Striking doctors are really capitalists — and may have a point
And now they're back for more, Wes seems both hurt and baffled — the kid who can't understand how the bullies can be asking for his pocket money again, because he already handed it over last week.
In truth there are plenty of reasons to denounce both the strikes and the BMA, as Lord Winston did last week, quitting the union after more than 60 years. It has indeed been captured by a hard-left clique. It is indeed seeking more money than anyone else, at a time when there's none to go round. And its campaign for 'pay restoration' is based on a measure of inflation that economists abandoned more than a decade ago.
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The Guardian
33 minutes ago
- The Guardian
UK ministers urged to pass bill protecting DEI whistleblowers
Ministers have been urged to pass legislation that would protect whistleblowers who expose employers who flout forthcoming UK diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) laws. The equality (race and disability) bill, which the equalities minister Seema Malhotra has described as part of the government's 'absolute' commitment to DEI, is expected to be published this year. As law, the bill would compel employers with more than 250 staff to reveal whether white and non-disabled staff are paid more than Black, minority ethnic and disabled employees, in the same way that employers have to report gender pay gaps. It is also expected to establish an equal pay regulatory and enforcement unit to prevent pay discrimination and could compel employers to produce action plans on what they are doing to improve equality. Responses to the consultation, which is being used to shape the bill and closed in June, include proposals that legislation protects whistleblowers who report employers hiding pay gap information. The proposal is in stark contrast to what is unfolding in the US, where under Donald Trump's presidency, officials have urged 'private parties' to help them identify 'illegal' DEI programmes, including financial incentives for those who file whistleblower claims against federal contractors trying to tackle racial inequality. The UK whistleblower proposal has been made by the Black Equity Organisation (BEO) – whose founders in 2021 included the foreign secretary, David Lammy, and the broadcaster and academic David Olusoga. In partnership with Sky, BEO runs F100 Growth Fund, which supports Black entrepreneurs – who in the UK and the US account for less than 1% of venture capital investment – with funding and mentoring, and has been pressing ministers to 'tackle racial inequality at source' through pay gap reporting. In its submission to the government's consultation, the BEO said: 'Any final enforcement regime should include the ability to issue public notices, making public the names of companies who fail to submit their ethnicity pay gap reports. 'Support for whistleblowers is also essential', it added, and there should be 'a confidential channel for employees who report concerns to ensure they are not penalised.' The BEO also urged government to ensure pay gap data is fully disaggregated to reflect 'important differences in experiences and outcomes' between Black and minority ethnic groups, and called for mandatory pay gap reporting to be extended to employers with more than 50 staff, to cover lower-paid workers in smaller companies, which the TUC federation of trade unions has also called for. In its submission to the consultation, the TUC said: 'If the legislation is to be effective … it needs to apply to the majority of workplaces.' The new equality bill comes amid political backlash against fairness measures – represented by Reform UK and the conservative Blue Labour faction of the Labour party – inspired by Trump's attacks on DEI. In the US, measures trying to tackle racial inequality have been labelled 'discriminatory'. In May, a Department of Justice memo said the False Claims Act would be used against federal contractors 'knowingly engaging in racist preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities, including through diversity, equity, and inclusion programs that assign benefits or burdens on race, ethnicity, or national origin,' promising 'sharing in any monetary recovery' to whistleblowers who bring successful anti-DEI lawsuits. A UK government spokesperson said it was 'committed to introducing disability and ethnicity pay gap reporting into legislation in the king's speech. Our consultation on mandatory reporting has now closed and we are reviewing all of the responses'.
