As always, solidarity with the BMA. Labour can and should resolve this dispute. But that requires a proper offer.

Returning to the Reform Party. Their deputy leader says “You’re not asking about the much, much bigger issue, right — which is, how long can we carry on offering defined benefit pensions to all public sector workers?

PCS Climate Justice Week is fast approaching (17–21 November), and we’re calling on every branch to take part in this vital campaign if they can. During the week there will be national online meetings. Full details are available here:🔗 www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/...

Danny Kruger says 'It means stopping public sector unions sabotaging the reforms the public rightly demands...the trades unions – they are not there to second-guess the government'. Reform will attack unions. We have been warned. A key task of the unions therefore is to stop Reform.

After promising cuts of over 164,000 civil servants, Mr Kruger goes on to say 'we will be alert to the tricks that were pulled while the Coalition government was cutting Whitehall and freezing pay. What happened was that all the officials who were left just promoted themselves...

Danny Kruger of the Reform Party has set out proposals as to how the country should be run. Over the next few days I will go over some of those. First though, the civil service. He writes 'We want to significantly reduce the headcount of the civil service...

If you can make it to this event please do so. PCS is supporting this demo.

It also drives evictions as private landlords kick out those on housing benefits, to replace them with those who can pay more.

Solidarity with BMA Resident Doctors. A wholly justifiable strike.

So whilst Labour is now saying in the clean energy sector 'we are committed to promoting union recognition and collective bargaining across the sector' it refuses to intervene in the MyCSP dispute.

'More than 420 anti-science bills attacking longstanding public health protections – vaccines, milk safety and fluoride – have been introduced in statehouses across the U.S. this year, part of an organized...campaign to enshrine a conspiracy theory-driven agenda into law'.

From Ed Miliband: '....trade unions are an essential part of a modern workplace. For too long, parts of the clean energy sector have been a union-free zone... we are committed to promoting union recognition and collective bargaining across the sector'.

The UK's new Clean Energy Jobs Plan emphasises strong trade union involvement as "essential" for the sector's growth. The government commits to working in partnership with unions to deliver the projected 400,000 extra jobs by 2030, aiming for high-quality, well-paid work.

The Trump administration censors climate science. Reports from the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI) document the swift "erasure" of key federal web pages and data, deliberately limiting public access to vital climate change information.

PCS is supporting this.

A new piece on our site, by Emet Sachin, exposes how NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) is being undermined by ‘gainshare’ contracts, where private firms profit by cutting care for the most vulnerable. This is not efficiency. It’s exploitation. Read here 👇 keepournhspublic.com/profiting-fr...

Of course Labour is planning to cut UK civil service numbers - in fact that is happening now. Though we don't know as yet how big the staff cuts will be. Estimates range up 50,000.

Then we turn to Reform. Mr Farage has recently been quoted as saying “The 2024 document (their manifesto) proposed ­reductions in civil service spending, but we will increase those cuts". No doubt they will vie with the Tories as to who can cut most.

The dust has settled on party conference season. What did we learn? The Tories want to sack over 120,000 civil servants. Kemi Badenoch says “if a job shouldn’t exist, there’s no point keeping it.” That’s not reform — it’s economic vandalism dressed up as fiscal realism.

Labour claim that it wants greater use of Modern Methods of Construction e..g. pre-fabrication, modular construction etc to solve the housing crisis. They say money for this will be provided via the Home Building Fund. Yet that fund is mainly aimed at smaller builders.

UK house building is being squeezed by supply-side pressures: there's a shortfall of up to 500,000 construction workers, and prices for key materials like bricks and cement have risen over 37% since 2020.

From the CMA's report on house building 'Looking at the history of this market, it is notable that house building has only reached the levels that are currently being targeted in periods where significant supply was provided via local authority building'.

Now Labour might say we don't need a sector plan for housing as we are going to build 1.5M homes this parliament. Of course they are not going to build anything but hope with incentives the private sector will. I would rather a plan though than hope.

Labour has produced an industrial strategy which is 'a 10-year plan to increase business investment and grow the industries of the future in the UK'. Under the strategy are a number of 'sector plans'. Notifiable missing is a sector plan for housing.

