nancebarker.bsky.social
@nancebarker.bsky.social
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The Global Labour University has posted a free Labour History course with lectures and essays by @rickhalpern.bsky.social Peter Cole, Dorothy Sue Cobble, me and others. Check it out.
Labour History Interdisciplinary, Political Science, Social
The history is not about the past; it is about understanding the present and shaping the future. What do the past struggles of labour movements, with all the...
glu.iversity.org
December 3, 2024 at 5:08 PM
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When the show 'Benefits Street' was produced, a poll showed that the public thought 41% of the welfare budget went to people who were unemployed; the real figure was 2.3%.

Politicians and journalists don't just respond to public opinion — they actively shape it.
December 3, 2024 at 7:08 PM
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Such nonsense being talked about the Scottish NHS today, to justify draconian cuts.

Anyone who thinks a 2.5% rise in staff costs was excessive, in a year where inflation was 3.3%, is not a serious person.

Healthcare costs are rising across the developed world. Why should Scotland be different?
December 3, 2024 at 9:21 AM
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ICYMI: I wrote about what the left can learn from the Belgian PTB's extraordinary model of organising
“The system is designed to make people feel small.

“And I think that the basic thing of the Left is to empower people, to make them feel part of something - a bigger collectivity, a class, a movement they can be proud of.”

My piece on the Belgian Workers Party tribunemag.co.uk/2024/12/goin...
Going Back to Class
The Workers’ Party of Belgium is defying the trend of leftist movements losing touch with the working class by using community organising to build a Marxist party with mass appeal.
tribunemag.co.uk
December 3, 2024 at 9:29 AM
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November 26, 2024 at 6:11 PM
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So that's now two (at least) big Labour figures - Tom Watson and Peter Mandelson - taking money from Palantir to help it sink its teeth further into the NHS.
November 26, 2024 at 8:47 AM
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I love this.
November 24, 2024 at 1:46 PM
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❗️ BREAKING: Labour will slash benefits, tighten sanctions and impose "sweeping changes" on welfare to tackle "bulging benefits bill" says Starmer.

Writing in the Daily Mail, Starmer promised "biggest overhaul of employment support in memory".

(Via @labourlist.bsky.social)
November 24, 2024 at 11:55 AM
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Private Equity has devoured

Bernard Matthews
Body Shop
Casual Dining
Cath Kidson
Comet
Debenhams
Flybe
Four Seasons Health Care
Maplin
Monarch Airlines
Paperchase
Poundworld
Southern Cross
Thames Water
Toys R Us

With further deregulation of finance, what next?
leftfootforward.org/2024/11/exce...
Excessive deregulation means that the UK is hurtling towards the next crash
Deregulation creates opportunities for bankers to take reckless risks with other people’s money, collect bonuses and destabilise economies.
leftfootforward.org
November 24, 2024 at 8:07 AM
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The unsightly spectacle of politicians lecturing the very public they have let down for over a decade, and blaming those who have the least for the decline in living standards they have presided over
November 24, 2024 at 12:34 PM
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Keir Starmer declares war on benefits Britain.

A war on the poor, sick, old, disabled.

16.1m have disabilities, 2.8m chronically ill, 6.34m await hospital appointments, 16m live in poverty.

No war on corporate welfare, no wealth taxes or redistribution.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...
Keir Starmer declares war on benefits Britain
The Prime Minister uses an article in today's Mail on Sunday to promise changes to try to tame the £137 billion bill for welfare benefits - including a blitz on cheats and those who 'game the system'.
www.dailymail.co.uk
November 24, 2024 at 3:44 PM
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It's time to end this cruel "sport" once and for all.

@thegreenparty.bsky.social are working towards a total ban on greyhound racing and we'll continue to amplify that call.
November 24, 2024 at 6:22 AM
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Just incredibly bleak that when a Labour government is finally in power, disabled people still have to wake up to front pages calling them a blight on society.
November 24, 2024 at 10:25 AM
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Countries will have to decide if the cash on offer is acceptable or not."

Pretty poor from Ed Miliband.

At this key moment, our government should be pushing USA & holding them to account. Instead he sounds like he's saying like it or lump it.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c8...

#COP29
COP29 live: 'Time is not on our side', says COP29 host as UN climate talks on verge of collapse
Countries walk out as a bitter fallout erupts between poorer and richer countries over money to help tackle climate change.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 23, 2024 at 6:39 PM
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Govt let off accountancy, architects & private equity firms. Partners taxed as self-employed.

They pay Class 4 NIC, lower rate than workers. Partners of just 4 law firms gained £4bn.

Enough to cancel two-child benefit cap, winter fuel payment cut.

Easier to hit the less well-off
archive.ph/XgSuK
archive.ph
November 23, 2024 at 11:46 AM
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"In a truly free market society, pervasive private power of the kind wielded by Blackrock should not exist."

As Keir Starmer meets Blackrock head Larry Fink, I've published an excerpt from Vulture Capitalism on the rise of Blackrock, and Fink, on my Substack.
open.substack.com/pub/gracebla...
November 23, 2024 at 9:58 AM
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What have we come to when people are being made homeless & sleeping in doorways…because they went into hospital (& pointless DWP hoop-jumping was not uppermost in their minds)

The government could stop this happening today, with a stroke of a pen, if it cared enough.
@angelaraynermp.bsky.social
November 23, 2024 at 8:30 AM
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They've been proudly advertising that they are "the first private sector government in Labour's history."

God only knows why the unions still give them money.

www.heraldscotland.com/news/2380571...
Starmer administration will be 'first private sector government in Labour’s history'
Keir Starmer’s administration will be the “first private sector government in Labour’s history,” a former leader of the Scottish party has…
www.heraldscotland.com
November 22, 2024 at 10:44 AM
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Keir Starmers Black Rock tweet is quite something.

8.3 million views.

But not a single retweet from a Labour MP. Of the 402 who could support him - including Reeves tagged - not one.

Commiserations to Lewes , Limehouse & Poplar Labour who thought this was great & what people needed to hear!
November 22, 2024 at 10:31 AM
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Keir Starmers BlackRock Britain.

"BlackRock is highlighting Labour’s entire political project rests on the willingness of companies like BlackRock to plough private capital into the foundational components of our society (and extracting massive profits in the process)."

Really important piece. 👇🏼
“Dear Secretary of State on behalf of all of us here at BlackRock, please find attached a formal letter of congratulations from myself and our UK Chair, Sandra Boss. And may I add, on a personal note, it is a pleasure after all these years to address you as such!”

open.substack.com/pub/thedarka...
The BlackRock letters: inside Labour's 'close partnership'
The business secretary told the head of a major global investment banker that he looked forward to working together to “change the face of our United Kingdom"
open.substack.com
November 22, 2024 at 2:07 PM
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This post from the PM is problematic for a number of reasons.

A thread…🧵
November 21, 2024 at 10:15 PM
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I wish media etc would stop referring to them as socialist and left. They are just to the right of centre.
November 22, 2024 at 10:14 AM
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Funny how we never saw headlines like this after the last government made a series of totally unfunded tax cuts prior to the election
November 22, 2024 at 12:01 PM
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The ICC’s arrest warrants are long overdue.

The Prime Minister & Foreign Secretary must immediately endorse this decision. That is the bare minimum.

Will the UK government now, finally, honour its international obligations to prevent genocide and end all arms sales to Israel?
November 21, 2024 at 12:46 PM