The ‘Bedroom Tax’: A Two-Pronged Attack By Insa Koch

1 September 2013 — New Left Project

The ‘bedroom tax’, which was implemented on the 1 April 2013, has been widely criticised as a fundamental attack on the welfare state in Britain. It exposes many people to the risk of losing their houses, threatening to break up family homes and communities. But there is also another problem with the ‘bedroom tax’ which has been largely overlooked: in addition to undermining the welfare state, it fosters feelings of resentment which may well reinforce social divisions among the most marginalised sectors of society.

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Asleep on the job – England’s young doctors and the NHS reforms By Guddi Singh

4 September 2013 — OurNHS

Great tides of people press against me, hands outstretched, faces questioning. They wait for something – a doctor? Anguish ripples through the crowd. Those without the right colour passport are turned away. Countless others shake out their pockets: desperate for pennies; desperate for treatment. Their eyes fill with reproach once they recognize I am a doctor. Their searing gaze brands my guilt.

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After Mubenga unlawful killing verdict: Could asylum seekers have a worse landlord than G4S?

9 July 2013 — Open Democracy

• Unlawful killing verdict • Jimmy Mubenga died after ‘restraint’ by three G4S guards • G4S gave disputed evidence to Parliamentary committee about restraint techniques • Lately executive Stephen Small dismissed allegations about abuse of asylum seekers housed by G4S

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‘Boston Bombers’ Tsarnaev brothers: Where the dots won't connect By Anna Priemysheva

21 April, 2013 — RT

The whole world is now rehearsing the exotic names of the main suspects fingered as the ‘Boston bombers’: Tamerlan and Dzhokhar.  The two young men have been treated with ‘celebrity’ attention by the media as the public is struggling to define the motives and circumstances that led to their recent actions. After a dramatic and near unprecedented manhunt for the Tsarnaev brothers – accused of staging the Boston Bombings – what appears most clear is that very little clarity surrounds the case. Continue reading

Death of Margaret Thatcher Reopens the Debate Over Her Cruel Legacy By Roger Annis

15 April 2013 — The Bullet • Socialist Project E-Bulletin No. 805

The death of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on April 8 has renewed an intense political debate in Britain and internationally over her legacy. For her ruling class sycophants, Thatcher was a heroine, “one of the greatest” prime ministers Britain ever had. While she is falsely credited with lifting Britain out of a lasting economic slump during the 1970s, she did succeed in imposing a drastic and lasting shift in the balance of social and economic wealth between rich and poor, very much to the detriment of the latter. She was prime minister from 1979 to 1990.

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What If They Held A Constitutional Convention and Everybody Came? By Dan Hind

1 April 2013 Return of the Public

On March 25th the House of Commons’ Political and Constitutional Reform Committee published Do We Need A Constitutional Convention for the UK? Though the report acknowledged widespread opposition to the idea – from the government, from the Scottish National Party and from the Conservative party in Wales, as well as from some members of the committee itself – it concluded that a convention was necessary, in order to address the growing strains on the UK‘s constitution caused by ‘a huge amount of incremental constitutional change over the past two decades’ (p.17).

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