No more Union Jack in Covent Garden?

Tourists in Covent Garden won’t be able to buy merchandise displaying the English flag anymore.

Market bosses ordered traders in the Apple Market area to stop selling souvenirs and gifts with the Union Jack on.

The letter, sent to a number of traders by Covent Garden bosses Capco, reads: "Clarification has been received from Covent Garden Area trust regarding the selling of tourist related items.
"They have informed me that the selling of any items displaying the Union Jack is not permitted from the barrows. Please remove said items immediately."

Traders have expressed their anger over the new regulations: tourists have been coming to Covent Garden for years to buy items displaying the Union Jack, which is a big market indeed.
Businesses have been struggling because of the credit crunch and such restrictions will make it even harder for the Apple Market area.

The order is said to have come after a market official took objection to a handbag which included a flag design and it is feared that market bosses are trying to replace traders on the old-fashioned barrows with up-market boutique-style stands.

Let's get a job!

London has the second highest rate of Incapacity Benefit (IB) claimants in the country, with more than 246,000 people currently receiving sickness benefits.

According to a pilot scheme that took place last year, 32 per cent of these claimants were fit to work straight away and 38 per cent were assessed as able to work with some support.

The Government is prepared for the biggest crackdown on welfare system in a generation and up to 10,000 people's benefit claims will be reassessed each week up and down the UK, by medical tests carried out by private sector doctors. Everyone who has the potential to work will get the right support through the new Work Programme in order to move to the Jobseeker's Allowance list and then back into work.

According to Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, it has always been quite easy to get Incapacity Benefits and once people were on them, they never had to look for a job; many applicants have been on IB for years.

There are 2.1 million claimants all over the UK at the moment and most of them will be tested over the next few years in order to be scratched from the list of benefit fraudsters.

Rally against the cuts

Thousands of people across the country converged in London yesterday for a march organised by the Trading Union Congress (TUC) to protest against the coalition government’s spending cuts.

TUC anti-cuts march was the biggest since the Iraq War protest in 2003; English people are not big fans of protests, but this rally attracted many demonstrators from all walks of life and whole families with kids holding colourful signs against the cuts. Protesters gathered at 11 am between Temple Place and Blackfriars to set off at noon. They passed Parliament and Trafalgar Square, along Piccadilly before entering Hyde Park for a three hours rally starting at around 1.30 pm.
Speeches versus reductions in public spending were held by union members’ speakers and politicians; also Ed Miliband, leader of the Labour Party, had his say on the public sector cuts.

Among the anti-cuts supporters who joined the rally, there was charity worker Jeanne Wilson, from Lewisham, who decided to march with a group of friends. “It is very important that we stand up and show how disgusted we are with the Government’s cuts in the public sector. Most day centres for older people and connection centres for kids and teenagers have been closed. Moreover, many libraries shut in Lewisham and all over the UK; it is really upsetting,” Jeanne said.

People who work in the private sector joined the rally, as well. Sarah Newman is a teacher in a private Academy and used to work in the public sector until recently. She said: “Everyone needs to team up against the cuts. We are not going to accept this situation within local councils and if there is a strike, I would like to go”.

People actually came from all over the UK, in order to join the rally. Charlie Taylor, who works in the private sector, travelled all the way from Derbyshire to London. It took him four hours to get to the march by bus with a group of people leaving in his area. “I am a member of the socialist party and I believe that marching will stop the cuts; we will also call a 24-hours public sector general strike to bring all the workers affected by cuts together. The Government is cutting the budget for old people services, libraries and cultural services in general; we have to do something about all these changes,” Charlie said.

Even though it had been encouraged by the high levels of cooperation between the TUC and Scotland Yard to ensure a peaceful event, before the rally in Hyde Park took place, TUC’s protest was hijacked by gangs of anarchists and anti-capitalists who broke away from the demonstrators on the main march, smashing windows in Oxford Street and daubing graffiti on banks; more than 100 Uncut supporters occupied the luxury food store Fortnum & Mason in Piccadilly.
Around 200 people were arrested and many others face criminal charges over what has been called “the battle of Piccadilly”.

Meanwhile, store bosses on West End, whose shops suffered million of pounds of losses, are demanding a ban on marches in the area.

March for the Alternative

Hundreds of public sector workers across the country will stage marches next Saturday, protesting against cuts on public spending.

An estimated 100,000 union members and campaigners are expected to join the rally and several trains have been chartered and coaches hired up and down Britain, to give people the chance to get to London and beat the cuts.

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) leaders have spent five months preparing the 26 March demonstration, called under the slogans: job, growth and justice.

Local rebellion against council cuts are already spreading all over the country, as there are high cuts leading to libraries, healthcare and youth services, all being highly affected. While Britain is trying to balance the books by cutting public spending, in fact, hundreds of libraries across the UK are closing; the National Health Service is facing the biggest upheaval since ever, with more job cuts on the way and youth support centres are shutting down, causing more unemployment and an increase in the level of criminality.

The wave of rebellion is huge, with workers facing job losses, pay-freeze and potential attack to their pensions, while students are willing to defend their right to higher education.

Metropolitan Police officers, meanwhile, are planning to appoint a 'containment manager' to monitor the rally for potential trouble spots and designate the best and safest area to implement the containment.

A single day of protest won't probably bring the alternative and hundreds of trade unionists, anti-cut campaigners, pensioners and students are already thinking about the option of occupying Hyde Park and staying overnight.

All citizens are invited to march in defence of jobs and public services by gathering at 11 am at Victoria Embankment, between Temple Place and Blackfriars, to march to a rally in Hyde Park.

The following article is in Italian. Related English version will follow shortly.

