Lansbury's Lido

Image by James F Clay via Flickr Well, at least that's the claim of 'Sir' Stuart Rose the chairman of Marks and Spencer . And he should know as I'm sure that M&S has more female employees than male. You should read the rest of the article on the BBC website, makes for interesting reading. As does the attitude that comes across as condescending and patronising. It's been 40 years since the Equal Pay Act was meant to close the gender pay gap and hopefully the opportunity gap. It's been 21 years since Julie Hayward won her historic victory to cement the concept of equal pay for work of equal value. So the difference in pay between genders, the glass ceiling and the opportunities available across the board have all been dealt with? No, not really. We still have a 23% difference in pay, we still have the glass ceiling although it's probably shifted up a floor or two and I feel that opportunities are still limited. Working as a man in industry I see an equ...

Image via Wikipedia Or so the headlines go. The RMT has completed a secret ballot as required by law and the union is now planning 2 days of strike action which will shut the London tube system down. As expected this has been greeted with howls of anger and indignation from media commentators and also from the general public, or at least the most vocal ones. But is this anger justified? It's not like the members of the RMT have been flipping their second homes or claiming for duck houses is it? I do think that we need to actually get people to look more at the issues and challenge the knee-jerk response which does nothing but denigrate the work these people do. To see why the RMT membership has called this strike follow the link . So let's have a look at the typical outburst from Disgusted of Chipping Ongar and how we can best respond and educate. "Sack the lot of them, we can train the unemployed to do the jobs." So you've looked into what the requirements are...

The Socialist Party have an editorial on their website which nicely sums up some of the rage that I feel inside regarding the MPs' expenses scandal. I've reproduced in its entirety as I think it's one of the best commentaries on the situation that's been published. Swindling MPs are detached from reality In The Great Stink of 1858 the Houses of Parliament hung lime-soaked sheets at the windows to disguise the stench of untreated sewage rising from the Thames. In the Great Stink of 2009 no such solution is available - for the stink comes from inside. The endless revelations about MPs' expenses have left the population disgusted and furious. Money was claimed for every imaginable frippery - from getting the moat cleaned to paying domestic servants, from massage chairs to buying champagne flutes and eighteen piece dinner sets. Outright fraud was officially sanctioned, or at least tacitly encouraged, with the Fees Office apparently telling MPs that it was fine to cl...

Imagine your child is at University and takes a year out to study abroad as part of their course, something that is becoming more and more popular in UK universities. Imagine seeing your child off at the airport, the feeling of pride in what they are achieving, but also the concern you have about them going to a foreign country. Imagine learning that they have been arrested at gunpoint by the security forces of this other country, yet you don't know of what they have been accused of. Imagine that they have been locked up, you don't know where, you don't know how long they will be there, you don't even know what is happening to them. Imagine you know of this government's involvement with extraordinary rendition and the torture that's associated with it. Imagine that your government does very little to help you, and refuses to put pressure on the other government. Imagine that your letter pleading for mercy and to know what is going on is ignored and hardly picke...

In the UK there has always been a strong non-conformist streak when it comes to the Christian faith , especially among those who seek to outwork it in society. I'm often amazed how those who have gone before us seem to be sidelined in the history of faith in this country. It was with a great surprise that there is such a good record on the life of Tom Mann in places as Wikipedia , Marxists Internet Archive and Spartacus Schoolnet . Tom Mann was born 15th April 1856 in Bell Green, a suburb of Coventry he left school at 9 years of age to work in a colliery. Through his various jobs he became exposed to the ideas of William Morris and the principles of socialism and Christian socialism. He wrote the pamphlet, "What a Compulsory Eight-Hour Day Means to the Workers", the first time that a call had been made to limit the working day. After reading the Communist manifesto by Marx and Engels , Tom Mann embraced communism . He was one of the three main leaders of the successful...

Image via Wikipedia Moving my regular blogging from Plans to Prosper so copying some recent content. This is the first post in series, hopefully a long series where I blog about who is inspiring me. Inspiration is often a transient thing so who I may consider my main inspiration may be off the agenda next week! So first up is George Lansbury , who I think is always going to be up at the top. Born 21st February 1859 in Halesworth, Suffolk, England. Died 7th May 1940 in London. Christian Socialist, MP, campaigner on poverty, member of the Independent Labour Party and the Labour Party . He inspires me because of his practical concern for the poor, not letting anything get in the way of his Christian Socialist and pacifist principles, even suffering two periods in prison. He was charged with sedition when he published leaflets in support of women's suffrage and spent time in Pentonville prison, being released when he went on hunger strike. In 1921 he was elected as Mayor of Poplar a...