Yes I do. Zero hours contracts are as old as time (think men waiting at the gates of the factory/dock/mine/whatever hoping to get work that day). There's not much research or evidence available on the topic but some believe the level of zero-hours employment is similar now to the level in the late 90s when a certain Mr Blair promised to ban them and then didn't.
Off Topic Politics Thread
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Don't think anyone mentioned them. We were talking about employment law after leaving the EU.....we have zero hours contracts in the EU and have done for some time.
Whatever the origins of zero hours contracts, & whoever is to blame, you'd be hard put to describe the current employment situation of large sections of the workforce as progress.
Ever wondered why you can walk out of JD Sports with armfuls of goods for £20? Well now we know. These goods are made in China by slave labour, shipped round the globe under flags of convenience enabling the shipping companies to ignore any legal rights a European or American crew might have, then distributed in the UK by workers on zero hours contracts earning below the minimum wage. And that's just one high profile business.
Add to the mix ever widening inequality, house prices out of reach of huge swathes of working people, no one building any social housing, & we really aren't in a good place.
Of course if your job was unaffected by the recession and you already owned property you may be laughing; but plenty of people aren't. Remember the riots in 2011? Tip of the iceberg.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37271417
MP's are going to debate having a second referendum on Brexit after a petition reached 4.14m signatures. Interestingly the person who started the petition has disassociated himself from the petition because when he started it he thought that the UK would opt to remain in the EU by a narrow margin on a low turnout not that they would opt to leave by a narrow margin!
The Government have ruled out another referendum so many times that I don't think this will make any difference to us leaving.......eventually.
MP's are going to debate having a second referendum on Brexit after a petition reached 4.14m signatures. Interestingly the person who started the petition has disassociated himself from the petition because when he started it he thought that the UK would opt to remain in the EU by a narrow margin on a low turnout not that they would opt to leave by a narrow margin!
The Government have ruled out another referendum so many times that I don't think this will make any difference to us leaving.......eventually.
Before Teresa thinks about activating Article 50, she should appoint a Commission Panel to explore the advantages and disadvantages of continued membership of the EU. People who should be on this panel would have to be drawn from opposite ends of the political spectrum. People like Ken Clarke, Michael Heseltine and Peter Mandelson. These individuals have years of wisdom behind them and if allowed, provide a common sense solution to the PM, that would be in stark contrast to the claptrap that we heard from the opposing sides during the referendum campaign.
Well that's progress Ides. I was expecting you to recommend, Franco, Julio Iglesias and Shakira...
There should be no rush to leave the E U...............Some of the EU countries can get as bloody minded as they like, they know they are going to be weaker without the UK. There are rumblings from other countries within the EU that Some of UK's moans about it may be correct. They seem to be slowly waking up to the idea that from a refugee point of view they are on a hiding to nothing. I don't have any magic answers to our problems or theirs I just know we cannot go on taking in people at the rate of 330000 a year. We are a small island and certainly do not have the room nor the infrastructure to accommodate such large numbers.
Also I truly do not understand this rhetoric about having yet another referendum nothing has changed the people made their decision and there has been enough division to last a life time. Good or bad the decision has been made so unless the EU itself can make a few changes to make another referendum necessary, we cannot keep going down the road of referendum after referendum.
Also I truly do not understand this rhetoric about having yet another referendum nothing has changed the people made their decision and there has been enough division to last a life time. Good or bad the decision has been made so unless the EU itself can make a few changes to make another referendum necessary, we cannot keep going down the road of referendum after referendum.
Doesn't need to be, Ides. There is no legal or constitutional imperative for the Govt to act on the result.
If Teresa May eventually decides to put it to Parliament, she will have gone up in my estimation as the risk of incurring the wrath of the baying mob of Brexiteers. In reality she will get a big majority in 2020 as UKIP are fading fast.
A dead general and two singers!!!! Where's Gatlin when needed?
I don't actually thing that Theresa May will actually get re-elected. She was far from impressive during this afternoon's PM's Questions and Jeremy Corbyn's polite responses to her barded comments made then fall so flat that she seem flustered afterwards. In a way it is a shame that John McDonnell is not the Leader of the Opposition as he would have made mincemeat out of her. However, I really think that, after a shaky start, people will start to listen to Labour and realise that, once more, they are THE party of the people. Most UKIPers seem to come from working class backgrounds and I am sure that Labour will work extremely hard to re-connect with them. If they do not win outright, I envisage that they will form an alliance with the SNP to get a majority but my hunch is that this will probably not be necessary. The economy will take a nosedive as soon as Clause 50 is activated. The populace will then blame the Tories for calling the referendum and I think that Mrs May will be something of a lame duck PM rather like the hapless John Major.
The Brexit vote was, for all intents and purposes, a vote against the increased level of globalisation and the realisation that it is no longer acceptable for the people to serve the economy. It should be the other way around. I am convinced that Labour will win the next election and with the last, remaining Blairites looking certain to be de-selected, don't be surprised if Corbyn all of a suggest develops the "common touch" and reconnects with those who were seduced by the unintelligent arguments of Farage as they realise which side their bread is really buttered with. I expect the next government to be more left-leaning that at any time since Harold Wilson and also to enjoy a popularist mandate. Once the Labour Party has thrown off the shackles of the Middle Classes who patronised then during the days of New Labour (i.e. Harman's pink bus) and gets down to addressing the real concerns of ordinary people, I cannot see how the party can fail to be successful. I am not a member of any political party but think the Referendum has given people a taste for real democracy and the electorate will favour the party who they believe can make a tangible difference. 2016 will be seen as a sea change in the politics of this country as voters appreciate they can make decisions which will prove to be fundemental. My only concern is that Corbyn's lukewarm response to the Brexit campaign was to present the Tories with a scenario which has the capability of keeping them out of office for a very long time indeed.
