Recent Articles
2 Sisters’ Chairman ‘Helps’ the Needy
To mark a new year committed to creating a “world where everyone gets the help they need in a crisis”, the British Red Cross has recruited 2 Sisters Food Group’s chairman Sir Charles Allen as the incoming chairman of their board of trustees. That is the very same man who has attained a certain level […]
A Review of the East Midlands Regional Women’s Meeting
I wasn’t sure what to expect as I sat in a room full of women at the Socialist Party’s East Midlands Regional Women’s meeting. It was being held in Leicester, my home branch, on the first Saturday of December and I was there more out of solidarity with my fellow branch members than any pressing […]
Uganda and Leicester
On 13 September 2012, Sundip Meghani, the Labour and Co-operative Councillor for Beaumont Leys, brought a motion before the Leicester City Council to raise awareness of the unique contribution made by Ugandan Asians to Leicester’s history. As the son and grandson of Ugandan Asian immigrants who fled to Leicester from Idi Amin in 1972, Councillor […]
Poll Tax: When Organised Mass Action Defeated the Tories
Steve Score, former secretary, Leicestershire Anti-Poll Tax Federation The campaign against Thatcher’s poll tax is an example of how a mass movement can defeat a government. 18 million people, organised through the All-Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation, defied the law and refused to pay the tax. This not only forced the Tories to scrap it but […]
Privatising Schools in Leicester
“Leicester Miller Education Company Ltd is the Public Private Partnership delivering the circa £300m Building Schools Schools for the Future (BSF) programme in Leicester… Respect for people, communities and the environment is embedded in our culture.” Leicester Miller Education Company Web Site, 2012. All corporations must by law place profit before all other considerations; which […]
Abolishing Arriva and NSL’s Ambulance Profiteering
“Arriva Transport Solutions and Ambuline: a great partnership.” – Arriva Web Site, 2012. From 1 July 2012 Arriva Transport Solutions and Ambuline Ltd have been providing non-emergency patient transport for Leicestershire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire and Bassetlaw — Ambuline being a subsidiary of Arriva, and Arriva itself being a subsidiary of German transport giant Deutsche Bahn. This […]
Don’t axe our ambulance services!
If you look at one of our local ambulances, you see the words “Arriva, in partnership with the NHS”. You might be mistaken for thinking that, out of a sense of community responsibility, the bus company has lent the NHS some vehicles for use. In fact, Arriva have bought out the East Midlands non-emergency ambulance […]
Ejecting G4S From Leicester Schools
In recent months the multi-national corporation G4S, formerly known as Group 4 Securicor, has become a household name because of it involvement in the Olympics security debacle, which has further increased public opposition to privatisation. So moving back a few years to July 2009, we might recall that the Leicester Mercury observed that this infamous […]
Trash Capitalism
Last week in Doncaster, after two days of strike action, bin-workers in Unite the union employed by Sita UK “voted 70-50 to accept a revised pay offer and return to work.” This is excellent news, and “will give confidence to a group of workers only recently unionised and still in the process of building a […]
