07 May 2024 , 22:02
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Good bosses not only have nothing to fear from Labour’s package of better job rights but should actively campaign for the changes to stop bad bosses exploiting vulnerable workers. Negotiated with trade union leaders and championed by Deputy Leader Angela Rayner, the party’s New Deal for Working People also draws a red line between Keir Starmer’s Labour and fire-and-rehire Tories who failed to act decisively after the P&O sackings scandal.
So Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves should understand concern within parts of Labour, particularly the party’s industrial wing, over revisions that would fail to ban the much-abused zero hours contracts. Companies who do the hiring and firing wield considerably more power than individual workers, which is why there are fears that people could be forced into “choosing” contracts that favour their bosses. Labour getting the balance at work right is important when wages, living standards and futures are at stake.
What we heard during Donald Trump’s Stormy day over alleged hush money payments paid to adult movie star Stormy Daniels was mortifying. Whether Trump behaved illegally, not immorally, is the question before the court. Yet any American concerned about standards in public life must surely conclude this man isn’t fit to be in the White House.
Let us raise a glass to pubs staying open legally until 1am if England or Scotland reach the men’s football Euro 2024 semi-finals in Germany this summer. Gareth Southgate’s Three Lions are heavily tipped but when Steve Clarke’s Tartan Army are outsiders, it might be fairer to them if licences were extended should that team play its way out of the group stage.