Legal aid and Law Centres are under threat in the UK, along with the principle of equal access to justice. Geoffrey Bindman QC says it's time for the legal profession to dig into their pockets and help meet the gap in state funding. This week's Friday Essay.
Introducing his revised NHS bill, Lord Owen calls today for
transparency from Prime Minister David Cameron over the secret mandate for the
EU-US Trade Negotiations which he hopes to boost at the G8 Summit in five weeks
time in Northern Ireland.
Scotland's place in the Union, Britain's place in the EU. Two referenda are on the horizon, but the debates around each are strangely divorced from each other.
Two years ago trained members of the
public attending immigration bail hearings published their first report,
"A Travesty of Justice". Today the Bail Observation Project reports
again. Unfairness and lack of due process persist.
Serco shareholders gather in the City of London today
to celebrate financial success. Just across the river, Britain's newest private prison HMP Thameside, run by Serco, is failing.
After the government pushed through its widely opposed privatisation regulations it is time now to focus on the big trade deals and look to the G8 meeting in June. There is a reason the public are being told nothing about them - because they won't like what they hear.
Republicanism offers a persuasive guide to the political shaping of markets. A basic income could be the foundation of a democratic republican economy that frees all citizens from the commodification of labour.
Watch the debate with Graham Watson MEP (ALDE Group Leader) and Martin Callanan MEP (ECR Group Leader), moderated by Peter O’Donnell, covering many of the key issues for debate. What would Britain actually lose?
Things aren't going well in the UK's new asylum housing 'market' that is dominated by the world's biggest security company. Now G4S threatens to evict an asylum-seeker because G4S has failed to pay her rent. Are public services safe in its hands?
Action is stirring in response to the country-wide housing crisis. Severe shortage and cuts to housing benefits leave the UK struggling to put roofs over heads. Some local authorities and tenant groups are trying to rebel; they need concerted support.
The
nostalgic appeal to ‘the spirit of 45’ is embedded in a long myth of ‘public
services’ propagated by the culture of Britain’s unwritten constitution.
Nigel Lawson's provocations on the EU question raise some important points. It is no longer tenable to trot out the same tired arguments for the Union. It has very serious failings. A positive account of the UK's membership must address them head on.
'Nothing is real, everything is fake'. Enter Nigel Farage, UKIP leader and temporary answer to a widespread disaffection with British politics and politicians.
During the re-writing of history after Margaret Thatcher's death, a story remained untold. This was the support the Iron Lady enjoyed from some Black activists, due not least to the crushing of the 'racist' union movement.