Britain
UK think tank warns of fall in economic growth and rising inequality
By Margot Miller, 16 February 2017
Planned changes to the tax and benefit system mean that the poorest 10 percent in society will be 3.1 percent worse off, which translates into a loss of £314 a year.
Britain: Pseudo-left TUSC reaffirms support for Labour
By Julie Hyland, 16 February 2017
The Socialist Party and Socialist Workers Party fear nothing more than the collapse of the Labour Party and will do all in their power to prop it up.
UK schools decimated by funding cuts
By Tom Pearce, 15 February 2017
Seventy-one percent of school head teachers polled were able to balance their budgets only by making cuts or dipping into reserves.
British court hears appeal of conviction of war criminal Alexander Blackman
By Harvey Thompson, 14 February 2017
The appeal is the outcome of a media-orchestrated campaign by right-wing forces, allied with sections of the military, who were never reconciled to Blackman’s jailing.
Scotland: Thousands protest in Edinburgh against Trump’s attacks on migrants
By Steve James, 13 February 2017
Scotland Against Trump put forward no perspective to mobilise the working class against the most right-wing, anti-democratic government ever elected in US history.
UK: Privatisation and cuts agenda exacerbates NHS staffing crisis
By Ajanta Silva, 13 February 2017
Junior doctors repeatedly stressed the implications of understaffing in hospitals during their industrial action last year.
UK government proposes raising fees for two-year degree courses
By Alice Summers, 13 February 2017
The claim that raising fees is intended to improve educational standards and options for students is a barefaced lie aimed at covering over the continued attack on education.
Report co-authored by murdered British MP Jo Cox advocates for war
By Richard Tyler, 11 February 2017
Cox’s brutal murder shocked millions, but her death has been used in the most cynical fashion by the most right-wing forces within the Labour Party.
Socialist Equality Party (UK) public meetings
Trump and Brexit: For a socialist opposition to economic nationalism
By , 11 February 2017
The Socialist Equality Party (UK) is holding a series of meetings on the significance of Trump’s election and the necessity to oppose all forms of economic nationalism on the basis of the fight for socialism.
UK: Family wins case against anti-democratic Prevent legislation
By Tania Kent, 10 February 2017
Bedfordshire Local Education Authority admitted breaching the rights of two school children to a private and family life, freedom of religion and freedom of expression.
Socialism and defence of the free movement of labour: Part two
By Julie Hyland, 10 February 2017
The support of the pseudo-left for immigration controls is the outcome of their perspective of national economic regulation under capitalism.
Alberto Cavalcanti and postwar British cinema
By Joanne Laurier, 10 February 2017
In the course of a lengthy filmmaking career, Brazilian-born Alberto Cavalcanti created several of the most poetically realistic and socially poignant films of the twentieth century.
UK House of Commons approves Brexit
By Robert Stevens, 9 February 2017
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn ordered his MPs to support the government’s bill whether his party’s amendments were accepted or not.
British Airways cabin crew strike at Heathrow Airport
By Ross Mitchell, 9 February 2017
This week’s strikes went ahead despite the best efforts of the Unite trade union bureaucracy to sabotage the struggle.
UK: Spending cuts deepen crisis in NHS mental health services
By Jean Gibney, 9 February 2017
Government cuts to mental health services in Britain have produced a situation where there is enormous demand with little capacity to meet the need.
UK: A conductor’s appeal to Southern GTR drivers
Vote “no” in the “referendum” on Driver Only trains
By , 8 February 2017
The Socialist Equality Party (UK) has received the following letter from a train conductor.
The Guardian’s Jonathan Jones denounces the Russian Revolution and its art
By Chris Marsden and Paul Mitchell, 8 February 2017
Jones paints a lying picture of gratuitous violence by the Bolsheviks, but fails to mention the intervention of the imperialist powers, or to detail the White terror they helped sustain.
UK Trotskyist Barbara Slaughter speaks at Leeds anti-Trump demonstration
By Harvey Thompson, 7 February 2017
Slaughter’s comments were met with cheering and applause.
Netanyahu in London for talks with British prime minister
By Jean Shaoul, 7 February 2017
Netanyahu is seeking to extract every last ounce out of Trump’s hostility to Iran and his support for Israel, and Theresa May’s utter dependency on Washington.
UK: More deaths of those ruled “fit to work”
By Paul Bond, 7 February 2017
The deaths of Lawrence Bond and James Harrison are added to a list of sick or disabled people who have died after losing their entitlement to sickness benefit and being declared fit for work.
