Demo at Fife Council Offices 9:00am February 11th

The crime and justice arena has had a hard time over the past few years. Despite not being a qualified lawyer, former Lord Chancellor Chris Grayling made sweeping and dramatic changes to the legal system, usually against the advice of those with criminal and legal expertise. 

The country faces a punishing new round of welfare cuts. We probably won’t know exactly how the Tories will take their pound of flesh from society’s most vulnerable until the autumn. This uncertainty is itself a huge cause of stress and anxiety for millions of people who rely on government help to feed their families and pay their bills.  

A standard response to anyone who is religious is to assume that they are misguided or deluded. In the same way many religious people see those who are not as being without beliefs or values. But it is important to remember that religious or spiritual people can express and protest: their spirit is in the spiritless situation and it is this experience that can make them act.

The heat of the General Election is near boiling point as the battle rages for the   leadership of Britain on May 7^th. A long overdue injection of political diversity in the candidates available - though all white and mostly middle class it has to be said - allied with the wide-spread pain of austerity, has opened up the spectrum of key, ‘vote-winning’ policy areas wider than has been seen in an election year for decades.

Cuts to any public service have a human face. Behind every cut is a child, an individual, a family and even, perhaps, a whole community with cuts to schools, hospitals, transport and leisure services. When cuts are made, they have a disproportionate impact upon people and communities who are already experiencing shortages of income, jobs, education and housing. Cuts are not only unnecessary but are a deliberate strategy to undermine state involvement in any form of public provision and to allow the forces of the market to exploit and subjugate populations.

Point number four on the Conservative Party's Long Term Economic Plan pledges: 'Capping welfare and working to control immigration so our economy delivers for people who want to work hard and play by the rules'. 

Katherine Clements, critically acclaimed author of The Crimson Ribbon, argues to save creative writing to continue giving students confidence to express themselves. 

Hundreds gather in protest at library cuts in Cardiff

The Read In event staged at Cardiff Central Library had dozens of protesters out in force against the cuts to library services.

A 12-year-old girl from Llanelli was the star speaker as hundreds of campaigners gathered outside Cardiff Central Library in protest at proposed cuts to library services across the capital.

In the past few weeks there’s actually only been a very small percentage increase in number of people visiting A&E compared to the same period last year. But this marginal increase has been having an exponential effect on waiting times. A&E departments are struggling to cope.