(western front)
It was Christmas Day in the Workhouse
And dangerous Dan McGrew
Was fighting to save the pudding
For a lady by the name of Sue.
All was quiet on the Western Front,
The waves were beating on the shore;
So send for the life-boat at Wigan -
We've never had it from there before.
http://www.dickgaughan.co.uk/chain/hamish-henderson.html
The European Committee of Social Rights has examined the application of the European Social Charter by the United Kingdom. Its report was published on 17 December 2010 and found severe breaches of trade union and workers' rights:.
http://tinyurl.com/2b8yq3k
A group of Colombian organizations have alerted the international and national communities to repeated death threats against social and human rights organizations in the Cauca Valley region. The threats, stigmatizing the work of human rights defenders, are systematic. Between 22 October 2009 and 14 December 2010, eleven death threats have been received, one as a fax, the rest as text messages sent simultaneously to all the organizations via mobile phone.
A row has broken out about the previous
homophobic tactics of the Tory candidate in the upcoming Oldham East and Saddleworth by election as the
Telegraph suggests Cameron is trying to engineer a Lib Dem victory. All in an election called because
Phil Woolas was stripped of the seat for 'illegal practice'. With public services facing decimation and a million being thrown on the dole, is there any chance of the by election being about the economy, stupid?
The political career of Tory patsy Vince Cable MP has been marked by duplicity. A Labour Councillor in Glasgow from 1971-74, subsequently in 1982 he defected to the breakaway SDP. As recently as 1997 he was Chief Economist for the Shell transnational oil company (renowned for human rights violations in Nigeria). In 2005, he was one of the 11 right wing Liberal Democrat front benchers who ousted Charles Kennedy as Party leader.
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber has commented on today’s TUC meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron: 'The UK is currently in the grips of a bleak midwinter. Today we warned the Prime Minister that next year promises to be even bleaker for millions of families and their communities as the spending cuts bite hard and hit jobs and services. We made clear to the Prime Minister our strong view that the spending cuts would both be socially divisive and economically dangerous.’
To read statement in full go to:
http://www.tuc.org.uk/economy/tuc-18956-f0.cfm
John Gray reports on today's joint strike action by UNISON, GMB and Unite members at Birmingham City Council:
http://grayee.blogspot.com/2010/12/picket-line-at-birmingham-fleet-waste.html?spref=tw
The East Midlands region of UNISON has done an interesting and very revealing analysis of the local government grant settlement for all councils in England. The region has obtained data for all councils and looked at the political control of each council.
The Sunday Telegraph reported yesterday that a 'highly symbolic' meeting is being arranged between union leaders and Prime Minister David Cameron:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/david-cameron/8211694/Cameron-to-meet-TUC-chiefs-at-No-10.html
New research commissioned by the Government has found that caste-based discrimination exists across Britain, prompting further calls to outlaw the malpractice that blights the lives of many people with origins in the Indian sub-continent.
Con Dem Cancellor George Osborne is hoping to shave hundreds of millions of pounds off the cost of thousands of controversial private finance initiative deals in an attempt to cut Government spending still further.
10 days on since the NHS employers proposed a two-year block on incremental progression for 100,000s of NHS staff in England and in return offered no compulsory redundancies for part of the workforce and finally the media are reporting it as news;
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/dec/19/nhs-salary-increments-job-losses
Moira O’Shea.
Bless her heart.
Ten children,
a husband who beats her.
