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

The cost of borrowing for Spain rose sharply when the new conservative government sold “a shed load” of short-term debt on the financial markets just two days after winning a landslide victory in the country’s general election. Spain raised 2.98 billion euros in an auction of three- and six-month bills, but at much higher yields [...]

State-rescued bank Northern Rock, sold last week to a consortium fronted by entrepreneur Richard Branson, is being asset-stripped to finance its sale, Shadow Treasury Chief Secretary Chris Leslie said in the House of Commons this week. His intervention followed claims by Chancellor George Osborne that, under European Commission rules, the Government had been obliged to [...]

Justine Greening, the Transport Secretary, is meeting strong opposition in her bid to scrap and prune up to 200 regulations governing everything from passenger safety to seafarers’ protection on British ships as part of an agenda to cut “red tape”. Organisations from ships’ captains and senior officers to the RMT are ­furious at the move [...]

Fewer than one person in 10 believes Government claims that public-sector pensions are “gold-plated”, according to an independent poll commissioned by union Unite. Polling company Survation surveyed more than 1,000 adults ahead of next week’s strike by public-sector workers. According to its findings those polled believed by a margin of three to one  that unions [...]

The pay gap between the City elite and ordinary workers threatens a return to the disparities of Victorian England, the ­widely-anticipated report by the High Pay Commission reported this week. The report, Cheques and Balances: Why Tackling High Pay is in the National Interest, drawn up by Compass and financed by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable [...]