Archive for category: News

  • GMB against Carillion’s bullying and discrimination

    This afternoon dozens of GMB members picketed the Euston offices of Carillion. The protest is part of ongoing strike action from staff at Great Western Hospital Swindon against a culture of bullying and discrimination. The GMB members work as porters and housekeepers in catering and cleaning and other support roles at the […]

     
  • Workfare: London Assembly Member defends the indefensible

    John Angliss takes on Conservative Assembly Member, James Cleverly, over workfare.   The task of defending the indefensible must always fall to someone, but I was still shocked to see the personally genial Conservative leader of the London Assembly, James Cleverly, argue that opposing people being forced to work for […]

     
  • Eurostar cleaners start 48 hour strike

    Today low paid cleaners on the Eurostar, working out of St Pancras station, started a 48 hour strike for a London Living Wage. The cleaners, often from African and Eastern European backgrounds, are overworked, under-valued and under paid. Big Smoke spoke to a few of the strikers on the St […]

     
  • Black activists discuss racism, police and the cuts

    In a well attended meeting at ULU, hosted by BARAC (Black Activists Rising Against Cuts), black Londoners came together to discuss racism, the police and the cuts. With Lee Jasper in lively compere mode the meeting provoked a sometimes thoughtful, sometimes emotional discussion activists described the specific struggles they had been […]

     
  • Camden employer complains that ‘Back to Work’ boss pays herself millions and nothing to clients

    Camden’s People’s Supermarket has revealed that A4e, who take government contracts to find work placements for the unemployed, has refused to pay companies providing those places despite awarding their boss an extraordinary bonus. The Daily Mail reports that A4e boss, Emma Harrison, has personally pocketed £8.4 million after being awarded […]

     
  • Stella Creasy calls for confiscating truants’ Oyster cards

    Stella Creasy, Labour MP for Walthamstow, has called for teachers to be given the power to remove free Oyster cards from persistent truants. Creasy’s statement comes hot on the heels of David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham, calling for a rethink of the laws on smacking children. Creasy said that “giving schools […]

     
  • New figures show cycling not getting safer in London

    New figures released by Transport for London show that despite official reassurances that cycling has been getting safer it has, in fact, been getting less safe for each year Boris Johnson has been Mayor. Green Assembly Member Jenny Jones was assured at December’s Mayor Question Time that cycling was consistently […]

     
  • The Times launches ‘cities fit for cycling’ campaign

    The Times this week launched a high profile cycle safety campaign called Cities Fit For Cycling. The newspaper hopes to highlight issues around cycle safety to make our streets safer. The paper says that “In November, Times journalist Mary Bowers was just yards from arriving at work on her bike when […]

     
  • HS2: our homes are not for rail

    Last night a packed meeting on Regent’s Park estate in Camden discussed how the new High Speed Rail link, HS2, was going to effect the local community. Even in one borough there is to be a significant impact on people’s lives. Across Camden 213 families are to have their homes […]

     
  • Lee Green Assembly keeping up the momentum

    David Mentiply reports on the Lee Green local Assembly. In 2008, local assemblies were established in each of Lewisham’s eighteen wards. This initiative was designed to engage and involve people in the running of their neighbourhoods and communities. Each assembly was given an initial budget of £10,000 and was able […]