University research is being hijacked by big business. University departments are increasingly taking funding from the companies whose products they are supposed to be "investigating". Scientists at Imperial College, Berkshire, did a ten-year study of GM crops, and concluded that GM crops were no more likely to be bad for the environment than conventional ones.
Tony Blair used his speech to Labour's spring conference last weekend to warn against cynicism. New Labour is scared that its "core supporters" won't vote. Blair has no one to blame but himself for betraying people's hopes. Gordon Brown launched New Labour's election campaign with a speech condemning child poverty as a "scar on the soul of Britain". But a new report released this week shows that:
How could anyone be cynical about New Labour? The party came to power promising to end the stink of sleaze and corruption that enveloped the Tories. Now we see:
Tony Blair held a pre-election lunch for 23 of the top "captains of industry" last week. Its theme was "competitiveness". It aimed to reassure business that they need not be worried if the government uses any "radical" rhetoric in order to motivate its core supporters to get out and vote. Among the guests were:
The ISTC steel union last week dismissed as a "cruel fantasy" the scheme by telecom firm EXI to find jobs for 4,000 redundant steel workers. The company's offer was backed by leaders of the AEEU union. EXI presently employs just 1,700 in 30 countries worldwide. ISTC leader Michael Leahy said the idea that it could generate thousands of jobs in Britain was "far fetched to say the least".
BG Group, the integrated gas business, more than doubled its profits last year. Its profits rose by 153 percent to £425 million-and came after the record profits announced by BP, Shell and Exxon. Yet despite this record haul, the cost of gas is going up by 4 percent in a few weeks time.
Workers at Vauxhall motors were to strike on Thursday of this week. They planned to hit back at General Motors, one of the world's biggest corporations. GM wants to close down its Vauxhall motors plant in Luton and sack 2,000 workers.
Workers at the Rolls Royce aerospace plant in Ansty, near Coventry, are to strike for the day next Monday. Skilled engineers at the plant have already taken one day's solid strike action against the company's plan to sack over 1,000 workers and to move work to Bristol and Canada. "The company has not shifted at all," says an MSF rep at the plant. "Everyone is solidly behind more strike action."
The Government was in a deepening hole over its plans for privatising London's tube network at the beginning of this week-and more strikes could be on the way. Talks between deputy prime min ister John Prescott and London mayor Ken Livingstone's transport supremo Bob Kiley restarted on Monday. They had collapsed last week after Prescott went back on an earlier pledge to overhaul his PPP privatisation scheme.
New Labour faces still more problems with its plan to privatise the national air traffic control service before the general election. Independent safety advisers have handed their report on the three different private bidders over to the government. There are serious worries about two of them. Lockheed-Martin has had huge problems trying to install computer software at the new air traffic centre at Swanwick in Hampshire.
"Railtrack is facing bankruptcy. It cannot survive as it is without the injection of further government money." That is the verdict of officials in the Strategic Rail Authority, the government's rail watchdog.
A meeting called by the Fire Brigades Union in north London to oppose privatisation and support tube workers showed the potential for solidarity with the fight to stop the tube sell-off. Some 120 people came to the meeting in Islington on Thursday of last week. There were groups of firefighters, post office workers, tube drivers and station staff, teachers, council workers and others.
