Lead story
Give us a reason to vote Labour
by Daphne Liddle
THOUSANDS of NHS workers took strike action briefly on Monday. On Wednesday it was the turn of thousands of civil servants to do the same. Teachers are balloting for a national strike next month. The common theme in all these strikes is the shockingly low level of pay of public sector workers compared to the rising costs of living.
The TUC has been campaigning for a long time now with the demand: “Britain needs a pay rise”. Public and private sector workers in Britain have seen the value of their wages steadily shrinking now for three decades and it is shocking now that families with two people in work are not getting enough in their wages to cover the most basic living costs and have to depend on tax credits and housing benefits to survive.
And now that these benefit levels are being steadily reduced workers are having to turn to food banks to feed their children. A TUC analysis published last Sunday shows that workers in Britain suffering the longest and most severe decline in real earnings since records began in Victorian times.
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[ Give us a reason to vote Labour ]
Europe-wide anger at TTIP
PROTESTERS against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) filled Parliament Square last Saturday to draw attention to this pernicious international agreement that will allow big business to ride roughshod over democratically elected national and local governments to extract maximum profits, regardless of damage to the population or the environment.
The protesters were part of a Europe-wide day of action and during the protest they marched on to Westminster Bridge and hung a long banner over the parapet, saying: “HANDS OFF DEMOCRACY # NO TTIP”.
The Con-Dem Coalition is supporting the deal, claiming it will add billions to the national economy. But it will expose all public services, at local and national level, to the full effects of the free market.
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[ Europe-wide anger at TTIP ]