Author: Miles Donavan

“It is time to deliver both better pay and pay modernisation for nursing staff.” Nurses in England are earning up to £8,000 less than they would have if pay had kept pace with inflation, according to new analysis by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). The report confirms there’s been a 20 percent real-terms pay cut for Band 5 nurses, typically newly qualified staff, whose earnings have stagnated since 2010, despite growing workloads and responsibilities. These nurses, often stuck on the same band for their entire careers, have faced a series of below-inflation pay rises, leading to a cumulative loss…

“Each was precious. Each was innocent. Many died horrific, painful deaths. There were so many of them. They must not be forgotten.” On July 16, activists gathered outside the Welsh government building to read aloud the names of 20,000 Palestinian children killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023. The remembrance act, titled “Know Their Names: Action Not Words,” was a solemn tribute to young lives cut short by the violence. The event was organised by Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) Cymru and Parents and Teachers for Palestine, who aim to draw public and political attention to the human cost of the…

‘These are matters for the chief whip, but there’s always routes back for people.’ Leader of the House of Commons Lucy Powell has indicated that four of the Labour MPs Keir Starmer suspended this week could have the whip reinstated at some point. Brian Leishman, Chris Hinchcliff, Neil Duncan-Jordan and Rachael Maskell were four of the MPs suspended this week pending a party investigation into “persistent breaches of party discipline”.  Three other MPs – Rosena Allin-Khan, Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Mohammad Yasin – had their trade envoy roles removed. The seven MPs all voted against the government’s welfare cuts on Wednesday…

The latest incident is part of a long list of Reform councillors elected in May who are no longer part of the party. Reform UK and its elected representatives continue to make the headlines for all the wrong reasons, with the party losing yet another councillor. Ed Hill, who was elected to Devon County Council in May has been expelled for publishing a letter about free school meals in the name of all Reform Devon councillors without their consent. The letter had been sent to Devon’s MPs and media outlets, asking them to support automatic enrolment for free school meals.…

It begins with B Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former spin doctor, has revealed what he thinks is the best line of attack on Nigel Farage. It seems fairly obvious, but the answer to stopping Farage’s rise, he says, is attacking him on Brexit. While Keir Starmer avoids criticising Brexit, Campbell noted that during his visit to the UK last week, French president Emmanuel Macron didn’t hold back. Macron said that record numbers of small boat crossings showed Brexit had not delivered tighter border controls, and that the British people had been “sold a lie”. On his and Rory Stewart’s podcast,…

‘Reform are showing themselves to be the political voice of the vested interests of big oil and corporate profit.’ Reform UK mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, Andrea Jenkyns, admitted on Times Radio last night that she doesn’t believe in climate change.  Asked by Times journalist Kait Borsey how Reform UK would pay for its £50 billion a year policies, including increasing the personal tax allowance to £20,000 and scrapping the two child limit on benefit payments. Jenkyns responded that the party will “completely stop net zero”, stating that scrapping net zero subsidies would save “a massive amount” of money. Asked if…

‘It is obvious this Labour leadership wants me out.’ Keir Starmer has suspended Diane Abbott, the longest-serving female MP, for a second time after she repeated comments about racism she was previously suspended for. In a BBC Radio 4 interview with James Naughtie, which was recorded in May but released yesterday, she said: “Clearly there must be a difference between racism which is about colour and other types of racism”.  She said that this is because you can’t immediately see if a person is a Traveller or is Jewish. On the other hand, she said this isn’t the case for…

‘We were elected as a team under a banner and under a manifesto, and we have to seek to work together’ Labour MP Jess Phillips has defended the Prime Minister’s decision to suspend four Labour MPs, saying that party unity had to be maintained and that they were elected “as a team under a banner and under a manifesto” and could “expect” to face disciplinary action if they did not vote with the government. Phillips told Sky News that those acting in a manner that undermined the ability of the government to deliver on its programme shouldn’t expect anything different…

The government still has time to act decisively, but they need to get started now. Nothing sums up how broken our political system is quite like the House of Lords. The Prime Minister has unchecked power to appoint new peers, which too often has been abused to award peerages to party donors and political allies. As a result, the Lords has ballooned to over 830 members, making it the second-largest legislative chamber in the world, rivalled only by China’s National People’s Congress. Before becoming Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer rightly described the House of Lords as ‘undemocratic’ and ‘indefensible’. Yet…

‘The state needs to be hands-on, and not leave it all to the pirates of City of London’ Prem Sikka is an Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the University of Essex and the University of Sheffield, a Labour member of the House of Lords, and Contributing Editor at Left Foot Forward. The UK Chancellor’s annual Mansion House Speech brings two quotes to mind. The first is from Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. The second attributed to Karl Marx is that “History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, second as a…