The...
Greek government’s aim – to gag TV workers
ON June 11, the Greek coalition government took the unprecedented decision to close the national TV station in Athens and sack the workforce of...
Union leaders denounce Osborne’s spending review – but call no action...
CHANCELLOR Osborne’s vicious £11.5 billion Spending Review attacks on pay, public services and benefits, were immediately condemned by trade union and TUC leaders representing...
Desperate Osborne swings the axe as the capitalist crisis deepens
IN HIS Spending Review of yesterday, drawn up at a time when the capitalist crisis is deepening, with inflation rising and the banks warning...
Osborne imposes ‘Welfare Cap’
CHANCELLOR Osborne launched a massive new attack on the working class and poor yesterday, with his £11.5 billion Spending Review onslaught on pay, public...
This BMA ARM must decide on action to defend NHS! –...
THE health services in England and Wales and Northern Ireland are in massive crisis. In February, The Francis report on Mid Staffordshire hospital (MSH)...
Coalition To Take The Axe To Council Spending And End...
COUNCILS in England face a 10% cut in funding from central government as part of the coalition’s spending plans for 2015/16. As well, there...
Labour sells out on state education
THE Labour shadow education minister, Stephen Twigg, made a speech yesterday that was billed as ‘wresting’ the initiative on education from the Tories –...
Authorities Face Financial Collapse – Defend Jobs & Services!
‘MULTIPLE local authorities’ are facing financial collapse due to government spending cuts, MPs on the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) have warned. The...
Coalition Policy Is To Financially Collapse Local Authorities
THE House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has warned that ‘multiple’ local authorities are facing financial collapse due to government spending cuts. The...
Miliband adopts Osborne’s programme to smash Welfare State!
LABOUR Party leader Miliband’s speech on the party’s economic strategy showed conclusively that the Labour Party leaders are prepared to completely destroy the Welfare...
LEGAL AID CHANGES ARE UNLAWFUL –finds leading QC Michael Fordham
A legal opinion by a leading QC has found that the Government’s proposed changes to legal aid – for which the consultation closed this...
Means tests for pensioners says Balls
LABOUR will bring in a means test for winter fuel payments for the elderly if they win the next general election, Shadow Chancellor Ed...
Museums taking strike action
Strikes by workers at museums and galleries across the country today kick off a long weekend of action against government cuts. The Public and Commercial...
Huge Welfare cuts –Duncan Smith proposals condemned
Unions and children’s charities yesterday condemned Work and Pensions Secretary Duncan Smith’s offer to raid the Welfare Budget by another £3 billion a year...
GPs angry at cuts and NHS privatisation
GPs meeting in London on Thursday reacted angrily to the government’s cuts and drive to privatise, and press and government propaganda blaming GPs for...
No confidence in Gove by heads
At their annual conference the largest head teachers union, NAHT, passed a motion of no-confidence in the Tory education minister Michael Gove and the whole...
A&E closures cost lives
For the first time since the process of closing accident and emergency units in hospitals up and down the country was started by the...
Unions Must Act To Defend Hospitals
THERE is a huge crisis in A&E departments in English and Welsh hospitals. Emergency patients brought to A&E departments by ambulance frequently have to...
DEATH TOLL PASSES 1,100 – in the Rana Plaza disaster
THE death toll from the collapse of the Dhaka building housing garment factories that workers were ordered back into, despite warnings, reached over 1,121...
CQC head demands thousands of NHS bed closures!
DAVID Prior, the new head of the NHS regulatory body the Care Quality Commission, nailed his colours firmly to the Tory mast of privatising...
EU in crisis – forward with the European socialist revolution
The crisis of European capitalism is so severe that it has driven the bourgeoisie to tear at each other’s throats in a frenzy of...
NINE OUT OF TEN WORSE OFF – under Universal Credit
‘Nine out of ten people are expected to be worse off under the new Universal Credit system,’ Tim Nichols of the Child Poverty Action...
Hands off nurses! Government to blame for cuts
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) started its annual conference this week in the midst of a brutal attack on the nursing profession spearheaded...
Unison Leadership Censured Over Pay Retreat
MOTIONS censuring the union’s leadership are being discussed at the Unison Health Care Service Group Annual Conference being held in Glasgow on 22 –...
‘You’re playing with fire’ – IMF tells Chancellor Osborne
INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund (IMF) chief economist Olivier Blanchard has warned UK Chancellor Osborne that he is ‘playing with fire’ with his fiscal policy. Blanchard also...
Coalition plans Royal Mail sell-off at knock-down price
News broke yesterday that the long expected attempt by the coalition to sell off and privatise Royal Mail is set to occur this autumn. What...
Major Privatisation Drive In North Of Ireland
UNISON has called on the Public Accounts Committee and the Assembly Health Committee to investigate the startling growth of private medicine funded out of...
US Working Class At The Crossroads – Break With The Democrats...
EVERYWHERE, from the motor car industry to the mines of Appalacia, the US working class is struggling for its jobs and its trade union...
Civil Servants Out Solid
Thousands of HM Revenue and Customs members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) took part in a half-day strike yesterday, coinciding with...
PCS in general strike talks!
PUBLIC and Commercial Services Union (PCS) general secretary Mark Serwotka confirmed yesterday that the PCS is in talks with other trade unions on holding...
UN Cuts Aid To Palestinians!
HAMAS yesterday urged the United Nations to reconsider its suspension of food aid for Palestinian refugees, imposed after protesters stormed a UN depot in...
American dream turns to nightmare!
HUNDREDS of US cities are going bust, either destroyed by the banking and property collapse or by the crisis of the major US industries. The...
Defend the NHS! defend the Welfare state! Bring down the...
IN his recent budget speech Chancellor Osborne stated his objective is: ‘Building a modern reformed state we can afford.’ The truth of the matter is...
Council Tax imposed on poor!
1.9 MILLION people who pay no Council Tax in the poorest households in England will pay an average of £140 a year tax from...
The crisis is leaving the working class no alternative to...
A FURTHER nail was driven into the coffin of British capitalism this week with the release of figures showing that the income from overseas...
NHS privatisation must be stopped!
A LOBBY of Parliament called by the Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign, and backed by the Unite trade union, was held yesterday, midday. It was...
‘Stand up and be counted before it’s too late’ – Dr...
‘GPs have been forced into commissioning as the Trojan horse of these reforms. They have been hoodwinked – hook, line, and sinker’, Dr Clare...
BBC journalists and technicians set to strike Thursday – over job...
BBC journalists and technicians are set to strike for 12 hours on from midday to midnight this Thursday, 28 March. BBC Easter programmes will be...
Unions angry over pay and progression cuts!
In his budget speech Chancellor Osborne announced that there would be a one per cent annual pay rise of the public sector up to...
Agree to robbery with violence or face eviction – Troika warns...
MPs in Cyprus have been told to agree, by Monday, on a series of bills to raise 6bn euros off the backs of the...
£9 bn of tax rises ahead – after next election says...
TAX rises of up to £9 billion could be imposed on British households and businesses after the next general election in 2015, leading economic...