Go Dutch to increase income equality by 99%

This is another important, short but clear, animation from Inequality Briefing.  If the rich continue to get richer and richer while the rest of us get poorer then unless we change, we are sleep walking into a disaster.

"The film highlights how: pay for top bosses nearly doubled over the past decade, while ordinary workers wages remained the same

a FTSE 100 CEO earns four times as much in one year as the average worker does in their entire lifetime

if total incomes in the UK were divided as evenly as in Denmark or the Netherlands, 99 per cent of households would be better off by nearly £3,000 per year".

 (Gentle hint to Inequality Briefing - I do think it would help if you referenced the data).

Chuka Umunna MP at Joint London & Eastern Region UNISON Labour Link Forum

Picture of the joint meeting with UNISON Labour Link Greater London and Eastern Regions.

At first each region had held their separate annual meetings then we met up to hear the first guest speaker Richard Howitt MEP. Next was Chuka Umunna MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Chuka gave his usual very polished and competent speech ripping into this Tory led government.

As a former employment law solicitor he pointed out how the Tories are rolling back basic protection for all of us at work. They have already raised the limit for claiming unfair dismissal from one year to two years; introduced fees to take out an employment tribunal claim; got rid of independent lay judges; capped compensation awards and attacked TUPE as well as 3rd party harassment claims.

In the Q&A he dismissed a question from the miserablist who was rabbiting on about some silly nonsense that Chuka was supposed to have said (and had clearly not).

I asked Chuka about a recent interview with Ed Miliband during a visit to Denmark when he was reported to have been asked does he support the high public spending and taxes they have in Denmark being replicated in the UK? (obviously a trap question). Ed was quoted as saying that no he doesn't, but he is interested in copying their high skill base and training. My question was how can you have a high skill base and training without high public spending paid for by higher progressive taxation?

Chuka replied by saying he wants people to have more skills and training and a more equal society but he thinks that people in his constituency simply don't have the money to pay more taxes at the this moment. They are struggling to survive.

Danes take on Burmese Military collaborators

It was good to receive a welcome email today via the International Trade Union Confederation and Committee Workers Capital. The Danish pension fund ATP, which every working person in the country has to pay into (3 million people in 2005 with assets around 50 billion EURO) - has just announced that it will dis-invest from all oil companies that deals directly with Myanmar Oil, including Total. As well as any other companies that fail to comply with EU sanctions. Apparently this is 100 million EURO of shares.

I can’t find any link to confirm yet but it seems genuine. Check out Tom at Labour & Capital who has been following the British “dirty 32” who have trading links with Burma.