The furore about MPs
claiming outrageous expenses and resorting to outright fiddling gets
worse by the day. Labour, as the Party in
power for the past twelve years presiding over this scandal, is
facing electoral meltdown. Naturally the Labour ranks are panicking.
Labour appears doomed at the local and European elections on June
4th,
and in the general election over the next year. The situation could
still be turned around but the unions and rank and file will have
to take decisive action and take the Parliamentary Labour Party by
the scruff of the neck.

Redundancies announced at Worcester Technology
College will fall heavily
on lecturing and support staff who provide for the needs of some of the more
disadvantaged students in the college. Worcester College of Technology staff
are shocked at the news that 30 jobs are to be axed in the new academic year.

With the announcement that Michael Martin, The Speaker of the House of Commons, is to stand down in June, the MPs Expenses scandal has claimed its most high profile victim. Rob Sewell looks at this developing political crisis in Britain and explains the real background to it.

We received this piece from a young supporter of Socialist Appeal. The article shows how many young people are beginning to think about the ugly reality behind the shops they buy their clothes and accessories from: sweat-shops, child labour and vicious exploitation of the workers that produce these commodities. Young people, increasingly aware of these horrors, want to do something to show solidarity with the workers. This instinctive internationalism we welcome wholeheartedly.

The MPs expenses scandal – based on nicked data ‘obtained’ by the Daily Torygraph has become the talking point of the day. Around the country people are furious that these same publicly paid MPs, who tell us all to cut back and grandly complain about every minor infringement of benefit claims, have taken expense claim fiddling to a level undreamt off by most of us – and it’s not just a few ‘bad eggs’ either. Nearly all of them seem to be at it! Mick Brooks now takes a light look at this scandal and makes a few biting points at their – for once – expense.