Reinstate Paloma Vivanco!

I don't often get involved with campaigns to do with supporting those favored by the CBI but I am thoroughly annoyed that Lord 'Ego' Sugar fired the excellent Paloma Vivenco from the apprentice show last night, I think he was wrong to do this and she should be reinstated. He was simply intimidated by her confidence and great looks.

Paloma is Innocent and should be reinstated immediately I will be more than happy to do her tribunal application for unfair dismissal. Sugar was wrong and should have fired the hot air producing guy Alex who is only good at slipping through the net. Paloma should not have been fired!!

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/showbiz/article-23894326-its-lord-sugars-loss-says-fired-apprentice-hopeful-paloma.do

Tuition fees, the Libs and lenght of degrees

Many of us distinctly remember the sure guarantees made by Nick Clegg and other senior Liberals who made it clear that they will never support any government that proposes to increase student fees. We now know that it is a senior Lib that has come up with the idea of pushing the fees up to £9,000 a year. This means that my young niece who has just entered university at the age of 19 will carry a debt of around £60 to £70 k by the time she graduates!

I know that most of us do not trust politicians but to have an entire party make firm promises and then turn them around at the drop of a hat because they are so into tasting power is totally unacceptable. I hope that some of the people I know who did vote for the Liberals never do so again.

There are different ways to make savings in education but making students pay a huge price post graduation isn't the best way to achive this. The proposed £9,000 is too excessive and it must come down. Government should be more creative. I did my degree in a period of 3 years and I remember how much time we had off in between, so I would imagine we could do away with starting the term in October and finishing the year early June and have fewer breaks in between, so if a 3 year degree was reduced to 2 years then surely that would save money? It would save the students at least one years tuition fees and would allow universities to have new intakes? Why can't this and other governments be more creative? Reduce fees and make the length of degrees shorter!!

Totally immoral practice

I am totally outraged to hear that male baby chicks are killed at birth as they are put through a "conveyor belt to which crashes them" this is a practice employed by the egg production industry. I find this to be immoral, wrong and completely unethical. When are we going to learn that we can not treat other animals with such disrespect simply because they have no way to defend themselves!!

Vegetarian organisation Viva! said some 30 million to 40 million male chicks were killed each year by gassing or being thrown into electric mincers shortly after they hatch because they are the wrong sex to lay eggs.

A covert footage captured at two English hatcheries shows the chicks on conveyor belts, with the males being sorted from the females which go on to become laying hens.

TUC protests at attacks on Kenyan tea sector unions

The TUC has protested about attacks on trade unions in the Kenyan tea sector which have followed mass lay-offs by six multinational companies. The TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber has written to the Kenyan High Commissioner in London. http://www.tuc.org.uk/international/tuc-18752-f0.cfm

Love music hate racism events

Some useful information on ways and means through which you can organise your own events under the banner of Love music hate racism movement.

http://lovemusichateracism.com/yourevent/

Minimum wage levels

In its submission to the LPC , Low Pay Commission, the TUC argues that:
A 21p, 3.5% (bringing it to £6.14 an hour) increase would benefit nearly one million workers and help address the gender pay gap, as two in three of those benefitting would be women. Female workers, employees from ethnic minority backgrounds, those with disabilities, and younger and older workers are among the groups who will benefit the most.
GDP growth has now returned and, despite the cuts in government spending, is forecast to continue throughout 2011 and 2012, which is the period that the LPC is considering.

World AIDS day 1 December 2010

There are 33 million people with HIV/AIDS around the world, nine tenths of whom are of working age, and many more with caring responsibilities for family members with HIV/AIDS. So AIDS is a workplace issue and a union issue. This year, the International Labour Organisation adopted a Recommendation on HIV/AIDS at the workplace, and the TUC is devoting its annual World AIDS Day seminar to the issue on Wednesday 1 December. Workers with AIDS have rights that need enforcing, as the TUC is demonstrating with projects in Nigeria and other sub-Saharan countries.