Tribune – Comment, news and reviews from Britain's democratic left

The European Parliament has rejected a move to exclude self-employed freight drivers from European Union legislation limiting working hours. The European Commission and centre-right MEPs failed to secure ­backing for a measure that Socialists say would have allowed freelance truckers to spend 86 hours a week on the road without legal sanctions. Self-employed bus and [...]

Both Oxfam and Save the Children are ­warning that if nothing is done seven million people in Niger will be facing starvation ahead of the next harvest in September.

Chancellor Merkel’s candidate in the election, Christian Wulff, could be staring defeat in the face

Train operator Stagecoach is set to receive an estimated £100 million in revenue support from the taxpayer after the Department for Transport lost a court case with the company last week. As a result, the department is liable for topping up the company’s lower-than-expected ticket revenue from February of this year – and not from [...]

Michael Gove’s controversial plans for a new generation of Swedish-style “free schools” in Britain – funded by the taxpayer but not subject to local authority control – have been seriously undermined by damning new research which shows they have singularly failed to boost academic standards. The report, by Rebecca Allen of the Institute of Education [...]

The coalition has suffered a setback to its plans to curb the cost of the public sector

Labour MP Natascha Engel has this week been elected to chair the House of Commons’ new backbench business committee. MPs decided only last week to set up the committee, which will take the power to timetable backbench MPs’ legislative plans away from government. Some MPs were concerned at her election, as last year she voted [...]

Unison says the council tax freeze imposed by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition will “blow a hole” in local authority budgets