Cleaning for Mr Hammond

20 Oct

Cleaner Katy Rojas from Ecuador worked until very recently for Interserve, which has the Foreign & Commonwealth Office cleaning contract. She began in 2010 on £6 per hour but this year had her first rise, to £7.05. Now she’s laid … Read More »

Oregon shooting

2 Oct

A fairly decent response from Obama here on the dreadful news from Oregon. In thinking about weapons of death, let’s for a moment set aside the USA’s trillions of dollars spent on “keeping Americans safe” – a project whose side … Read More »

Unilateralism in Brighton

30 Sep

Today at the Labour Conference: (a) Corbyn would never press the button, (b) Burnham, Eagles et al fear Russian aggression (though not NATO’s recklessly menacing eastward expansion) and (c) the press is having a field day. Why, oh why muddy the waters of … Read More »

Corbyn: the first five days

18 Sep

​​The hypocrisy is no less breathtaking for being predictable. A billionaire press that cheers on the collateral slaughter of countless innocents in the middle east now excoriates the new shadow chancellor for having suggested we drop our robotically conditioned condemnation … Read More »

Now the real work starts!

13 Sep

After decades of a Labour Party that subordinates human need to “gaining the nation’s trust” – read: “gaining a mild toning down of Murdoch and Rothermere vitriol so we can get our responsible arses back into number ten“ – on stewardship … Read More »

Fatally flawed: DWP ‘fit for work’ tests

28 Aug

Yesterday the Department for Work & Pensions, having failed to block a Freedom of Information request on the matter, grudgingly released data showing that between 2011 and 2014, 2380 employment support allowance (ESA) claimants died within two weeks of a work capability assessment declaring … Read More »