Category Archives: Britain

Royal Fail

Royal Mail has been in dispute with the Communication Workers Union (CWU) for over a year. In March this year, CWU members delivered a massive 94.5% YES vote in favour of strike action with a turnout of 63.4%, easily exceeding the requirements of Britain’s regressive trade union legislation for the third time in less than three years.

However, recognising the ongoing crisis and the key importance of their role, the CWU decided to postpone any industrial action until lockdown measures had passed.

Care Worker MP sacked for speaking out

Former care worker and Labour MP Nadia Whittome revealed today (May 6th 2020) that she had lost her job at Nottinghamshires’s Lark Hill retirement village for speaking out about a lack of PPE. The MP for Nottingham East, who returned to work at the care home a month ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic, revealed that she was told on Tuesday (May 5th 2020) she would no longer be given shifts due to her comments.

Hancock tells Doctor MP to watch her ‘tone’

Health Secretary Matt Hancock instructed Labour MP and A&E doctor Rosena Allin-Khan to watch her “tone” in during an exchange in Parliament today (5 May 2020).

During the Health and Social Care Questions session Dr Allin-Khan alleged that the government’s testing strategy was “non-existent” and that “testing figures are now being manipulated” after it emerged uncompleted tests were being counted towards the government’s 100,000 tests a day figure.

Wales: Mixed Response to Covid-19

The Welsh National Health Service should be applauded for playing a leading role in Britain’s coronavirus treatment programme by extracting Covid-19 convalescent plasma from healthy blood to help patients develop immunity by providing antibodies to combat the virus.
In the same breath, Welsh Labour and Tory ministers in Westminster should be ridiculed for neglecting to act on the cross-government UK pandemic drill, Exercise Cygnus, which took place in October 2016 and accurately concluded that the NHS would be plunged into an enormous crisis by the outbreak of a highly infectious and deadly strain of influenza.

Cornwall & COVID-19

Like other regions of the UK and many other parts of the world, Cornwall has been on lockdown since the end of March with many workplaces having shut down and many workers having been furloughed. Governmental failings have been repeated here, as elsewhere, with lack of PPE and protection for essential workers and vulnerable people.

Italy and Britain: a tale of two pandemics?

The critical failure of our government in to Britain in the wake of the Coronavirus becomes more apparent as the days go by. In the initial period of the crisis, much of the British press looked to Italy with shock horror at how the virus had managed to take hold, yet little over a month later, Italy looks to be improving while the UK Government fails to maintain promise after promise.

Tories Fudge Figures on PPE

An explosive BBC Panorama Documentary on the 27th revealed that gloves were being counted individually to reach a figure of 1 billion items of PPE provided to the NHS. The Tories have come under fire from all sides due to the significant lack of adequate Personal Protective Equipment available to NHS staff dealing with COVID-19 patients. Over 100 members of NHS staff have now succumbed to the virus, and many have said they are terrified of going to work due to a lack of protective equipment.

Britain marks International Workers’ Memorial Day 2020

May Day has long been the central focus in the Labour Movement’s annual calendar, but it is not the sole day of action that recognises the efforts of working people. International Workers Memorial Day is celebrated every year on the 28th of April and while it does not have the same proud tradition that International Workers Day has, it remains a poignant day to remember those whose lives have been lost while at work.