There have been penalties for those who looked the other way when Epstein was convicted of child sex offences and decided to maintain relationships with the financier — but not for the British ambassador to Washington, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES
Benefits workers won’t be forced into danger
Compromising safety by extending opening hours during a pandemic is an unacceptable slap in the face for the workers who have been providing welfare when it’s never been more essential, writes LYNN HENDERSON
Labour’s new Treasury unit will ‘challenge unnecessary regulation’ by forcing nominally independent bodies like Ofwat to bend to business demands — exactly what Iain Anderson’s corporate clients wanted, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
DR DYLAN MURPHY looks at a Big Brother Watch report which exposes the government as an enabler of DWP secret spying on benefit claimants
The EU faces a critical choice: will it remain in the shadow of an increasingly unreliable US ally, or will it forge its own path in a multilateral world where co-operation with China is essential, asks MARC VANDEPITTE as leaders meet for the EU-China Summit
A lot of discussion about how the left should currently organise – including debate on whether the Green Party is a useful vehicle for advance – runs the risk of refusing to engage with or learn from the reasons the left was defeated previously, argues KEVIN OVENDEN
For Egypt trade trumps the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, but how long can the country’s ‘misleaders’ – and others in the region – continue their indifference against the popular will of their own people, asks ROGER McKENZIE
AS WE enter the deepest recession in living memory, many more workers will be thrown on the dole, especially when the furlough scheme ends. Spare a thought for those essential workers, who, throughout the national lockdown, have held up the welfare safety net for the nation to make sure the massive upturn in benefits applications were processed.
Most civil servants in the Department for Work and Pensions were not given a homeworking opportunity these past six months. Because of a lack of investment in IT that could facilitate homeworking, most struggled to balance work/home life, caring, home-schooling and all the other “new normal” pressures of lockdown living, while still having to use public transport to commute to their workplaces and rapidly adapt to new health and safety workplace measures.
And all so that they could process the huge surge in benefit claims as businesses collapsed because the economy too became locked down.
More from this author
LYNN HENDERSON reflects on turning 60, tracing her path from 1980s Youth CND and Red Wedge gigs, deindustrialisation and the rise of women trade unionists, to looking at today’s young organisers in Unite Hospitality and Living Rent, who offer hope for the future
With new faces being elected to both to government and to my union, PCS, 2024 has been a year of change – with new challenges ahead for 2025, writes LYNN HENDERSON
In my union PCS, we know from experience that women are the first line of defence during this ongoing period of attacks from the government and employers on our living standards, writes LYNN HENDERSON
PCS senior national officer LYNN HENDERSON explains why the union is growing and taking more industrial action despite the hostility of the current government to workers’ demands
