A mass walkout to defend public sector pensions

Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers took industrial action today to protect their pension.

  

More than 1,000 rallies were held across the country and one protest in central London was attended by tens of thousands. It was the biggest walkout in UK since the 1970S and most people came on strike for the first time in their career.

About 2.6 million workers have been balloted in the row over Government plans to make them work longer, pay more taxes and get lower pensions.

Following tensions between unions and ministers, the Government had also declared that it would withdraw an improved offer if the pension dispute was not settled by the end of the year.  Ministers added that people near pension won’t be affected.

However, the Trades Unions Congress (TUC) accused the Government of alienating its workforce and public sector workers did not change their plan to take the streets.

The strike did not bring the nation to a standstill but more than 70 per cent of the schools shut all over the UK.

Also courts, museums and libraries closed, transport was disrupted and thousands of NHS appointments and operations were cancelled.

A group of 37 protesters were arrested in London to prevent further trouble following an attack on a Police Community Support officer (PCSO).

Apart from this event, the protest was mostly peaceful.

Prime Minister David Cameron dismissed the action as irresponsible and damaging, while the Labour party leader Ed Miliband said that even though he does not support strikes, he cannot condemn those taking action.

Arcadia is under the storm

One of Britain’s biggest retailers will be closing 260 shops in UK within the next three years.

The Arcadia empire, which includes brands such as Topshop, Topman, BHS, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins, Burton, Evans and Wallis has seen a near 40 per cent slide in profits as sales have slumped by 4.4 per cent in the past three months.

The owner of Arcadia Sir Philip Green, has announced plan to close 10 per cent of his high street stores, as the market is currently though and trading had worsened since the start of the new financial year.

The retail tycoon would be making the cuts as leases come up for renewal; of the more than 2,500 shops the billionaire owns worldwide, most of them in the UK, the leases on about 450 expire in the next three years. At least 260 branches will shut in the UK and it is still unclear how many job cuts will follow from the store closures.

Sir Philip also said the firm's young fashion brands Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge were trading positively. His daughter Chloe has announced that she is currently designing shoes for Topshop, trying to get the collection ready for her launch next year.

However, with UK living standards falling at their fastest rate for years and many companies gone into liquidation, other chains could retreat soon.

Three million unemployed in UK

Unemployment in UK is approaching three million.

According to the Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King, the country is facing the worst financial crisis since the inter-war slump.

Youth unemployment is running at 20 per cent, roughly the European average, with more than 1 million 16-to 24-year olds without a job. Some of these youngsters have never had the chance to work.

Figures also include more than 58 million over-fifties who have been out of work for more than 12 months. Those experienced people will hardly find a work again. Many of them will have retired earlier than they planned and on a lower retirement income than they were supposed to get.

Mr King also declared that prospects for the British economy have worsened as the risk of a double-dip recession had grown and pinned blame on crisis in the eurozone.

Meanwhile, St Paul’s Institute, a church group that seeks to engage banks with moral questions, published a report based on a poll of 515 City workers according to which the majority of employees have admitted that they are overpaid. Two-thirds of people working in the City cannot even say when the last two recessions took place.

Murdoch junior was kept in the dark

The son of media empire appointed heir, James Murdoch appeared in front of MPs yesterday to answer further questions on the phone hacking scandal.

Mr Murdoch accused former executives at News of the World (NOTW) of keeping him in the dark as he was not fully informed of evidence that phone hacking at its now defunct tabloid was more widespread than previously admitted.

However, former NOTW editor Colin Myler confirmed that Mr Murdoch knew about phone-hacking and former News International lawyer Tom Crone said that his boss was attempting to discredit him by saying he was unaware of the scandal.

The committee is still investigating who knew about the hacking NOTW.

Education for the masses, not just for the ruling classes

A mass protest against tuition fees took place yesterday in London and was led by more than 5,000 students who walked from Bloomsbury to the City.

The march was organised by The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts and demonstrators joined the protest to voice their anger over education cuts and increased tuition fees. Students hold placards reading 'No Cuts', 'RIP Higher Education', 'Education for the masses - Not just for the ruling classes' and 'No Public Sector Cuts'.

The event marks the one-year anniversary of the riots at the Conservative Party Headquarters in Milbank, but was in marked contrast to the previous protest.

In fact, more than 4,000 police were deployed to avoid the violence that hit the capital last year. They formed lines in Fleet Street to stop demonstrators heading to St Paul’s Cathedral to join the Occupy London group and arrested 24 people, including 12 for breach of the peace.

Other key supporters of the protest were the National Union of Students, UK Uncut, the Education Activist Network, Occupy London Protesters from Occupy LSX and the Trade Unions.

Save the Travel Bookshop

The economic downturn had hit one of Britain’s most famous book stores.

After more than three decades in business the Travel Bookshop is due to close in two weeks unless a last-minute buyer can be found.

The well-known bookshop in west London was the inspiration for the 1999 romantic comedy Notting Hill in which its owner, played by Hugh Grant, met and fell in love with a famous film actress played by Julia Roberts.

The 1999 movie turned the store into one of London’s most popular tourist attraction, regardless of the fact that the scenes were not filmed in the store, but in a nearby antique shop with recreated interiors.

The Travel Bookshop is having a bad time, but a group of supporters are rallying to save it from closure. In fact, this group of writers and poets is offering to volunteer a day a week to help run it if a new buyer can be found.

Meanwhile, other independent bookshops all over the country are threatened with closure because of the recession.

BBC journalists go on strike

BBC journalists nationwide went on strike yesterday in protest at compulsory redundancies.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is facing significant cuts to the central government grants that fund BBC Monitoring and the World Service. A number of compulsory redundancies have already been made and more job cuts are expected in the coming weeks.

Picket lines were mounted outside studios and offices, including the BBC TV Centre in west London and cities like Belfast, Glasgow and Manchester. Meanwhile significant parts of the BBC news network were disrupted due to the strike and there is a warning of more disruption on the way.

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is solidly supporting the BBC journalists and staged walkouts that hit several shows on Radio 4 and 5 Live and caused the loss of radio flagships PM and The World at One. NUJ general secretary, Michelle Stanistreet is said to have told strikers they have had messages of support from other unions and members of the public who think that quality journalism is under attack.

Lucy Adams, the BBC's director of business operations, said six out of seven employees were working normally and only limited changes to programmes had been made.

NUJ and BBC bosses will meet for talks next week, on August 11.