What the free school meals scandal says about capitalism in Britain

The refusal to extend free school meals over Christmas has met a lot of backlash. The predicted cost of this scheme would only be around £20 million as only 15% of students were estimated to be receiving free school meals. This number accounts for about 1.3 million children but the actual figure is now estimated to have risen to around 2 million.

Wrong priorities in education

In the last few weeks the Tories, headed by Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education (pictured), have been busy putting out new information for schools to safeguard children. Unfortunately the threats they’re tackling are not the growing threat of coronavirus, but the threat to their minds from dangerous ideas like anti-capitalism

Furlough replacement measures announced won’t prevent mass job losses

The measures brought in by the government to replace the furlough scheme were unveiled this week. Under the new setup the most vulnerable workers in the economy will have the least support and no attempt has been made to prevent the potential for millions of redundancies when furlough is withdrawn at the end of this month.

After the TUC Congress 2020

Daragh O’Neill discusses the outcomes of last week’s TUC Congress which was held online for the first time – and the challenges facing the labour movement as we head towards 2021.

Domestic abuse rates rise sharply during lockdown

Statistics released this week revealed a steep rise in domestic abuse during the coronavirus lockdown which has left existing services stretched. According to the charity Refuge in the first three months of the of the lockdown in Britain over 40,000 calls were made to the National Domestic Abuse Hotline.