Tens of thousands rally in London in second round of anti-Trump protests
By Robert Stevens, 6 February 2017
The protest organisers sought to divert opposition to Trump into appeals to May to end the “special relationship” with the US.
UK protesters speak out against Trump
By our reporters, 6 February 2017
Protesters opposed to Trump’s travel ban spoke to the World Socialist Web Site at Saturday’s demonstrations in London, Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester.
Theresa May’s White Paper offers no plan for post-Brexit Britain
By Robert Stevens, 4 February 2017
The government promises the best of all possible worlds for British imperialism, with no means of achieving this ambitious goal.
London’s Haringey Labour council launches £2 billion privatisation
By Thomas Scripps, 4 February 2017
Most residents of Haringey’s Council housing estates slated for destruction under the HDV are entirely unaware of what is being planned.
British government secures vote to proceed with Brexit
By Chris Marsden, 2 February 2017
Following the vote, the UK will enter a period of intense political crisis.
Tens of thousands in UK protest Trump Muslim ban
By Robert Stevens, 1 February 2017
There was a stark contrast between the genuine response of protesters and pro-imperialist critique of Trump from the protest organisers.
UK protesters speak out against Trump and May
By our reporters, 1 February 2017
World Socialist Web Site reporters spoke to anti-Donald Trump protesters at Monday evening’s demonstrations across Britain.
UK Labour Party split threatened over Brexit
By Paul Mitchell, 31 January 2017
Political divisions have been brought to the peak of intensity by Prime Minister Theresa May’s efforts to cultivate relations with the US administration of Donald Trump.
UK Prime Minister May under attack over meeting with Trump
By Robert Stevens and Chris Marsden, 30 January 2017
With protests taking place in the US and throughout the world, May was forced into an abrupt U-turn after initially refusing to comment on Trump’s edict banning Muslims from entering the US.
Rolls-Royce board escape serious punishment for “truly vast” bribery and corruption
By Simon Whelan, 30 January 2017
Rolls-Royce ultimately got the exceptionally lenient treatment from the British state that they had lobbied long and hard to gain.
Trump uses press conference with UK Prime Minister May to restate anti-EU agenda
By Robert Stevens and Chris Marsden, 28 January 2017
For the Trump administration, “post-Brexit” Britain’s main value is not as a trading partner, but as a political weapon against the EU and, above all, Germany.
The reality of Prime Minister May’s pledge to make Britain “fairer”
By Robert Stevens, 28 January 2017
May echoed Trump when she made clear that her own plan to put “British workers first” was based on a clampdown on migration from Europe.
Trump’s meeting with the UK’s Theresa May and the US/European conflict
By Chris Marsden, 27 January 2017
It is a measure of the deterioration in relations between the US and the rest of the world that May’s visit has prompted bitter recriminations from leading voices representing British imperialism.
Average household debt in UK reaches more than £13,000
By Thomas Scripps, 26 January 2017
Reports of record levels of UK household debt follow warnings that credit card lending is at an unprecedented level, with unsecured debt rising at its fastest rate in 11 years.
New legislation gives private sector further access to higher education in Britain
By Alice Summers and Thomas Scripps, 26 January 2017
Student “choice” is in fact a euphemism for the introduction of measures designed to lower the requirements that educational institutions must satisfy in order to attain university status.
British Supreme Court rules only Parliament can trigger Brexit
By Robert Stevens, 25 January 2017
While the Supreme Court came down in favour of Parliament, nothing has been resolved politically by its verdict.
UK government crisis erupts over Trident nuclear missile failure
By Paul Mitchell, 24 January 2017
The Conservative government imposed a news blackout after a missile was fired from a newly refurbished nuclear submarine from its position off the Florida coast.
Striking British Airways cabin crew explain appalling work contract
By Ross Mitchell, 24 January 2017
The WSWS spoke to striking British Airways cabin crew at their picket at Hatton Cross Metro station last week during a 72-hour strike.
Divisions in UK ruling elite widen over post-Brexit orientation to Trump
By Chris Marsden, 23 January 2017
UK Prime Minister Theresa May has made Trump’s election the cornerstone of her post-Brexit strategy, adapting to a yet-more open embrace of Trump by the anti-EU right-wing of her party.
British Supreme Court rules claimants can pursue action against UK for torture
By Jean Shaoul, 21 January 2017
The court’s decision is a blow for the British political establishment, which has fought for years to keep secret the use of torture by Britain’s spy agencies and Special Forces.
