by | Sep 13, 2024 | The Guardian
The big bet is that cuts in interest rates boost growth. In the meantime, small but meaningful gestures could help soothe the public mood
It’s hard to say that the honeymoon is over, because it never really began. You can’t blame Labour for that: it warned voters before the election not to get their hopes up, and it has stood firm against the menace of optimism ever since. Keir Starmer’s idea of whispering sweet nothings into the nation’s ear is to tell them that, “
” before they get better, that pain is on the way. Just this week, he braced the TUC for “
”. And they say romance is dead.
The new government’s deeds have matched its words. This week, Labour whipped its MPs to vote for the
for all but the poorest pensioners, not long after those same MPs were barred from lifting
. It came just as the health secretary gave a
. None of this is filling the country with enthusiasm.
, just 19% approve of the government’s record so far, dwarfed by the 55% who disapprove.
by | Sep 13, 2024 | The Guardian
FSB security service revokes accreditation of six British diplomats in Moscow; UK PM tells Kremlin it should end conflictThe UK government has reiterated that it
by | Sep 13, 2024 | The Guardian
Labour’s promises to ‘make work pay’ are short on detail, but delegates at the TUC conference were starting to believe
For 45 years, ever since Margaret Thatcher was first elected, Britons have had to get used to the idea that trade unions and workers’ rights are weakening. Changes in the economy and technology, in the mindset of employers and employees, and above all in government policy have left unions and workers in a weaker position here than in most wealthy democracies. The consequences of this relentless removal of power from the majority can be seen in this country’s precarious working culture and often low wages – a status quo around which rightwing politicians, thinktanks, journalists and business interests have erected great walls of justifying arguments and rhetoric.
So the notion that this seemingly permanent shift might be reversed, through Keir Starmer’s ambitiously named “new deal for working people”, can at first be quite hard to absorb.
this week, the first prime minister to address the gathering for 15 years promised “the biggest levelling up of workers’ rights in a generation”, to enthusiastic applause. Yet there were also large empty spaces in the main hall, and in the foyers where unions had exhibition stalls, which made the labour movement’s diminished state impossible to ignore.
by | Sep 12, 2024 | The Guardian
Attack marks first time a missile has struck a civilian vessel transporting grains in open waters of the Black Sea. What we know on day
