Tag Archives: union

Asylum barge is potential new Grenfell Tower-style deathtrap

Suella Braverman considers a kinder, ‘compassionate Conservative’ response to asylum-seekers.

Isn’t it good to know the Tories are taking their responsibilities seriously?

Oh, wait…

Once they have detained people they believe have come to the UK illegally, they have a legal responsibility to ensure the well-being of those people until their future can be decided.

So, do they house these people in safe and secure accommodation? No!

They say: “We’ll put them up in a floating firetrap with no means of escape if it burns; that’s good enough for ’em!”

Or at least, that’s what This Writer gets from the following:

Here’s the supporting information:

Bizarrely, if I recall correctly, the Tory government could have put the same number of people into luxury hotel rooms for less money than it has cost to hire this floating incinerator.

The Fire Brigades Union has now written to the Home Office, and you can read the letter here:

It says: “Firefighting operations on vessels such as the Bibby Stockholm provide significant challenges and require specialist training and safe systems of work.”

Then it describes safety provisions on the Bibby Stockholm as “diminished” and warns that the nature of those provisions “exacerbate our operational concerns”.

The letter also states that “The FBU believes fire safety standards are universal and apply to everyone… Fire does not discriminate and therefore neither should safety regulations.”

The implication is clear: the boat is unsafe and the FBU believes it has been deliberately made unsafe on Home Office orders.

This Writer looks forward to hearing Suella Braverman’s excuse for housing asylum-seekers in a deathtrap.

I’m willing to bet it will include a lot of bullying talk and probably a bit of racism as well.

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The news in tweets: Sunday, June 4, 2023

Rishi Sunak: he’s not known for being a Vox Political reader, but will he still be smiling if he chances upon this article?

Here’s this sunny Sunday’s info-dump  – and This Writer hopes it doesn’t cast a cloud over your mood.

Rishi Sunak won’t give public money to UK schools but with his wife has given $2.4 million to a wealthy US college

There will be more on ‘Eat Out to Die Out’ in another Vox Political article later today (June 4, 2023).

Is pre-election tax cut plan the reason for Rishi Sunak’s current war on sickness and disability benefits?

Tory MP begs Rishi Sunak to quit the European Convention on Human Rights – confusing it with the EU

For information: Andrea Jenkyns is a Tory MP who is currently deputy chairwoman of the Brexiteer European Research Group (ERG). Her claim that other Tories got the leader they wanted in Rishi Sunak suggests a developing schism among Tory MPs that could split the party as it grows – and let’s hope it does.

She certainly seems to be trying to undermine Sunak, with a letter that confuses the European Convention on (and Court of) Human Rights with the European Union and European Court of Justice.

For information: UK citizens have never – at the time of writing – voted to relinquish their rights to a free and fair trial, democratic elections, freedom of association (that is, the right to meet anybody we want to), privacy, or any of the others that the Convention upholds.

TWITTER catches Boris Johnson lying about the reason for London police station closures

DWP and police target criminal gangs involved in benefit fraud. What about those involved in tax evasion?

The video has been released after the Daily Telegraph published an online calculator to show readers how much of their salaries is being used to pay social security benefits in what many have dubbed an act of Nazi-style hate crime.

The argument against these acts by the government, police and media is simple: tax evasion costs the UK far more than benefit fraud and error but is investigated by far fewer people and nobody (to This Writer’s knowledge) has ever been arrested in a video clip. Here are some facts:

Corporate profits have nearly doubled since 2019 while average wages are lower than in 2007. Why are the government, Bank of England and bosses blaming wage rises for inflation?

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Jacob Rees-Mogg reckons Brexit saved Ukraine from Russian invasion. What?

Funny how Tories try to rewrite history, isn’t it?

Years ago, Michael Gove wanted to change the way history was taught, to whitewash Britain’s harsh colonial past. This Site ran an article about it.

Now, it seems Jacob Rees-Mogg thinks the UK being separate from Europe meant the Tory government was able to offer more help to Ukraine, when it was invaded by Russia, than if we were still a part of the European Union.