La Costituzione è sempre all’ultima moda

Gli italiani a Londra hanno mantenuto la loro promessa anche questa volta, scendendo in piazza il 12 Marzo per difendere la Costituzione.

La folla, pur non numerosa come nella precedente manifestazione ‘Se non ora, quando?’, si è avvalsa di numerosi e approfonditi interventi da parte dei rappresentanti del gruppo organizzatore della marcia stessa, il Popolo Viola London. Tricolori di varie dimensioni hanno contribuito a rendere più intensa l’atmosfera.

La folla si è riunita, come di rito, nel primo pomeriggio a Richmond Terrace, di fronte alla sede del PM in Downing Street. Sono stati ricordati i valori della Resistenza, da cui la nostra Costituzione è nata, citando il pensiero di alcuni suoi valorosi esponenti e ponendo l’accento sia sull’importanza del pensiero democratico che dello stato di diritto.

E’ stato sottolineato il valore degli art. 1 e art. 4 della Costituzione, offesi da lavoro precario e giovani costretti a passare da uno stage al successivo senza prospettive per il futuro, con la conseguente fuga di cervelli all’estero. E’ stato inoltre evidenziato il problema del lavoro svolto in condizioni non dignitose.

Il mancato rispetto dell’art. 21 in un paese in cui l’informazione tutta, internet escluso, è in mano al Presidente del Consiglio, è stato un altro dei temi centrali della protesta e non meno scottante di quello dell’istruzione. Sembra infatti che l’attuale Governo voglia scardinare gli art. 33 e art. 34 che difendono sia il valore della scuola pubblica che il diritto di ognuno all’istruzione in base alle proprie capacità.

Il tema del vilipendio dell’art. 3 sulla pari dignità sociale di tutti i cittadini e soprattutto dell’art. 54, calpestato da figure politiche di rilievo che continuano ad applicare o meno la legge in base ai propri interessi personali, hanno contribuito ad animare lo scambio di idee tra la folla. Alcuni partecipanti, infatti, sono intervenuti per esprimere la loro opinione.

Tra i vari italiani presenti all’evento c’era Rossella Merlino, trentaquattrenne che collabora attivamente con il Popolo Viola London e lavora nella capitale britannica come ricercatrice.

“Sono molto vicina alla difesa dell’art. 3 della Costituzione; la pari dignità sociale è un diritto essenziale e deve essere preservato tenacemente da tutti gli italiani – spiega Rossella – purtroppo, invece, stiamo retrocedendo: da un lato c’è il nostro Primo Ministro pronto ad attaccare gli articoli costituzionali, manipolandoli a difesa dei suoi interessi personali; dall’altra c’è una popolazione poco partecipe alla vita politica ed un Governo che di certo non agevola tale interazione”.

Numerosi gli studenti decisi a manifestare, come Francesco Mandolini, che frequenta la London School of Journalism.

“Sono qui soprattutto a difesa degli art. 33 e art. 34 della Costituzione. I forti tagli alla scuola pubblica rendono il nostro Governo un elemento di attacco alla pubblica istruzione nel suo complesso. La scuola, oltre ad essere un diritto ineludibile per ogni cittadino, è lo strumento che aiuta a formare le menti e quindi a pensare. Sembra che i nostri politici temano un popolo dotato di opinioni proprie”.

Il C-Day a Londra ha inoltre catturato l’attenzione di qualche passante inglese solidale alla nostra causa, come Richard Willmsen, insegnante trentottenne che ha citato il problema del mancato rispetto dell’art. 21 della Costituzione.

“E’ fantastico vedere un popolo così motivato nel difendere i propri diritti. Mi sembra che in Italia non ci sia libera informazione e credo il problema consista nel fatto che tutti i media sono in mano a Berlusconi. Internet è l’unica oasi di libertà, poiché permette la libera espressione dei cittadini, ma non l’accesso ai veri piani del primo Ministro. Temo per il futuro della Gran Bretagna – rivela Richard– e spero che Murdoch non dia vita ad un panorama mediatico simile a quello italiano”.

Subito dopo lo scambio d’idee davanti a Downing Street, i manifestanti si sono mossi attraverso Trafalgar Square e Green Park, per poi giungere a Grosvenor Square, di fronte all’Ambasciata italiana. Proprio lì, tra slogan sulla difesa degli articoli della nostra costituzione e ringraziamenti finali, i partecipanti si sono uniti lungo le note della partigiana Bella Ciao.

Tutte le principali piazze italiane, in contemporanea, si sono colorate di verde, bianco e rosso rendendo così possibile il C-Day. Migliaia di persone, unite in tanti cortei diversi, hanno marciato animate dallo stesso forte desiderio di rispondere all’attuale emergenza democratica.

It is the end of gold-plated pensions

Public sector pensioners could be deeply disappointed from 2015 onwards.

Council workers, NHS staff, civil servants and other public sector employees will face the scrapping of final salary schemes if the biggest ever overhaul of public sector pensions is put into place.

Lord Hutton has released new pension proposals according to which gold-plated pension pots will be replaced with ones linked to average career earnings. He also suggested raising the normal age at which public sector staff can retire to the same as the state pension.

About 12 million people depend on a public sector pension and half of them will be affected by these changes if the Treasury accept the reform.

The cost of providing public sector pensions has soared by almost a third in the past decade as people live longer and the Labour peer’s scheme is meant to stop unaffordable pensions within the deepest ever cuts in council spending.

Professional organisations and union would take coordinated actions and the Government would face months of strikes by millions of public sector workers if it implemented Lord Hutton’s proposals.

The Labour peer has however confirmed that despite his proposed scheme, pension entitlements already accumulated will not be affected, giving a generation of public sector employees the chance to retire on gold-plated deals, as the rest of UK faces hard times.