Tag: local government

UNISON yesterday called on the government to build more council houses as First Direct became the first major bank to stop lending to house...

RADICAL cleric Moqtada al-Sadr gave a lengthy interview to Al-Jazeera Satellite Television last Saturday about the US occupation of Iraq. He was first asked...

SCHOOLS Secretary Ed Balls and his predecessor Alan Johnson have given the go-head to the sell-off of 19 school playing fields over the past...

HEALTH workers, trade unionists, pensioners and residents from the SE London boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich, Bexley and Bromley are marching today against plans to...

The most comprehensive examination of the UK’s asylum system ever conducted has found it ‘marred by inhumanity’ and ‘not yet fit for purpose’. An interim...

TENANTS on demolition-threatened Aylesbury and Heygate council estates in Southwark, south-east London, are to march through the estates on Saturday April 5 to defend...

DELEGATES at the National Union of Teachers (NUT) annual conference in Manchester have called for action over pay, privatisation and teachers’ workload. During...

Workers participated in their millions last Wednesday in the biggest one-day general strike in Greece. It was called by the GSEE (Greek TUC) against the...

The European Union (EU) has expressed serious concern over Sri Lanka’s rights abuses, TamilNet reported yesterday. In a press release issued on Tuesday, the EU...

The Bank of England yesterday mortgaged £11 billion more of taxpayers’ money to shore up the big UK banks, as bank bosses held talks...

Five years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, the country is in disarray, the human rights situation is disastrous, a climate of impunity prevails,...

The Unite trade union yesterday told Northern Rock that they will oppose any plans for compulsory redundancies at the publicly owned bank. Following the announcement...

THERE were picket lines outside Jobcentres and benefit offices in London and across the country yesterday, at the start of a two-day strike by...

OVER 400 people attended the Chagos Islands Community Association rally in central London on Saturday evening, to demand the Chagossians’ right to return to...

Admiral William Fallon, commander of the US Mideast forces has resigned due to differences with the US president on dealing with Tehran. Fallon, said on...

In his first budget, Chancellor Darling hit the working class and middle class with big hikes in alcohol, tobacco and vehicle taxes while giving...

A JUDICIAL Review sought by the British Medical Association to challenge the government’s decision to cap the pensions of GPs will take place in...

‘Not a step back’, Bert Schouwenburg, GMB National Officer, told a meeting of up to 100 caretakers, working on the Council Estates run by...

THE GMB said yesterday that social care in this country has become a social disgrace, as it objected to Lord Hanningfield’s membership of a...

TENANTS on the Heygate estate in south London’s Elephant and Castle are being sent ‘take it now or face eviction later’ letters, as part...

one in five mortgage holders is worried about meeting their repayments over the next 12 months, while a quarter of these haven’t any idea...

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas yesterday suspended the ‘peace negotiations’ and contacts with Israel until the Israeli ‘criminal aggression’ on Gaza stops. An emergency meeting of...

TENANTS on the Heygate Estate in south-east London have alleged that ‘Rachman tactics’ are being used to try and drive them off the estate...

The 6th Special Session of the UN Human Rights Council ‘on human rights violations emanating from Israeli military incursions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,...

THE Brown government has been told by the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, to release the minutes of two cabinet meetings, from March 7th and...

Israel strengthened its forces along the border with the Gaza Strip last Sunday, fearful that thousands of Palestinians may march on the border against...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad yesterday warned of ‘firm reprisals’ against any country leading the way to impose new sanctions, adding that Iran was ‘not...

Cuban President Fidel Castro on Monday delivered the following message announcing his resignation from the presidency. It said: ‘Message from the Commander in Chief ‘Dear compatriots: ‘Last...

‘We have to keep this hospital open,’ said workers and youth taking part in a fifty-strong picket of Chase Farm Hospital, yesterday, organised...

AXED children’s theatre workers expressed outrage at Culture Secretary Andrew Burnham’s proclamation last Wednesday that ‘every schoolchild will get five hours of culture a...

HASHIM Thaci, the former leader of the American-backed terrorist group, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), and the Prime Minister in the Serbian province, declared...

By John Coulter, Irish political journalist THE starting gun on the most important realignment in Irish unionism for 40 years was fired when First Minister...

VLADIMIR CHIZHOV, The Russian ambassador to the EU, has warned that Moscow will react negatively to countries which recognise Kosovo independence. ‘This, above all, refers...

THE Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King has proclaimed that the crisis of capitalism means huge ongoing cuts in the standard of...

Some 100,000 workers demonstrated through the Athens city centre last Wednesday as part of the one-day general strike called by the GSEE (Greek TUC)...

COLOMBO – TamilNet reports that 20 Sri Lanka Army soldiers were killed in an intensive counter-attack launched by the Tigers on SLA units that...

RAPIDLY rising food, gas, electricity and petrol prices pushed up the cost of living in January, even according to the government’s rigged inflation rate...

Retail Price Index (RPI) inflation, which includes mortgage interest payments, rose to 4.1 per cent last month, from 4 per cent in December. However even...

THE Brown government has bullied NHS GPs in the most brutal and cowardly fashion, and has given them an offer that they could not...

The number of people in the UK whose homes were repossessed last year rose by 21 per cent, to 27,100, compared to 22,400 in...

TAMILNET reports that ‘several hundred activists of the Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (PDK) marched towards the Indian Parliament on Wednesday morning demanding the Indian government...

UNEMPLOYED council and housing association tenants must be made to sign a new tenancy agreement under which they will agree to have their skill...

The Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) has stepped up the international campaign to get the sanctions and siege of Gaza lifted. In its latest ‘update on...

FURIOUS parents and staff belonging to Unison public sector union have forced Crawley Borough Council (CBC) to issue letters to parents to deny it...

A total of 184 arts organisations have had 100 per cent of their funding withdrawn, Arts Council England announced yesterday. While it said that 17...