The facts say otherwise and that is why Maximilien Robespierre named Rees-Mogg “Fool of the Week”:

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Heartbreak for Jacob Rees-Mogg as ‘retained EU law’ bill is delayed indefinitely

Jacob Rees-Mogg: he’s probably furious about this.

A proposed law to ditch thousands of regulations because they were imposed when the UK was part of the European Union has been delayed indefinitely.

The Retained EU Law Bill had already had its progress through the House of Lords paused indefinitely.

But there was an expectation that most of the laws that were copied into the UK statute book after Brexit would vanish at the end of the year.

Then, after it was revealed that the number of regulations affected runs into the thousands – 4,800 so far, allegedly – concerns were voiced that important legislation might be thrown away by accident.

And now it seems the cut-off point will be replaced with a list of 600 laws the government wants to ditch by the end of the year.

Some of us see it as the end of the plan to drop the axe on these laws – and are heaving collective sighs of relief:

Jacob Rees-Mogg, who introduced the Retained EU Law Bill to Parliament, may well be heartbroken.

When the Bill was paused in the Lords, people said they hoped it would spell the end of his hope to set the UK’s economy on fire (meaning, ruin it).

You see, if nobody knows the implications of cancelling these laws, it would make trade with EU countries impossible.

Rees-Mogg should have known that when he introduced the Bill, so it is logical to suggest that it’s what he wanted. Well, it seems increasingly unlikely that he will get his wish.

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RMT votes for six months’ more strike action

Mick Lynch: members of his RMT union have voted to continue strike action. Meanwhile, the government has subsidised rail firms with more money than the union’s pay demand.

This took me completely by surprise – I was concentrating on aspects of the local elections.

So I’m going to rely on Professor Tim Wilson for the details.

His comments about education are very interesting, I think.

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If RCN nurses are getting a pay deal they don’t support, what will it mean for their strike?

Steve Barclay: ask him to use any of the equipment behind him and he couldn’t. He’s only useful for punishing the people who can.

Is Steve Barclay trying to outflank the Royal College of Nursing?

It seems that, after talks with 14 health unions, he is going to impose a pay deal on more than a million NHS workers including ambulance workers, nurses, physios and porters,

The deal is a five per cent pay rise plus a one-off payment of at least £1,655 which This Writer understands is to raise overall pay for the last (2022-23) financial year.

From the way it’s being presented, the deal is also being imposed on the three unions that haven’t accepted it – including Unite (which has a limited mandate for strike action) and the RCN (which needs to ballot for more).

This leads to an obvious question:

What if the RCN (or the others) strike again and win a better deal?

Won’t that upset members of the other unions?

And isn’t that what Steve Barclay wants?

Tory philosophy can be summed up with the words “divide and rule”.

I reckon he’s hoping that the RCN – and the others – will be discouraged from going further by the possibility of losing solidarity with the other unions – or if they go ahead, strike, and get a better deal, the other unions will turn their collective back on them.

And that will probably mess up any collective action in the future, meaning the Tories can bully these unions to their hearts’ content.

It’s vile, verminous behaviour from a government that owes any credibility it kept during the Covid-19 crisis to the dedication of these professionals.

Each one of the staff who are now to receive a derogatory pay cut (in the face of higher-than 10 per cent inflation) is worth far, far more to the nation than Steve Barclay.

But, of course, in backwards Britain, the rewards are reversed:

There is a simple way out of the dilemma Barclay has set.

It is to remember that Steve Barclay is creating any problems – not the unions, their members or their leaders.

And one more thing, for people in England and Northern Ireland:

A vote against the Conservatives (and/or their allies) during the local elections on Thursday is a vote in support of the health unions.

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Union condemns Department for Transport over privatised rail firm dividends

Scam: rail firms (for clarity, the train in the picture is not run by one of the companies in the story) are being protected from the consequences of strike action with public money that is being used to pay shareholders. Meanwhile, workers’ pay demands are ignored and services cancelled.

Tory priorities.

It seems the Conservative government has happily green-lit the payment of £82 million in dividend payments to shareholders in two privatised rail companies, while refusing to accept the pay demands of thousands of people who actually work on the railways:

From the article:

Transport Secretary Mark Harper has allowed two private rail companies to be paid £82 million in dividends in 2022.

