Tag: London

Don’t drag your fellow workers down, dust yourself off, get up and join them

by rev0107, posted in Newell News International

Cry me a river. Yesterday’s heroes are today’s villains. Aside from the fact that nights and shift work shorten life expectancy, causes cancers and seriously disrupts the circadian rhythm system etc, it affects your alertness.

Letting an ego driven Mayor dictate the running operations of what is essentially a job that requires the most serious considerations for health and safety of all that use it, is asking for trouble. Having little to no regard for rotas, shifts and staffing levels and then pointing the finger at those who do, the workers as is always the case, makes you part of the problem. 

“But they earn £50k a year and max out at 50hrs a week!” Go the screams of injustice from the workers who can’t get their train. Who’s fault is it that the majority of us are working hours not seen since the Victorian times? No one but our own for giving up collective bargaining. 

In the past they blamed the excess power of the labour workforce on economic downturns in the 70s and 80s. They made it almost illegal to strike or even be in a union and gave the power to the employer to move labour across the world, sack people at will and tear up hard fought and won terms and conditions. Now the world economy is going down the shitter again and what’s their excuse now? Oh wait. The excess power of the labour workforce again… #ycmtsu.

It’s easy to point fingers at someone getting something you are not. It’s even easier to point it at someone considered your equal but those people are not typically the problem or the cause of the indifference in your working conditions. You can change that if you want, join a union and be an active part of resolving the current imbalances. In the meantime, do your bit to support the tube strikers (and something for your own health and wellbeing) by taking a walk, or support the cabbies by taking a black cab.

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Boris Johnson and the London 500; what price a life Boris?

by rev0107, posted in Newell News International

Today Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, proved that democracy is hypocrisy. Malc-X-Democracy

The slogan made famous by Malcolm X could not be more fitting as Boris Johnson has now TWICE over turned the London Fire Assemblies democratic rejection of his proposed cuts to London Fire Brigade by doing so again today. The cuts endorsed by Boris would see the loss of ten fire stations and 552 firefighter jobs, leaving both the public and the remaining firefighters at great risk. Strange then how in 2010 he said that he would keep firefighters and the fire engines!

The question Boris Johnson should be answering is what price a life?

At the Mayors Questions in June this year, Boris Johnson made light of the concerns raised in the gallery by the public and firefighters of his pursuit of the cuts. He saw fit to tell them to leave and laugh and joke at the questions surrounding the disproportionate affect his cuts agenda will have on the poor and the disabled and is an issue that has been covered recently by disability campaigner Adam Lotun. 

Firefighters on fire engines do crucial education and prevention work for the public and these cut backs will hit the most vulnerable amongst us the hardest.

The Knight Review cited the reduction in dwelling fires as the reason for cut backs on brigades resources but it failed to comment on the correlation between the work that is done by firefighters day and night to ensure that people remain safe. Where this work fails, having enough people and resources to deal with an incident early on the initial attack are vital to save and preserve life and to protect property.

Both of which do not seem to have been considered by the megalomaniac Boris Johnson, instead he would rather concentrate on revealing blue cocks in Trafalgar Square.

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The decision taken today will mean 500 plus firefighters effectively being binned over one mans vision and like Lewisham A&E the local communities must be encouraged to help rally behind the firefighters in their struggle against the ego of Johnson and his cohorts to save vital services to their communities.

The firefighters of London and their communities did not cause this recession, bad banking practices and rogue politicians have. It is high time we followed the wealth, made a stand and too back what is ours.

Newell News-round up, week 19

by rev0107, posted in Newell News International

Free bradley

This week we will just get straight into it.

NHS/Health

VICTORY! Lewisham A&E has been saved this week as the high court over ruled Jeremy Hunt, citing that he acted illegally in his move to close the department. The scenes of euphoria were something to behold and a timely reminder to us all that collectively we can turn back the tide of oppression and austerity we face.

99% of patients were happy with their NHS care, 100% of the Conservative Party want to privatise it any way.

Save Lewisham

A doctor has prescribed surgery to remove fallopian tubes in a pre-emptive move to beat ovarian cancer. It has drawn some scepticism from Cancer Research who say there is no evidence to support such a suggestion and is another act in a worrying trend of fashionable surgeries to beat cancer. Angelina Jolie recently underwent a double mastectomy to reduce the chances of her developing breast cancer saying it did not affect her woman hood.

Human Rights/Hatred UK

Bradley Manning, found not guilty of aiding the enemy, still faces 130 plus years in prison for not following orders. See what we had to say about that here.

 

After the hate vans ‘go home’ we had spot checks for immigration visa’s. The BLACK SHIRTS are in town! Of course these were brown people in deprived areas of London town. Wonder if they are going to do spot checks at the local Walkabout bar and check for Australian’s who’s visa’s may have expired? No, just Trenton Oldfield then is it? What kind of world are we living in? You cannot be illegal on your own planet.

Workers rights are being smashed by the not so new phenomenon of the zero hour contract and whilst the public get set to protest the media’s main focus, Mike Ashley and Sports Direct, the frugal Queen with her 52 bedrooms and 78 toilets at Buckingham Palace get away with the same contracts being offered out to her wage slaves without so much as a whimper. This news ‘broke’ only a week after I had written about the Daily Hate Mail front page, stating that firms have a duty to employ British people, echoing Gordon Brown’s comments in 2009 that there should be British jobs for British people.

Environment

Lord Howell, George Osborne’s father-in-law, has said we should ‘frack’ the desolate North East..no wait, sorry, the North West. You cannot make it up. Whilst the battle for Balcombe continues  we have clowns like this wading in with ridiculous comments. 40 years of shale gas or not, it does not solve a whole list of problems we face regarding energy, what do we do after 40 years? What do we make everything out of? What about our water sources? What about seismic activity?

Finance

52% of the UK are now struggling with their bills in 2013. This is an increase of 9 million people who now struggle financially but interestingly only two weeks ago George Osborne informed us that the UK economy was on the mend and before this that we never had a double dip recession. A man also told the Daily Mail that the high street is dead and that the only thing left will be Tesco and Costa.

World

Terror alert, BE AFRAID. The US announced that there was imminent danger as the end of Ramadan came and they drew back on their drone assault on Yemen, prompting fears that the US embassy in Yemen may be subject to an attack… If you drone bomb innocent people then you may expect them to be upset. The US and the UK are engaged in acts of terror everyday, one way of ending the war of terror is to stop participating in it.

Technology 

Future king has penis drawn on his forehead, world goes nuts. You cannot make it up.

Why art is crucial to change was discussed by Peter Joseph on Russia Today with Abby Martin. Kill the artist, kill the protest!

Twitter silence started at 00:01 this morning and finishes at 23:59 tonight in an attempt to highlight Twitter’s failings to deal with abuse and ‘trolling’ on the 140 character or less website. There has been much debate about the worth of this act, we wonder whether or not those abstaining from Twitter have also withdrawn from other sources of misogyny and rape culture for the day such as The Sun on Sunday, Facebook, Lynx or anyone of a hundred other items portrayed using rape culture through advertising?

Bees are to be tracked using a new radio antennae with Rothamstead Scientists taking the lead on the project from Harpenden. We do not know why honey bees are dying off but if they die out we are in serious trouble. I hope it has nothing to do with the GMO crops they have been trialling in Rothamstead Park…

bee antennae