Tag Archives: trade unions

Stephen Tall

Are the unions a bigger threat to the Lib Dems than Ashcroft was?

By Stephen Tall | Fri 22nd October 2010 - 9:40 am

A Guardian headline today reads, Unions focus on Lib Dem seats in battle to save jobs. The story makes clear how trade unions will mobilise their resources to fight the budget cuts unveiled this by George Osborne’s comprehensive spending review — and in particular focus on Lib Dems:

The campaign is expected to focus on constituencies held by Liberal Democrat MPs who, unions believe, will be vulnerable to local pressure as many of the people who supported them did not vote for cuts on the scale revealed this week.

Nowt wrong with unions mobilising to protect their members’ interests: that, after …

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 99 Comments
Amanda J Taylor

Opinion: Time for Lib Dem members to unite against UNITE’s Labour propaganda

By Amanda J Taylor | Tue 16th March 2010 - 1:45 pm

The Guardian reported last Friday that the uber-union UNITE is to get its members canvassing one another on behalf of the Labour Party.

In spite of justified criticism of the Government throughout the parliamentary cycle, UNITE always comes out for Labour when an election’s nigh – it never learns! Its members’ publication (paid for out of the political levy, or not?) is full of pro-Labour propaganda.

I believe it behoves a trade union to campaign for policies that would help its members, not nail its colours to the mast of just one political party, regardless of whether …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 6 Comments
Alex Foster

#ldconf podcast: Vince’s speech

By Alex Foster | Mon 21st September 2009 - 6:00 pm

There are now many ways of getting your brain around Vince Cable’s keynote speech. Read it on the party website. Hear our podcast below. See what ePolitix thinks – or the Guardian, for that matter.

vince-speech

There was much that was really important that jumped out at me from the speech – here are my favourite bits:

We should not be taken in by the hysterical nonsense about the country being bankrupt. It isn’t.

The Tories are currently getting a free rein to slash budgets. Tories like …

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Posted in Conference and Podcasts | Also tagged , , , and | 17 Comments
Benjamin Mathis

Opinion: Angry Union Men – whose fault are the Lincolnshire strikes?

By Benjamin Mathis | Mon 2nd February 2009 - 4:57 pm

As Britain stares down a 1970s-style Spring of Discontent, with the Credit Crunch now being supplemented by industrial strife and wildcat strikes, who is to blame for the crisis on the Humber, and how can it be resolved?

First of all, these workers have every right to feel angry. We all do. Like the rest of the country, they were told that ‘Things Can Only Get Better’, they were even promised ‘British Jobs for British Workers’, and yet here they are again, back to picketing and strikes. Now, that isn’t to say that companies like Total shouldn’t be able …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 11 Comments
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Recent Comments

  • John B Grout
    Excellent piece, Josh. As for seeking others' thoughts on the pitch, here are mine: Labour and the Greens want to do things for you, the Conservatives and R...
  • David Evans
    It's an interesting article, which gives us more to think about, but when it ends with "Government and politics can strive toward this platform ... giving ind...
  • Neil Sandison
    This one of a series of articles recently published in the Liberal Democrat Voice that defines our social liberal values . Frequently the hot house of Westminst...
  • Pawel Urbanski
    This is the right problem to be working on, and I think the answer may be less about the words than about the moments. In my experience people learn what we sta...
  • Simon Robinson
    It's good to have an MP putting herself forward for this. The manifesto seems a bit vague though. All good thoughts and nothing you can really disagree with, b...