This is the despite the fact both companies are part of a major industrial dispute where hundreds of millions of pounds has been used to indemnify them against lost revenue from strike action.

FirstRail Holdings Ltd, the holding company for five FirstGroup franchises, and Govia Thameslink Railways, which runs the biggest franchise in Britain, have recently reported dividend payments of £65 million and £16.9 million respectively in their annual accounts for 2022.

Two of First Rail Holdings Ltd’s franchises, Avanti West Coast and Transpennine Express, have been the subject of public and political controversy after cancelling hundreds of services. In spite of this, the government has renewed or extended contracts for Avanti West Coast and may shortly do the same for Transpennine Express.

Govia won a contract to carry on running the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise from the government in October 2022 despite its sister company LSER being stripped of the Southeastern franchise for concealing public money.

The DfT allowed Go-Ahead Group to conduct its own internal inquiry into the failings at LSER and renewed Govia’s contract for the Thameslink franchise in spite of the fact that the two companies shared many of the same management personnel.

All these franchises have benefited from indemnification worth hundreds of millions of pounds in taxpayers’ money by the DfT to cover the costs of lost passenger revenue during the ongoing dispute.

RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch said: “The DfT is now little more than a representative of big business, geared to turning tax revenue into shareholder dividends.

“If you’re a private train operator, it doesn’t matter whether your problem is unpredictable passenger revenue, costly train leases or industrial action, the Secretary of State is there to help, opening the public purse and emptying it into shareholders’ pockets.

“This system is not operating in the interests of passengers, railway workers or the taxpayer.

“It is clear that only full public ownership of train operation in this country can save our railways from being looted by this gang of unaccountable spivs.”

Here’s an English-language explanation of what can only be described as a Tory-run scam:

It would be cheaper to bring rail back under public ownership all around – and that includes paying rail workers what they demand.

The RMT has no strike days currently planned after the government put a new pay offer on the table – but that doesn’t mean its workers will accept any such offer as fair.

Meanwhile, the government has been ring-fencing the failing rail operators against strike action – using public money. That’s your money.

It would be better to let the privateers fail, take the railways back into public ownership at low cost and pay the workers. The Tories aren’t doing it because they want to keep workers poor and pay the idle rich who do nothing for their wealth.

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European Court demands UK government response over Russian influence on Brexit

Boris Johnson: he said he had seen no evidence of Russian interference in UK politics – but it was subsequently revealed that nobody in his government had even bothered to look for it. Here, he is pictured with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

The UK’s Tory government is being taken to the European Court of Human Rights over its failure to seek evidence of Russian influence in the referendum on whether the UK should leave the European Union in 2016.

The only response to have come from the Tories so far is that they think the UK should leave the European Convention on Human Rights (that this country actually founded, after World War II).

The issue is whether agents of a foreign power (Russia) have been allowed to influence the result of a poll in the UK – and whether it is possible for them to influence the result of what we have hitherto believed to be democratic elections here.

The details are in the following clip by Peter Stefanovic – and you need to brace yourself because they are damning:

The court in Strasbourg has given the UK until April 26 to respond.

Mark that date in your diary.

Islington North Labour – and others – react to Labour NEC’s Jeremy Corbyn decision

Jeremy Corbyn: we should forgive him if he takes a moment of quiet pride in the support he has received from his fellow Islington North Labour members, constituents, trade unionists, and both party members and voters across the UK.

There will be voices that support the Labour NEC decision to bar Jeremy Corbyn from seeking re-election as a party candidate in Islington North – but it seems clear that they are in the minority.

And they’re also irrelevant when one considers the response from the only group that really matters: Islington North Constituency Labour Party.

It seems the CLP is planning to select Mr Corbyn anyway, no matter what Keir Starmer’s NEC lapdogs say.

You can understand why, from this clip of reactions to Mr Corbyn’s suspension from the Parliamentary Labour Party, back in 2020:

Did you mark the comment that the constituency is “Corbyn country”?

