Protests planned around the country at Serco's involvement in Test, Track and Trace programme
As Serco’s initial contract is due for renewal, protests will be held in towns and cities around England including London, Liverpool, Bristol, Manchester and Newcastle. They are being organised by the We Own It group who campaign against privatisation – especially of public services.
Serco’s delivery of the scheme has been widely criticised. Its rate of reaching contacts in the same household stands at just 52%. In May, the company accidentally shared the contact details of 296 of its tracers, in what would comprise a breach of data protection regulations. Staff working on the track and trace scheme have also described themselves sitting idle, without contact from their supervisors, with one claiming they worked for 38 hours without making a single phone call, instead spending the time watching Netflix.
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Furlough cliff edge could see up to 2 million sustainable jobs lost
When the Jobs Retention Scheme comes to an end in October, the rapid withdrawal of support could mean misery for millions.
Research from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) shows that there could be job losses of up to 3 million – with two-thirds of these being sustainable in the longer term.
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Government should support pantomime - a life force for all our theatres
The glory of attending a pantomime? The silliness, the fun, the sheer joy?
It’s behind you!
Well, let’s hope not.
Pantomime is sometimes sneered at by those who do not view it as “proper” theatre. But without panto, so much else that happens in our city’s theatres wouldn’t be possible. It is this most traditional of art forms that enables theatres to experiment during the rest of the year.
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When rape becomes politicised, the victims lose out
Not every woman has been raped or sexually assaulted. But it’s an incredibly rare woman who hasn’t at some point feared she might be. You may or may not be aware of it, but it is almost a statistical certainty that you know someone who has been through this ordeal.
We have a rape crisis that is reaching such dramatic levels that rape is at once becoming prevalent and normalised. While rates of reporting have sky rocketed, rates of prosecution and conviction have fallen dramatically. Victims commissioner for England has described the situation as akin to the “decriminalisation” of rape.
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Like Layla Moran I had weight-loss surgery - but I wouldn't admit it if I were in politics
When I tell people I have lost half my body weight, I receive uniform praise. Sometimes I see shock in their eyes, that the person in the photographs I am sharing with them is me. After all, I do look radically different. Even if I sometimes slip back into bad habits, I have – overall – fundamentally changed my life.
Yet when I tell people that I started my weight loss journey with bariatric surgery, the reaction can be somewhat different. There is a sense that I somehow cheated, that my achievement isn’t quite real or at least less worthy of note.
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Panorama, antisemitism and Labour's long nightmare
“Have you or someone you know been affected by the Labour Party? Perhaps you fell into some anti-Semitism at work and your employer refused to support you? Well the law firm of Ohmigod, Whatamess and Shotshiw are here to represent you. You too can have your day in court – everyone else is.”
The Labour Party has apologised to the staff whistle blowers and the maker of the Panorama documentary “Is Labour Anti-Semitic?” for its reaction to the programme and has paid both costs and damages. This should have been the beginning of the end of the affair. The end of the legal wrangling over this documentary and an end to the legal side of Labour’s anti-Semitism nightmare. It’s not.
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Time to stage a recovery
There’s good news and there’s bad news.
The good news is that finally, the government has woken up to the crisis in the UK’s theatre industry and is putting some real money into supporting it. The devil will be in the detail, but given where we were a week ago, this is a good move that should be applauded (while also being properly scrutinised).
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Government plans to reopen theatre are almost worthless
The government has released a five step plan for theatres to reopen, which should be good news. Sadly, it isn’t worth the vellum it’s written on. “It’s not helpful in any way,” says Jez Bond, artistic director and joint CEO of the Park Theatre. “It’s a pointless exercise.” The problem is that steps three to five of the plan – the steps that will put actual bums on actual seats – have no dates attached to them. As Anthony Fagan, operations manager of the Lion and Unicorn theatre in Kentish Town puts it: “Without having any further information, all our plans are hypothetical.” Tom Littler, artistic director of the Jermyn Street Theatre goes further: “There’s no point rehearsing [a play] if we can’t put it on.”
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Labour needs a new way of talking about the economy
Like the Labour Together report into why Labour was demolished in 2019, the Mind the Values Gap research released this week makes clear the huge challenge facing the Labour Party.
Labour has to thread a needle. It must offer a change in the economic circumstances of most people’s lives without sounding like its unrealistic election manifesto. It also needs to institute systemic change, and not be prevented from doing so by cultural issues, while also recognising that any meaningful change must take into account systemic and institutionalised racial and sexual inequality.
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Whitehall reform is deeply political – and troubling
Civil service reform is largely seen as both necessary and boring. No one is really arguing that the machinery of government doesn’t need updating. But that is usually where the agreement ends. And under this government, it has become an unusually political question.
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The Tories have a Boris Johnson problem. It's just not the one you think it is
The Tories have found the apex of a certain kind of Tory-ness in Boris Johnson. He combines a laissez-faire attitude to—well everything—with a born-to-rule demeanour. He was popular with the public for his spirit of public optimism and general demeanour.
However, the cracks are starting to show and that same public that once adored him are increasingly irritated with him. The incredibly damaging Dominic Cummings scandal, combined with a more general lack of grip on Covid-19—the failing of the contact tracing app being just the latest governmental blunder—has helped plunge his approval ratings into the red.
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I wanted to be childfree, but lockdown robbed me of my last chance. Now I’m mourning the children I’ll never have
I’m pre-menstrual and stuck on my own in lockdown. You’d better not come within two metres of me.
Being on my own in lockdown is lonely enough without my hormones making it so much worse – but in the last fortnight I’ve realised it’s something else that’s making this period of isolation really difficult: I’m 45 and I have no children.
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Bring on the London devolution revolution
The powers devolved to London regional layer of government are designed to be just big enough for Mayors to take the blame when things go wrong yet also small enough to provide few levers for doing much to put them right. The job provides a high profile platform and many see it as a stepping stone to a bigger national job – the last incumbent certainly did. But both Boris Johnson and Sadiq Kahn were and are frequently accused by critics of inaction.
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What has changed in the Labour Party?
If you ask some people, Labour has left behind the radical politics of the Corbyn era and given up on its soul. Listen to others and you’ll hear that its moved beyond the chaos of the Corbyn years to become a professional — and electable — political party.
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The failed ideologue
When this crisis started I wanted the government to succeed, but was afraid that it wouldn’t. My concerns were ideological. My beliefs tend to clash with those of Boris Johnson and his chief advisor Dominic Cummings. We disagree about how society should be managed and about how to achieve the greatest outcomes for the greatest number of people.
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