Additional 37 Crown Post Offices to close in Britain
By Richard Tyler, 21 January 2017
Workers remaining in the Post Office face a situation in which the government is systematically removing its functions and starving it of investment as a prelude to its ultimate closure.
Joint Russian, Turkish bombing campaign in Syria deepens NATO crisis
By Bill Van Auken, 20 January 2017
The joint Russian-Turkish action came on the eve of the inauguration of Donald Trump, who is reportedly preparing a major escalation of US intervention in the region.
UK: ASLEF drivers’ union calls off Southern Rail strikes
By Robert Stevens, 20 January 2017
The planned action was over the company’s plans to widen the use of driver only operated trains.
UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn allies himself with Fabian Society’s right-wing agenda
By Julie Hyland, 20 January 2017
No less than 15 shadow secretaries of state and nine shadow ministers, who resigned from Corbyn’s cabinet in a bid to force him out, were associated with the Fabian Society.
UK: Spying powers used more than 55,000 times by local government agencies
By Trevor Johnson, 19 January 2017
Under the RIPA spying apparatus, local councils in Britain launched 2,800 separate surveillance operations lasting up to 90 days each.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May pledges hard Brexit, threatens trade war
By Chris Marsden, 18 January 2017
May’s aggressive posture is bound up with efforts to forge an economic and political alliance with the incoming administration of Donald Trump in the United States.
Pro-Corbyn Momentum group seeks affiliation to Labour Party
By Richard Tyler, 17 January 2017
Any pretence Momentum maintained that it was a radical rank-and-file group, nominally independent of the Labour Party, has been destroyed.
Millions face dire consequences of rundown of Britain’s National Health Service
By Robert Stevens, 16 January 2017
More than 20 hospitals have raised alerts that they can no longer provide basic services to the public, as the British Red Cross said the NHS faces a “humanitarian crisis.”
UK: Labour-run councils impose Tory cuts under Corbyn’s instruction
By Margot Miller, 16 January 2017
Labour’s role in enforcing savage cuts in Metropolitan borough councils demonstrates it remains a big business party, despite the election of “left” leader Jeremy Corbyn.
UK: May and Corbyn suppress scandal over Israel's role in anti-Corbyn coup
By Jean Shaoul and Chris Marsden, 14 January 2017
In response to proof that the coup against him was sponsored by Israel, Corbyn has not said a single word.
The Guardian uses anti-Russian hacking claims to proselytise for CIA and war
By Julie Hyland, 13 January 2017
The Guardian demands that readers abandon their critical faculties—or what the newspaper would undoubtedly deem their “illegitimate scepticism”—to line up behind the war aims of the CIA and the Democratic Party.
Jeremy Corbyn: The abortive rebranding of a “left muddlehead”
By Paul Mitchell, 12 January 2017
Corbyn’s speech was a signal that he is prepared to make the political shifts demanded of him by the party’s right wing, including the adoption of an anti-immigration agenda.
Protests follow “planned operation” police killing of Yasser Yaqub in UK
By Harvey Thompson, 12 January 2017
The killing of Yaqub was the fifth fatal police shooting in England and Wales in the past nine months.
Subway, train and airline workers strike in the UK
By Robert Stevens, 11 January 2017
The 24-hour strike that paralysed the London subway system Monday was followed by the start of two 48-hour walkouts by drivers on Southern Rail and British Airways cabin crew.
British super-rich pay less tax as workers pay more
By Simon Whelan, 11 January 2017
While the rich are allowed to avoid the taxes necessary to fund vitally-needed services, the government continually devises ways to extract ever more from the working class.
Brexit deepens existential crisis of UK and European Union
By Chris Marsden, 10 January 2017
The row over what relationship the UK will have with the European Union takes place under conditions where its very survival is threatened.
UK rail union TSSA and pro-Corbyn Momentum stoke up anti-European sentiment
By Paul Mitchell, 10 January 2017
A video posted by the pro-Corbyn Momentum organization seeks to portray the population of Europe as benefitting from the privatization if the UK’s rail network.
Strikes in transport and other sectors to hit the UK
By Robert Stevens, 9 January 2017
The series of strikes points to a nascent rebellion by workers against the efforts of the trade unions to suppress opposition to the onslaught on jobs and wages.
Death toll mounts as UK National Health Service deliberately destroyed
By Robert Stevens and Chris Marsden, 9 January 2017
Having set the NHS up to fail, the government and the media will inevitably insist that the NHS must be made more efficient through the closure of “failing” services and privatisations.
