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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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’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, 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 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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Never noticed this before. As strolling past Trafalgar Square I saw the statue of Charles the first....
Copyright © 2026 Big Smoke. All Rights Reserved.
Chat