England Follow

Workers at historic tourist attractions in England are set to stage a one-day strike on Monday 11 March. Hundreds of workers will join the strikes at places such as Stonehenge and Dover Castle. The workers at English Heritage are fuming at an imposed pay award of 3.5 percent.

Hundreds of medical secretaries in the north east of England are set to strike for three days from next Tuesday. The women workers are some of the lowest paid in the National Health Service. Most of them earn less than £13,000 a year. For years they have put up with low pay, working in an underfunded NHS without any reward for their work.

Nineteen year old Gavin Hopley died last week from injuries he received the previous weekend. He was beaten in Oldham, north west England. Police have arrested two men and are looking for others in connection with the killing.

It is less than ten weeks before local council elections across England on 2 May. In London every council seat will be up for grabs. The elections will be a chance to challenge New Labour and the other main parties.

Home Secretary David Blunkett unveiled New Labour's latest crackdown on immigration, asylum and British citizenship last week. He won rapturous praise from Tory MPs for attacks on the ability of immigrants to speak English and on British people marrying partners from the Indian subcontinent.

Over 650 guards and conductors on Arriva Northern struck for 48 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Their action brought trains across the north of England to a halt and led to big, angry picket lines.

Revelations that an official in the Trades Union Congress has been trying to stop the election of left wing candidates in union elections are fuelling anger among trade unionists. Socialist Worker reported two weeks ago on smears against Bob Crow, the left wing candidate for general secretary of the RMT rail union. A meeting of the union's west of England and South Wales region took place in Bristol, also two weeks ago.

Medical secretaries in hospitals across the north east of England are gearing up for a fight over pay. The move follows the victory won by medical secretaries in Glasgow last year, when all-out strike action won a regrading and so higher pay. "Medical secretaries are the hidden workers in the NHS," explained Clare Williams, chair of health in the Unison union's northern region. "They check records and send out appointments.

What motivated you to make a film about Bloody Sunday? I WAS asked to do it about six years ago and I refused. I thought, "I'm an Englishman. I can't do that." I agonised over that. Four years ago I was invited across to the Bloody Sunday commemorative march.

LAST WEDNESDAY Tony Blair jetted in on a brief visit to England. While quite at home in the company of dictators, warlords and George W Bush, Blair soon felt in need of protection from his own backbenchers. One minute you can be a great international statesman, a war leader in almost freakish control of your party.

MORE THAN 20,000 elderly people died from cold-related illnesses in England and Wales last winter, despite the government's claims to be helping the poorest elderly people. Mervyn Kohler of Help the Aged says the number of winter deaths among old people is a "peculiarly British problem.

A series of reports into the background to riots in the north west of England earlier this year were released on Tuesday, as Socialist Worker went to press. Days earlier home secretary David Blunkett had told journalists that immigrants must try to be more "British" and that they should "accept our norms".