November 2010
Will the government drop bankers’ pay legislation?
The Labour government in response to the public outrage on bankers' pay promised to increase transparency by introducing legislation that would force banks to reveal the pay of their top earners. It wouldn’t name and shame but it would, for example, show how many people were earning more than £1 million or more than £10 million in any one bank.
Two cheers for Cameron! But what about the rest of the party hacks on the payroll?
The prime minister performed a u-turn today over the appointment of two vanity photographers to the public purse today - having only last week said they would "save the Government and the taxpayer a lot of money". Former Tory party staffer Andrew Parsons and WebCameron filmmaker Nicky Woodhouse will now be paid by the Conservative party, and not the civil service.
Don’t let climate change slip down the agenda – join the march on December 4th
The National Climate March takes place on the 4th of December - it's the one time in the year we put as many people together as we can to say we need radical action to address the climate emergency, one simple thing we can do. This event doesn’t just happen – people work like crazy to make it happen - all you have to do is turn up, to make their work worthwhile.
Green challenges on transport policy
When Labour came to power in 1997, it promised to reverse the remorseless growth in road traffic. Within a few years, Labour's first transport secretary, John Prescott, had self-admittedly failed in this ambition, and indeed Labour had almost been sunk by the fuel-price protests. If the Left is to achieve real change in the all-important area of 'transport policy', then it is going to have to be both much more ambitious and much more savvy than was the Blair government.
Now the coalition wants to cut its meagre bank levy
So much remains in doubt on bonuses. But what we know for sure is that the Treasury’s entire bank levy revenue estimates between 2011-2014 were made when bonus payments were anticipated to be higher than they had been in 2008. And the idea that the banks should be offered another sop when they should be paying for the mess they created simply demonstrates where this conservative coalition’s priorities lie.
Cultural change is best way to make parliament more representative
In the general election of 1964, Peter Griffiths, a “Tory nonentity”, shot to victory with a racist slogan; 'Skin-Deep Democracy: How race, religion and ethnicity continue to affect Westminster politics' (pdf), a new report published today by Quilliam, shows that a lot has changed since then - but also warns that the parties could do more to promote integration through equal involvement in Westminster politics.