Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers have vowed to continue their strikes until the government improves its pay settlements. Half-a-million workers took part in “Walkout Wednesday” with teachers, civil servants, university lecturers, bus drivers, railway staff and security guards staging the biggest strike in the UK for more than a decade. Schools were closed, […]
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The Conservative government is set to scrap NHS targets in England to focus instead on running the health service like schools. A major review into how the NHS operates – led by former Labour health secretary Patricia Hewitt – will be published this spring. It is expected to call for a wide ranging cull of […]
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The Chief of the Defence Staff has said the military is not “spare capacity” to be used as cover during strikes. Plans to deploy 1,200 troops to drive ambulances and staff the country’s borders – alongside 1,000 civil servants – have been confirmed by the government. The cost is estimated to be £5.6 million. Unions […]
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Rishi Sunak has used the cover of getting tough on immigration to ditch another manifesto promise and abandon a key levelling-up pledge to protect workers from rogue employers. Perhaps it was a strategy devised at Monday’s (Dec 12) emergency Cobra meeting on how the government – but more importantly the country – will cope with […]
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The government is holding a Cobra emergency meeting to deal with the wave of strikes hitting Britain across multiple sectors. Ministers will discuss deploying the military to drive ambulances and civil servants to cover Border Force staff as strikes escalate. Nurses, rail and postal staff are also among workers taking industrial action this month in […]
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Criminal barristers in England and Wales have narrowly voted to end their strike after accepting an improved pay offer from the government to raise legal aid fees by 15%. The ballot ends the all-out strike by members of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) that began on September 5 and has led to hundreds of delays […]
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Enough is Enough protests against the spiralling cost of living crisis will be held in 50 of the UK’s biggest cities and towns tomorrow (October 1) – the same day the new energy bill price cap begins. The campaign group’s first “national day of action” will see simultaneous events in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Birmingham, Glasgow, […]
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The UK’s 56th prime minister will finally be announced on Monday and installed by the Queen (in Scotland) on Tuesday after an unnecessarily long, drawn out leadership campaign. As an exercise in navel-gazing during a summer of social, political and economic crises, it is unrivalled. Liz Truss is the blue-hot favourite to replace Boris Johnson […]
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Bin strikes in Scotland have started in 13 more local authorities after councils and unions failed to reach a pay agreement. The “international embarrassment” that is the bin strike in the middle of Edinburgh’s famed festival is only half way through its period of industrial action, and will continue until August 30. Scotland’s governing SNP […]
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Criminal barristers in England and Wales have started their strike over low legal aid funding with a warning their profession faces an “existential crisis” because of severe cuts imposed by the government. Barristers say their incomes have decline by almost 30% in the last two decades. Specialist criminal barristers now earn less than the minimum […]
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