If Corbyn is leader of the Labour Party at the next election it will be a disaster for labour. Neither party got their argument over in the referendum. The Tory leader in his defence resigned as should have Corbyn. The fact he didn't in a lot of people's view has shown a flaw in his character. The vast majority of his own Party of MP's do not support him, so how the heck would the public. A really rum do for the opposition in parliament.
Beddy
The consensus is that Corbyn will win with an increased majority and a stronger mandate from party members. Knowing people within a local branch of the party, there is amazingly strong support for Corbyn. His appeal amongst the younger generation where there is generally not a great deal of interest in politics could prove telling. The people I speak to really sense that they have got their political party back and , at grass roots level, they are the only "progressive" alternative with the demise of the Liberals.
I don't see why he should have resigned but I can see why he might be seen as opportunistic. The MPs he represents have been marginalised for over 30 years and many of the current voters will have been too young to appreciate why Labour saw that it needed to move to the centre ground in the 1980's. Far from being a disaster, the irrelevance of UKIP post-Brexit means that, if he plays his cards right, he should be able to pitch his stance towards the voters who have felt unloved at the time the three main parties were battling for the Central ground. By not adopting an adversarial approach to PMQ's and choosing to highlight social injustices he may not be acting as a "normal" leader of the Opposition but he comes across as a breath of fresh air. Unlike many politicians, he is a man of principle and seen to be a man of principle too. The issue of the train seats last week was a huge miss-step but , no matter how "staged", most people would agree that trains don't work when run by the private sector.
The advantage for Labour is that they really need to do nothing to state their case and the Tories credibility and economic nous will make them utterly unelectable once Clause 50 has been activated and we go in to freefall. The team behind Corbyn is the same one who served Ken Livingstone so well when he was Mayor of London. The perceived weaknesses of the current leadership are largely a perception of the press (not helped by the staggeringly partial Laura Kuensburg on BBC ! ) but after choosing Milliband and having MPs still associated with the discredited Tony Blair, selecting Jeremy Corbyn was the only credible option and I think the Tories do not know how to deal with him. Corbyn is redirecting politics away from the realms that put so many people off and you get the impression that the public does have an appetite for something different given the fact that they had previously been let down by Tony Blair and David Cameron. The fact that many of the Labour MPs currently do not support him is irrelevant as they are likely to be de-selected by Party members and replaced by new candidates who reflect Jeremy Corbyn's vision. I am not saying that he has all the answers or will be a success, rather that he exactly fits the bill for what the voting public want at this point of time, just as Thatcher did in 1979 and Blair in 1997. He can hardly be less of a success than these two individuals.
Funny how different people see things differently. I caught PMQ's at lunchtime and thought she wiped the floor with Jeremy Corbyn. I don't support any party but listen to what they have to say before I decide. The Labour party are stepping back into the 70'/80s instead of evolving with the times as they need to. That doesn't mean giving up their values. I would guess based on the last 20 years voting that the majority of people prefer the middle ground and not the extremes of left or right. It seems that Corbyn will win again in the leadership election which will please his supporters but unfortunately for them it's not down to them alone to elect a Government. He is extremely unelectable as far as most of the population are concerned. Here's a recent poll to highlight this: https://yougov.co.uk/news/2016/09/07/voting-intention-conservative-lead-11-points/. Labour have a mountain to climb as things stand.
Whiteley
I felt that May seemed very unsure of herself. She kept on fluffing her lines and her jokes fell flat. Corbyn didn't respond to her bate and her remarks about "don't know" being a more popular choice that Corbyn just seemed vindictive and uncivilised. To his credit, Jeremy never rose to the bait and just kept to his script. In the end people will soon tire of May's attitude , especially when the economy takes a nosedive. I can't see an 11-point lead being maintained and this is only the soundings of a honeymoon period rather like the "Brown-bounce." Everyone knew what happened next. The problem for May is that she needs to ensure that people do not start imagining she is Thatcher Part II. I think she has a hard task. After the buffoon Milliband, Corbyn is as far removed from the spin previously associated with Labour as possible. It was said that he had no chance of becoming leader but I think the Right needs to be wary of him as I really feel he will be our next Prime Minister. Given that there has been no political leader quite as principled as Michael Foot in the early 1980s, Corbyn won't seem like a throw back to those who weren't around then and will instead just appear to be a regular and sincere bloke, no matter how divorced this might be from the reality. I can't see how Labour can loose.
Well I guess we'll see in 2020, a lot can happen, but I can't see it myself. If the economy does nosedive I'm not sure people will trust Labour to sort it out either. I can only see that going against them as well. They've got a lot of work to do to make themselves a credible opposition let alone a Government.
There's as much chance of me being the next Saints manager as there is of Jeremy Corbyn being the next PM. Labour tried this veering to the left experiment once before with Michael Foot, and it ended in disaster. That despite the fact Foot had qualities of leadership, organisation ability & personal charisma all of which are lacking in Corbyn. Foot also had a strong base within the PLP, while Corbyn has the opposite.
Corbyn clearly appeals very strongly to some sections of the population who are perhaps alienated by mainstream politics - but that's not going to win him any election beyond his own party. The middle ground determines the winner of general elections, that's been proven time and time again.
Corbyn clearly appeals very strongly to some sections of the population who are perhaps alienated by mainstream politics - but that's not going to win him any election beyond his own party. The middle ground determines the winner of general elections, that's been proven time and time again.
Whilst I agree with you about attaining the "Middle Ground" that Middle Ground has shifted to the right with people's imagined or real concerns about immigration, the economy, defence, law and order. This is where "the Right" in politics score by playing on people's fears.