Opinion

Britain is set for decades of been overworked and underpaid as a perfect storm of stagnant wage growth and low-paid work meets inflationary pressures in the most pronounced real income squeeze of our generation. Although the Tories will most likely be celebrating the latest employment figures showing flat unemployment the self-proclaimed jammy diagnosis that has come to caption their time in office is the number of people who are working hard but struggling to manage. Ever since George Osborne shocked...

Following Jeremy Corbyn’s decision to issue a three-line whip on the Brexit vote fresh calls for his resignation are once again ringing around the halls of Westminster. Yawn. Ever since the Labour leader was voted in with the biggest mandate in the party’s history he has had to fend off opposition from within. He has received more resignation letters than he has had hot dinners in his time as leader, but he has continued nevertheless unperturbed. And now, less than...

By Mary Wandia, Manager of End Female Genital Mutilation Programme, Equality Now Today is the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), a campaign day established by the United Nations to raise awareness about the urgent need to end this unacceptable form of child abuse and violence against women and girls. Despite being banned in the UK, girls continue to be cut and unofficial figures estimate that 137,000 girls and women in Britain are affected. Research by the...

          With an eye-watering price for prime slots, Super Bowl ads are always sure to make a mark. And this year many did by taking a pop at the United States President - mainly by promoting the legacy of immigration and tolerance that made America great - in a rather different way than the one Donald Trump promises. Though the NFL and Fox who air the event ban explicit politicisation, the adverts paying a record $5 million for a...

By Richard Harries, Director of Research at the independent trust Power to Change The NHS may be our national religion, but libraries—which are marking National Library Day (4th Feb) ahead of a whole week of celebration in October—enjoy their own vaunted status in the fabric of British society. The success of our library service may not get many headlines, but once it is under threat then the great and the good speak up. ‘Libraries save lives’, announced Stephen Fry last...

There's a deathly silence around the boarding gates of the newly built Terminal 2 at Heathrow. Silly season has passed and the departure lounges are filled with the dulcet whispers of business chit chat, a serene time to fly indeed. With low cost carriers relatively new to the scene at Heathrow Airport - many falling out of groups such as Lufthansa who would have already had slots available to run - it is still early to see whether the airport...

After the shock of Donald Trump's election last November, many people took comfort from his acceptance speech and his speech after meeting Obama at the White House. After his incendiary campaign, there was hope that his craving for public approval would mean that he would govern more like a conventional Conservative politician and build a wider base of support. His first week in power has shattered this illusion. It would be a mistake to assume either that his first actions...

This week Starbucks hit back at Donald Trump's travel ban with a promise to hire 10,000 refugees globally over the next five years. The warm gesture will provide a much-needed PR boost for the often beleaguered coffee house chain, but sentiment has little to do with it, the truth is that it makes good business sense. At the end of last year Starbucks capped off another record quarter with the announcement that it plans to have more than 37,000 stores open by 2021 - that’s...

When we think of theft we usually think of physical robberies, getaway cars and police-chases, not office-based staff fiddling with spreadsheets. Yet many shareholders in recent years have seen their wealth robbed by executives who have been involved in fraudulent corporate financial and non-financial reporting. Not only have we discovered that BT has misstated its profits by over £500m over a number of years, but a new lawsuit has been launched by a US investment management firm against Tesco for...