Last week, companies with more than 250 employees were forced to published their gender pay data. This revealed, for the first time, hard data that showed the discrepancy between pay levels for men and women.
There is huge outrage that the contract to produce our new, blue, British passports will be awarded to a French Dutch company after we leave the EU. How can a foreign company take work away from British firm De La Rue?
Recent events in Salisbury have certainly turned people’s minds to international relations. The image of a ‘hazchem’ dressed anti-terrorist officer, in front of Salisbury cathedral is a cross between MacMafia and an Alistair MacLean novel.
From time to time stories are put around that cause distress to people on low incomes. One recent story is that 1 million children will lose their free school meals. This is important to many families living in Wyre Forest, who may think they are affected by this and will lose a benefit.
Winter pressures on the NHS give us a very good indicator of just how well our medical services can cope under pressure. This season’s ‘flu has been particularly nasty and with the appalling weather we have had recently, pressures on A+E have increased.
There were a couple of things dominating the political news last week; one ridiculous, one important. The silly news was that Jeremy Corbyn was somehow a Czech asset for intelligence, based on one or more cups of tea with a Czech diplomat turned spy back in the 1980s.
The 15th of January saw the launch of the Year of Engineering. This is the start of a crucial initiative which will see the government work with hundreds of industry partners to raise the profile of engineering among young people aged 7-16, their parents and their teachers.
This week marks the 100th anniversary of women being allowed to vote. It is an extraordinary thought that there are still people alive who were around when women were not allowed to vote in this country. Yet there are millions across the world denied a vote for a whole host of reasons.