British Labour Party moving to support ending free movement of EU workers
By Robert Stevens, 7 January 2017
The Tories and Labour are fighting over which party is more stridently opposed to immigration.
Wakefield school cleaning workers sacked after three-month strike in UK
By Barry Mason, 6 January 2017
Unison, with over 1.2 million members and an annual income of more than £200 million, has proved unwilling and incapable of defending the jobs of three embattled cleaners.
UK: Jeremy Corbyn re-launched as populist leader
By Robert Stevens, 4 January 2017
Corbyn’s New Year message confirms his role as frontman for a party dedicated to waging war on the working class and against opponents of British imperialism throughout the world.
British workers face pay squeeze in 2017
By Richard Tyler, 3 January 2017
The Institute for Fiscal Studies wrote that British workers faced the “worst decade for pay in 70 years.”
UK: Appalling warehouse working conditions exposed at JD Sports
By Joe Mount, 3 January 2017
A succession of governments have created the conditions for the legal, uninhibited exploitation of workers, removing restrictions on business and cutting spending on welfare benefits.
UK: The Sky takeover deal and the rehabilitation of Rupert Murdoch
By Thomas Scripps, 31 December 2016
Less than six years after the phone-hacking scandal involving the News of the World, the media oligarch Rupert Murdoch and his Fox corporation are set to take over UK TV company Sky.
Behind the faction fight in the UK’s pro-Corbyn Momentum movement
By Chris Marsden, 31 December 2016
The overarching political concern of the bureaucratic cabal at the heart of the pro-Jeremy Corbyn Momentum group is to ensure that it remains a useful adjunct of the Labour Party.
UK: Sheffield’s 82-year-old Central Library under threat due to cuts
By Tony Robson, 30 December 2016
The Labour-run council has reduced spending on services by £300 million since 2011 as the central government grant has been cut by 50 percent.
UK: “Localism” flagship Bristol City Council on verge of bankruptcy
By Mark Blackwood, 29 December 2016
The Labour Party, Greens and Liberal Democrats have collaborated to impose tens of millions of pounds in spending cuts in Bristol.
Britain’s National Health Service being prepared for privatisation
By Barry Mason, 28 December 2016
The Sustainability and Transformation Plans prepared by National Health Service bosses are aimed at ending universal health care.
European Court verdict no obstacle to UK state surveillance
By Robert Stevens, 24 December 2016
The Investigatory Powers Act is a staggering and unprecedented attack on the rights and privacy of every UK citizen.
UK: Cambridge “spy” forum splits over alleged “Russian influence”
By Julie Hyland, 23 December 2016
The split comes against the backdrop of US and British imperialism’s debacle in Syria.
UK unions seek to head off further strikes
By Chris Marsden, 22 December 2016
This week, a strike by conductors on Southern Rail was joined by a walkout of Crown Post Office workers, while further action was scheduled to take place at Swissport and British Airways.
Funding cuts across almost all UK schools
By Tom Pearce, 22 December 2016
According to the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, government spending proposals for schools will mean that “around 90 percent of schools" would see funding cuts.
UK: Inmates riot at Birmingham prison as conditions deteriorate
By John Newham and Robert Stevens, 21 December 2016
The ruling elite’s only response is law and order and the continuation of social policies that increase the prison population.
UK government denounces strike wave
By Robert Stevens, 20 December 2016
The strikes are indicative of growing opposition to years of attacks by successive British governments and are part of a growing movement of the working class throughout Europe.
David North speaks in London on Donald Trump’s election
By our correspondents, 19 December 2016
Approximately 100 workers, students and youth attended a lecture in London on Saturday delivered by North, the chairman of the International Editorial Board of the WSWS and national chairman of the Socialist Equality Party of the US.
Workers, youth at London meeting respond to David North’s analysis of Trump’s victory
By our reporters, 19 December 2016
The Socialist Equality Party spoke to some of those attending the lecture by WSWS Chairman David North on “The causes and consequences of Trump’s election: Where is America going?”
UK: Labour says free movement in Europe must be curtailed post-Brexit
By Julie Hyland, 17 December 2016
Labour’s Keir Starmer called for a “national consensus on Brexit,” with freedom of movement restrictions central to negotiations with the European Union.
Huge increase in hospital admissions for malnutrition in Britain
By Jean Gibney, 17 December 2016
Three million people are at risk of malnutrition, with 7,366 of these admitted to hospital with the condition between August 2014 and July 2015.
Significant rise in UK homelessness
By Joe Mount, 16 December 2016
London, with a population of 8.6 million, is worst affected with 2 percent of people facing housing insecurity.
