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1 month ago | 
morningstaronline.co.uk | Peter Lazenby
LOCAL authorities in England are facing a funding crisis which could threaten essential statutory services to the most vulnerable, the Local Government Association (LGA) has warned. The councils’ national body said local authorities were “being pushed to the financial brink” after four decades of funding cuts by the central government. Thirty councils have had to be given Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) by the government to head off bankruptcy in 2025-26, said the LGA — up from 18 last year.
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1 month ago | 
morningstaronline.co.uk | Peter Lazenby
ANTI-NUCLEAR campaigners have condemned the insanity of the Labour government’s commitment to militarisation, nuclear threats and war. The rebuke came during the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament's (CND) national demonstration at the BAE shipyard at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, on Saturday. Peace campaigners flooded Barrow’s town centre after Labour hyped up the shipyard’s importance by announcing that the port is to be granted “royal” status.
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1 month ago | 
morningstaronline.co.uk | Peter Lazenby
PRISONS in England and Wales are holding thousands more inmates than they were designed for, campaigners revealed today, despite Labour’s attempts to tackle the overcrowding problem through measures such as early release. A study by the Howard League for Prison Reform shows that there are now more people behind bars than there were when the Labour government came to power last year. It calls for an end to the imposition of increasingly longer sentences by judges.
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1 month ago | 
morningstaronline.co.uk | Peter Lazenby
WOMEN who lost tens of thousands of pounds in pensions when their state pension age was raised in the interests of “equality” will demonstrate outside the Royal Courts of Justice today as they launch legal action in their campaign for compensation. Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) is fighting on behalf of 3.8 million women who were affected by the raising of women’s state pension age initially from 60 to 65.
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1 month ago | 
morningstaronline.co.uk | Peter Lazenby
LABOUR was urged to fulfil its election pledge to “uncover the truth” about the infamous 1984 police attack on striking miners at Orgreave at the David Jones-Joe Green Memorial Lecture on Saturday. Jones, 24 and Green, 55, were Yorkshire miners killed on picket lines during the 1984-5 miners’ strike against pit closures.
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1 month ago | 
morningstaronline.co.uk | Peter Lazenby
PALESTINE ACTION activists used a mechanical cherrypicker platform to attack the Bristol headquarters of Israeli-owned weapons manufacturer Elbit on Saturday. With one activist locked inside the cab, three others on the platform sprayed the offices with red paint symbolising Palestinian blood and used a sledgehammer attached to a rope to smash windows. Elbit Systems has five factories in Britain that are used for manufacturing drones, pilotless war planes and other weapons for Israel.
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2 months ago | 
morningstaronline.co.uk | Peter Lazenby
RESIDENTS of a housing estate in Sheffield are rallying behind waste disposal workers on strike for more than six months in a battle for trade union recognition. Supportive placards and posters have appeared in Wybourn estate, one of the communities affected by Unite members’ strike action, employed by multinational corporation Veolia. Unite said the company agreed to recognise the union and even drew up the agreement before inexplicably performing a U-turn.
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2 months ago | 
morningstaronline.co.uk | Peter Lazenby
THE future of work in Britain is the four-day week, campaigners predicted today, as employers adopt the concept. More than 200 employers in Britain are now operating the reduction, including a district council, according to the 4 Day Week Foundation. Moving to more flexible working is being backed by the TUC, which said the system raises productivity and reduces costs.
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2 months ago | 
morningstaronline.co.uk | Peter Lazenby
SUPPORTING families suffering in poverty has become a “top priority” for health visitors in England, a report by their professional body has revealed. The Institute of Health Visiting’s (IHV) annual survey of health visitors found that poverty was more rife in England than in other parts of Britain. Its research showed the top problem across Britain was mothers’ mental health problems during and after pregnancy.
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2 months ago | 
morningstaronline.co.uk | Peter Lazenby
MORE than 40 per cent of adults in Britain expect their financial situation to worsen this year — and energy bills will be the cause. The StepChange Debt Charity, which helps people manage their debts, said that of the 41 per cent who expected to be worse off, 59 per cent blamed higher energy bills. Since the energy crisis began in 2021, 20 energy companies in Britain made a staggering £457 billion in profits by August last year, according to the End Fuel Poverty Coalition.
