Politics

The Government should write into law a positive definition of self-employment to provide clarity on who is and who is not genuinely self-employed, IPSE (the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed) has said. The call follows a decision in the employment tribunal today that a group of Hermes couriers were workers and not self-employed. GMB, the union for lifestyle couriers, scored a landmark legal victory against Hermes after an employment tribunal ruled their couriers are entitled to basic workers’ rights. The...

The Social Security Advisory Committee – the panel of experts responsible for scrutinising laws which affect the benefits system – have published the Government’s draft proposals for moving more than two million disabled people onto Universal Credit. The Government has said that this will take place between 2019 and 2023. It will affect around one million people with mental health problems who currently receive the disability benefit Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). Under these proposals people currently getting ESA will receive a letter informing...

Athirty4 also spraypainted UK as a ventriloquist dummy on Jean Claude-Juncker's lap

Hedge funds hired a network of pollsters to make millions off the pound’s collapse following the Brexit vote, a Bloomberg exclusive has revealed. Private polling in the city, which Nigel Farage was reportedly privy to, gave hedge funds a different view on the result of the referendum to the one presented to the public. They were able to use that mis-sentiment to buy derivatives and make lucrative trades. The Bloomberg scoop revealed that: Pollsters sold hedge funds critical, advance information, including...

Airbus's announcement that it is weighing up its future in the UK has sent shockwaves across the political spectrum today. With no assurances over Britain's future trading arrangements the boss of one of the world’s biggest aircraft manufacturers warned that Brexit would have "severe negative consequences for the UK aerospace industry and Airbus in particular". He said that Airbus has repeatedly been demanding clarity from Theresa May’s government over what trading arrangements will be available with Europe in March 2019,...

Today, on Clear Air Day, the Chelsea and Fulham MP Greg Hands who has always told his constituents he would oppose athird runway at Heathrow announced that he was forced to resign as Theresa May is insisting on bringing out the whips to get the majority she needs in a vote on the airport's expansion on Monday. The minister's resignation over the Heathrow vote leaves Boris Johnson in a major pickle The Foreign Secretary has also always expressed his very...

A hospitality leader has warned that there is likely to be severe workforce shortages in the industry unless action is taken. Kris Gumbrell, CEO of Brewhouse & Kitchen, says the loss of free movement will undoubtedly cause big issues in the hospitality sector which has a heavy reliance on European workers. A KPMG report for the British Hospitality Association found that EU nationals made up more than 75 per cent of waitstaff, as well as 43 per cent of the...

The research also found that only 15 per cent of people globally live in places where women and lower income groups have at least somewhat equal access to power

International Trade expert Leonardo Gonzalez Dellan, has expressed deep worries about the growing global trade wars. “Everyone benefits from Free Trade and everyone suffers from protectionism”, he argues, “But this is especially the case for the Food Sector in Latin America.  We need export markets and we need to ensure that this tit for tat conflict does not become a prolonged confrontation.” Mexico has imposed retaliatory tariffs on US cheese, steel, bourbon, and pork, as well direct matching tariffs to...