Bernie Sanders and AOC discuss the US government shut down: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqWs...

More from Competition and Markets Authority report into house building: 'The supply of new homes across Great Britain is highly cyclical and has persistently fallen well short of successive government targets...

From Competition and Markets Authority final report into house building: ‘We have found there is land that is potentially available for development in most areas, although this is more constrained in certain parts of Great Britain;

Since the mid-1970s, the UK state e.g councils have largely stopped large-scale house building. Housing was handed over to the market—but the market never matched previous levels of supply, especially for affordable homes.

The UK’s housing market is dominated by the top ten firms who produce up to 50% of all new homes. This concentration gives them structural power to influence policy and resist reforms that might increase their affordable housing obligations.

We have the land, there is enough brownfield sites to build 1.4M dwellings, we certainly have the social need for new homes, but currently there is no agency that will actually build those homes on a mass scale. The private sector won’t, unless they can make sufficient profits.

What Bernie says is of course true. Also a motive behind the administration's attack on climate scheme etc is the desire to sell more American Oil and Gas. The more renewables in Europe, the less they can sell. So as so often, profit and money are the real reasons for a Trump policy position.

More on the CPRE's brownfield report. The charity says the number of brownfield sites has increased 71% between 2018 and 2024. In 24, there were 30,220 sites with a combined area of 32,821 Hectares. As the report says a min of 1,484,794 dwellings could be built on this.

I would urge all our members in the DWP to vote, and to vote Yes.

CPRE’s new report shows over 800,000 homes could be built rapidly on brownfield land — with planning permission already in place for 55% of sites. Enough land exists for 1.49 million homes, hitting national targets without touching the green belt. www.cprenorfolk.org.uk/news/more-th...

In his UK speech, Pres Trump said that climate change is “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” and you can’t “get away from this green scam”. He said to countries investing in renewables: “Your country is going to fail. And I’m really good at predicting things.”

The model motion put forward by Labour Campaign for Council Housing says 131,140 households are in temporary accommodation, 1.33 million on waiting lists. Yet the govt plans just 18,000 social rent homes a year. This is a housing emergency—and a crisis of centralised failure.

Labour is stopping motions on council housing being heard at its conference The only guaranteed way to solve the shortage of decent, secure homes is for the state to build them directly—through councils, mayors, devolved governments, or Westminster. Public-led construction works.

PCS is balloting 6,500 members for strike action following the Met Police’s refusal to extend the £1,250 London Allowance to civilian police staff - despite previously agreeing to discuss it during 2024/25 pay talks. www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/...

💰You’re making billions… for someone. 🏤Private companies & shareholders profit from once public utilities that SHOULD belong to us. And what do we get? Higher bills & worse services. 🗞️Read all about it: www.common-wealth.org/interactive/...

Billionaires, polluters, oligarchs. We're taking to the streets on Saturday 20 September to Make Them Pay. March with us. www.youtube.com/shorts/Bdk_r...

PCS is now running at least 18 disputes. Under a Labour government!

Action in the UK as well. Admittedly on a smaller scale!

🇫🇷 French unions are mobilising - EPSU will be on the streets together with them against brutal austerity measures too! This fight isn’t only France’s, it’s Europe’s. 📣 Workers demand a Europe for all, not the few. 📣 Workers demand a #PublicServiceAgenda - not a corporate one ✊🏾 #Solidarité

I read that because Robinson didn't get the 3M he claimed he would get for the march, he failed. I don't find that argument persuasive. On the day they vastly outnumbered us. If you add in the online audience following them, the deficit is even greater.

On Saturday, Robinson’s far-right march apparently had 300K live stream viewers by midday. Add the physical turnout, and we’re likely talking 300–400K people actively engaged. We were outnumbered 10:1 on the ground; that figure goes to 30+ to 1 when you take the online presence.

Yesterday's demo against the far right was vibrant, full of young people, notable for the number of women on it but we were vastly outnumbered. In that sense, the far right won. It was us who had to be escorted away by the police.

Marching to Bella Ciao

Clear of Tragflar Square

Moving past the fascists