Times
an hour ago
- Times
Manufacturing in all UK regions is back above pre-pandemic levels
Manufacturing output across all UK regions is back above pre-pandemic levels for the first time, with a surge in aerospace and defence orders giving a particular boost to the southwest and northwest, the latest data shows. A report published on Monday from the manufacturing lobby group Make UK and accountants BDO underlines the bounce-back from Covid, when grounded airlines, a lack of demand and supply chain disruption brought some factories to a halt. Risks remain, however, with President Trump's tariffs bringing new threats, particularly to the West Midlands, where the automotive sector accounts for a large part of the 26 per cent of the region's exports destined for the United States. The latest data on output, to the end of 2023, shows that the southwest was the strongest performing region. It's running at 27 per cent above 2019 levels, followed by the east of England, at 21 per cent, and the northwest, ahead by a fifth. Before the latest data, only the West Midlands had remained below pre-Covid output, hit hard by the pandemic slump in automotive production and supply chain chaos. • Cheaper energy will be key for Labour's industrial strategy 'It's taken some time, and some regions are striking forward at a faster rate than others, but hopefully the post-Covid malaise is now firmly in the rear-view mirror,' Fhaheen Khan, senior economist at Make UK, said. 'However, it's clear that we are likely to see a growing divergence between those regions and nations that have the sub-sectors where greater levels of investment are taking place.' He said that, as a result of that, 'government must be mindful to ensure that growth is evenly spread' when it came to developing local growth plans. The report also highlights the continuing decline in the share of goods exports to the EU for all English regions and nations. Wales remains the most dependent on the EU with 61 per cent of its goods destined for the bloc, even if that was a decline of around 10 percentage points since 2020. The government's new industrial strategy, making advanced manufacturing one of its eight key sectors, was welcomed by Richard Austin, head of manufacturing at BDO. He pointed out, though, that companies would still 'need continued investment in design, innovation, and skills across the whole of the country if they're to weather global trade disruption'. The report also shows that the number of manufacturing jobs increased by 12,000 in the 12 months to March 2024, bringing the sector's total to just under 2.6 million. There was, however, a divergence across regions and nations, with Wales and the East Midlands both seeing a 12,000 drop in manufacturing jobs, while the West Midlands and east of England saw increases of just under 10,000.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Trump news at a glance: King Charles schedules state visit as president booed at Club World Cup final
King Charles has invited Donald Trump for an unprecedented second state visit in September, scheduling the trip for three days when parliament is not sitting and removing the possibility of the US president addressing parliament. The visit is a coup for the White House, with Trump becoming the first elected politician in modern history to be granted two state visits, after his earlier one in 2019. But the US president received a frostier reception when he made an appearance at the Club World Cup final in New Jersey on Sunday. Trump was booed and jeered by the crowd during the national anthem before the match and again while presenting the trophy to Chelsea alongside Fifa president Gianni Infantino. Here are the key US politics stories at a glance: Buckingham Palace announced on Monday that Donald Trump would come to the UK from 17-19 September, soon after the House of Commons rises for its traditional break for the annual party conferences. King Charles will host Trump and his wife, Melania, at Windsor Castle, though the palace has not yet set out any other details of the trip. The dates of the trip, however, avoid the prospect of the US president making an address to parliament. Read the full story The US president was front and center for Chelsea's trophy lift and was greeted by widespread boos at the Club World Cup final at a sold-out MetLife Stadium on Sunday. Trump and Fifa president Gianni Infantino jointly carried the trophy to the Chelsea team on the stage after their 3-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain. But while Infantino moved out of frame of television cameras, Trump stayed put, finding himself squarely in focus as Chelsea captain Reece James lifted the trophy. Read the full story The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has called on the EU to 'defend European interests resolutely' after Trump threatened to impose 30% tariffs on nearly all imports from the EU. It came as the EU moved to de-escalate tensions after the blunt move by Trump on Saturday. The bloc declared a further pause on €21bn of retaliatory tariffs until 1 August, dovetailing with the US president's new deal deadline. Read the full story On Monday, in an extraordinary show of force, a convoy of federal agents descended upon Los Angeles's MacArthur Park. Chaperones from a summer camp hurried children indoors, as protesters and media rushed to the scene. City leaders denounced the spectacle as a 'political stunt' designed to terrorize Angelenos who have been reckoning with a relentless onslaught of immigration raids that began in early June. The ubiquitous presence of Ice agents, and the threat of arrest, have become a part of daily life for immigrants across the city, while also taking an economic toll on neighbourhoods that have slowed to a crawl as people choose to stay home. Read the full story Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said on Sunday that Trump wants to have the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) 'remade' instead of eradicated entirely. In a new interview on Sunday with NBC, Noem defended the Trump administration's response to the deadly Texas floods that have killed at least 120 people, saying: 'I think the president recognizes that Fema should not exist the way that it always has been. It needs to be redeployed in a new way, and that's what we did during this response.' Read the full story Rosie O'Donnell has shrugged off a threat from Trump to revoke her US citizenship on the grounds that she is 'a threat to humanity'. The New York-born actor and comedian said on Sunday that she was the latest in a long list of artists, activists and celebrities to be threatened by the US president. 'So, I didn't take it personally, but I will tell you the way that he is has emboldened people like him,' O'Donnell told RTÉ Radio's Sunday with Miriam show. Read the full story A new Senate committee report on the attempted assassination of Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year, described the events as a 'cascade of preventable failures' and called for more severe disciplinary action to be taken with the Secret Service in the future. In the 31-page, highly critical findings released on Sunday, the Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee lamented the mishandling of communications around the rally and said Trump was denied extra security on the day. Read the full story Trump said the US will send Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine to help it fight off Russian attacks amid a souring of his relations with Vladimir Putin. Kevin Hassett, the White House economic adviser, said Trump has seen some trade deal offers and thinks they need to be better, adding that the president will proceed with threatened tariffs on Mexico and the EU if they don't improve. Catching up? Here's what happened on Saturday 12 July.