UK Southern Rail strike continues as British Airways cabin crew vote to strike
By Richard Tyler, 16 December 2016
The Conservative government is planning to pass legislation against strikes on the rail network in response to the determined struggle by Southern Rail workers.
British Labour MPs lead demands for UK action in Syria
By Robert Stevens and Julie Hyland, 15 December 2016
Britain’s parliament held an “emergency” debate on Syria against the backdrop of a major debacle for US imperialism and its British ally.
Unions back pension attacks at Tata Steel UK
By Danny Richardson, 15 December 2016
Tata and the unions are working to abolish the British Steel Pension Scheme that Tata had been seeking to eliminate ever since it bought its UK steel plants in 2007.
UK-Poland summit reveals growing national antagonisms in Europe
By Clara Weiss, 14 December 2016
Theresa May’s government hosted a summit November 28 between Great Britain and Poland aimed at fostering a strategic political and military alliance between the two countries.
Rail strike halts services throughout southern England
By Richard Tyler, 14 December 2016
The ability of railworkers to prosecute a successful fight to defend their pay, conditions and the safety of the travelling public, is undermined by the unions and Labour Party.
Pseudo-left covers for Corbyn’s capitulation to Blair over Iraq war
By Laura Tiernan, 14 December 2016
The pseudo-left’s support for Corbyn gives Labour a blank cheque to facilitate British military aggression.
Nearly 4 million children living in poverty in the UK
By Barry Mason, 13 December 2016
In the constituency of Birmingham Ladywood, in the UK’s second largest city, the child poverty rate is 47.3 percent.
UK: Government sponsored “integration” report an agenda for division
By Julie Hyland, 12 December 2016
The centrepiece of Louise Casey’s report is her call for the promotion of “British values” and for immigrants to swear an “integration oath.”
Bank of England governor warns of the “spectre of communism”
By Richard Tyler, 12 December 2016
Mark Carney compared the crisis today with the period of revolutionary upheavals that swept across Europe in 1848.
UK Supreme Court completes hearing on Brexit procedure
By Robert Stevens, 10 December 2016
Whatever verdict on whether Prime Minister Theresa May has the power to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, it will only deepen the schism in ruling circles.
UK: Voter turnout collapses by half in “Brexit” by-election
By Julie Hyland, 10 December 2016
The Sleaford by-election was dominated by bitter conflicts within ruling circles over British exit from the European Union.
Notes on London’s housing crisis
London borough council housing has 50-year waiting list
By Allison Smith, 9 December 2016
London’s Barking and Dagenham borough, which has 50 times more people on the waiting list than available properties, has a 50-year waiting list for council housing.
UK parliament passes Labour motion calling for government to publish “Brexit plan”
By Robert Stevens, 8 December 2016
Prime Minister Theresa May originally opposed the motion, but was forced to accept it as between 20 and 40 pro-EU Tory rebels were pledged to back Labour.
UK Supreme Court hears opposed arguments on whether Parliament must vote to trigger Brexit
By Robert Stevens, 7 December 2016
The Supreme Court hearing takes place amid an escalating political crisis over Britain’s exiting the European Union, as the EU itself descends ever deeper into chaos.
Supreme Court Brexit hearing begins amid growing divisions in UK ruling circles
By Robert Stevens, 6 December 2016
The case stems from the major constitutional and political crisis sparked by the narrow June 23 referendum vote to exit the EU.
Immigrants protest ill treatment in UK detention centres
By Richard Tyler, 6 December 2016
Hunger strikes, attempted suicides and incidents of self-harm are common in the centres.
UK by-election deepens divisions in ruling class over Brexit
By Robert Stevens, 3 December 2016
The deepening economic crisis post-Brexit, fuelled by the political uncertainty resulting from Trump’s victory in the US, is reshaping political loyalties in ways that cross party lines.
UK: Veolia sacks binmen for helping elderly man
By Paul Mitchell, 3 December 2016
Veolia’s vindictive actions will come as no surprise to millions of workers.
UK Independence Party selects new leader as post-Brexit crisis deepens
By Julie Hyland, 2 December 2016
New leader Paul Nuttall’s promotion of anti-immigrant and law-and-order rhetoric is a right-wing populist veneer for the defence of British capital against the working class.
UK: Corbyn protects Tony Blair from a demand that he account for his Iraq war lies
By Robert Stevens and Chris Marsden, 1 December 2016
Corbyn has capitulated to the warmongers in the Parliamentary Labour Party at every juncture.
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