Nick Clegg

Postal workers’ strike: Royal Mail should expect a battle royal

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http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/16/postal-workers-strike-royal-mail-cwu-privatisation

Image of post office van next to postboxIt’s been a case of third time unlucky for the postal workers’ union (CWU). It defeated the privatisation of Royal Mail in 1994 under the Tories and again in 2009 under Labour. Despite employing similar tactics of political lobbying and industrial action, on Tuesday the company was floated on the stock exchange. The share price has risen by almost 50% since then. And just a tiny handful of postal workers refused to take up the free share offer open to them.

Some have proclaimed it’s “game over” for the CWU and any planned industrial action – the left-leaning New Statesman pronounced striking now was “a little bit pointless”.

Yes, the CWU was caught on the hop by a sell-off timetable that was brought forward, a bargain basement initial share price and having to take extra time to fully check the accuracy of its membership records in order to avoid a possible high court injunction to stop any action.

But exactly the opposite is now true. So while industrial action is extremely unlikely to bring Royal Mail back into public hands any time soon – especially as the Labour leadership reneged on its own party policy within days of it being set , it is still vital. This is because it is necessary to allow the workforce to have the chance to contest what privatisation turns out be. And, that’s why postal workers today voted by 4-1 for action on a high turnout.

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Teachers strike over pay, pensions and conditions affects thousands of schools

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http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/oct/17/teachers-strike-pay-thousands-schools-nasuwt

National Union of Teachers and NASUWT stage term’s second day of walkouts from schools across England

Thousands of schools are expected to face disruption this Thursday as teachers stage a fresh wave of strikes amid conflict over pay, pensions and working conditions.

Pupils in the south-west, south-east and north-east of England, plus in Cumbria and London, will be affected as members of two of England’s biggest teaching unions take part in the second day of walkouts this term.

The industrial action has been organised by the National Union of Teachers and NASUWT.

The government condemned the move, saying it was disappointed by the decision to strike.

Chris Keates, general secretary of NASUWT, said that the overwhelming majority of teachers in affected areas would be on strike.

She said: “No teacher has any wish to inconvenience parents or disrupt pupils’ education, but this action is not the failure or due to the unreasonableness of teachers. It is the failure and unreasonableness of the secretary of state, who, day in day out, is disrupting the education of children and young people through his attacks on the teaching profession.”

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Related: Michael Gove adviser says genetics are more important than teaching

 

Continue ReadingTeachers strike over pay, pensions and conditions affects thousands of schools

Why does The Children and Families Bill fall so short on disabled children’s rights?

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http://www.newstatesman.com/2013/10/why-does-children-and-families-bill-fall-so-short-disabled-childrens-rights

by Cherie Blair[!]

... Four in 10 disabled children live in poverty; children with special educational needs (SEN) are 9 times more likely to be permanently excluded from school; and 3/4 of families with disabled children experience poor mental health as a result of the social, emotional, and financial isolation they face.

To put it simply, they are at crisis point.

And at the heart of this issue is the critical lack  of support for disabled children within their own community, support that other families simply take for granted – be it access to the right school or nursery place, or to leisure activities they can enjoy.

Recent research by the disability charity Scope has found that two thirds of families with disabled children cannot get this most basic state and local authority support in their own area. Instead they have to travel or stay away from home, often creating many more difficulties in terms of increased time and costs for families that are already struggling.

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David Cameron recently said ‘When you’ve had the privilege of bringing up a profoundly disabled child, you suddenly realise there are two different sets of places: those that are disabled-friendly, that are accessible, that are helpful; and those that aren’t… And what this all about really, is greater equality in our country, making sure that all places are more friendly, and accessible to disabled people.’

But this welcome and undoubtedly genuine sentiment is sadly nowhere to be seen in the reforms in the Children and Families Bill. The Government must rectify this if families with disabled children are to be included in David Cameron’s vision to be most ‘family friendly government ever’.

 

 

 

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England’s mental health services ‘in crisis’

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24537304

By Michael Buchanan

The mental health service in England is in crisis and unsafe, says one of the country’s leading psychiatrists.

Dr Martin Baggaley, medical director of the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, spoke out as an investigation by BBC News and Community Care magazine reveals more than 1,500 mental health beds have closed in recent years.

Many trusts have all their beds filled.

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Freedom of Information requests were sent to 53 of England’s 58 mental health trusts, by BBC News and Community Care, and 46 trusts replied.

The figures show that a minimum of 1,711 mental health beds have been closed since April 2011, including 277 between April and August 2013.

This represents a 9% reduction in the total number of mental health beds – 18,924 – available in 2011/12.

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On the morning Dr Baggaley spoke to the BBC, he said a severely distressed patient had been transferred from Croydon to Hertfordshire as there were no beds in London.

He has 50 patients in beds outside his trust, some as far away as Somerset.

He said: “We are in a real crisis at the moment. I think currently the system is inefficient, unsafe.

“We’re certainly feeling it on the front line, it’s very pressured, and we spend a lot of our time struggling to find beds, sending people across the country which is really not what I want to do.”

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Lord Neuberger: Legal aid cuts threaten to deny justice

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24545584

Image of Legal aid protestersProposed cuts to legal aid could deny justice to those who need it most, the UK’s top judge has warned.

Supreme Court president Lord Neuberger said reduced access to legal aid could lead to inefficient claims costlier for the court system.

If people had to drop claims, it would be “a rank denial of justice and a blot on the rule of law”, he said.

The Ministry of Justice said the annual £2bn bill for legal aid was “costing too much”.

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“The courts have no more important function than that of protecting citizens from the abuses and excesses of the executive – central government, local government, or other public bodies.”

Warning of the potential harm from government cuts to the legal aid budget, Lord Neuberger said: “Cutting the cost of legal aid deprives the very people who most need the protection of the courts of the ability to get legal advice and representation.”

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