It seems this is one place where the person has eclipsed the party, and won’t be easily unseated by a drone parachuted in by Head Office.

That’s not the limit of the Labour leadership’s troubles, though:

And what are the people in Unite doing..?

If Starmer manages to foil Islington North’s apparent plan to select Mr Corbyn anyway, people are already lining up to help him seek election as an independent:

I live a little way away and transport would be difficult, but I’d love to do a bit with the Absolute Boy.

And it goes on. It seems people are resigning from CLP executives…

Looking at the resignation letter above, it seems the treatment of Mr Corbyn isn’t the only bone of contention with the party leadership and there may be much that is being kept from us (unlike during the years when he was leader, and the right-wing media insisted on examining every piece of rubbish in the bins, looking for scandal).

If this snowballs, Keir Starmer will only have himself to blame – but don’t expect to hear about it from the right-wing media that support him!

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As the DUP digs in its heels, is Northern Ireland facing hard times?

Stormont: still locked as the DUP’s representatives dig in their heels over post-Brexit trade.

Rishi Sunak has managed to avoid humiliation in the vote on the ‘Stormont Brake’ aspect of his ‘Windsor Framework’ deal with the EU over trade in Northern Ireland. Instead the shame was hung on the Democratic Unionists and Tories in the European Research Group faction.

MPs voted by 515 to 29 to support the deal agreed by Rishi Sunak.

But the defeat means the DUP has vowed to continue its boycott of the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont – with possibly serious consequences for the province.

Spokespeople for the other Northern Irish political parties have begged the DUP to come back, according to the BBC:

Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O’Neill said the DUP had to “stop their boycott” of Stormont so that executive ministers could take control of the budget.

Ministers had to be in post to make the case to the Treasury for extra funding for Northern Ireland, Ms O’Neill added.

“This budget is about to cause catastrophic damage to public services,” she said.

“So the DUP need to get around the table with the rest of us, make politics work.”

Alliance Party MP Stephen Farry said Northern Ireland was “bleeding at present”, with problems piling up and public services in real crisis.

He said his party had asked the UK government to consider providing a financial package and it appeared “the door is open to that”.

“This will require the parties in Northern Ireland to work together and to make a very persuasive case… to the Treasury,” he said.

“So it reinforces the impetus on the DUP to join the rest of us in ensuring we have proper governance here.”

Ulster Unionist assembly member Robbie Butler said the level of budget cuts “on that cliff edge at the moment actually is quite alarming”.

He urged the DUP to accept the “difficulties” with the Windsor Framework and “put the people of Northern Ireland first”.

Social Democratic and Labour Party leader Colum Eastwood said the DUP had to accept that it could not get everything it wanted from the new Brexit deal.

“We have a huge opportunity with this [deal] to trade into both [UK and EU] markets unencumbered,” said the Foyle MP.

“People in Britain would give their right arm to have that opportunity.”

But DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said the ‘Windsor Framework’ would not deliver the long-term stability and prosperity that Northern Ireland needs.

Adding insult to injury, he adopted the rhetoric of Labour’s Keir Starmer, saying there was “an element of the sticking plaster” about Rishi Sunak’s new deal with the European Union, and it would not work.

He went on to say he is “not a quitter” and will continue trying to get the deal changed – a tall order, considering the joint UK-EU body that is overseeing Brexit will meet o ratify the legal changes brought about by the Windsor Framework – tomorrow (Friday, March 24, 2023).

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has met the five main Stormont parties at Hillsborough to discuss the new Brexit deal as well as Northern Ireland’s public finances, which he said were not in a good state.

He said he would have to set Northern Ireland’s budget for the coming year within the next few weeks if the executive was not up and running soon – and there would be some “tough decisions” if that happened.

It seems a very thinly-veiled threat, not just to the DUP but to all of the Northern Irish politicians: “get back to normal or suffer”.

But nobody in NI will be in any doubt about where responsibility will lie if the Tories in Westminster penalise them with Budget restrictions, and there may be knock-on consequences at the ballot box.

Is the DUP really willing to court electoral wipeout for the sake of what many see as not just a lost cause, but also a pointless one?

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Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook