Slouching towards Washington

By tomorrow morning we will almost certainly have heard that Barack Obama has secured a majority in the Electoral College and will begin a second term as president in January. Far less certain is whether Obama will secure a majority of the popular vote; five of nine national polls released today suggest either Romney winning or a statistical tie. One year after Occupy, such a split result might inspire a new, more negative, winter of discontent in the United States.

Sixty-seven years since Hiroshima

The first use of a nuclear weapon against people was sixty-seven years ago today, August 6 1945, when the United States Army destroyed the Japanese city of Hiroshima at the end of the Second World War. The city of Nagasaki was destroyed by another bomb three days later. Some two hundred forty thousand people, the overwhelming majority of whom were civilians, died from the attack and its aftereffects.

Better than disorganized dependents

In the wake of an NCAFC conference which I can firsthand tell you passed good policy but drained the batteries of its attendees, Edd Bauer, a sabb at Birmingham Guild of Students who was jailed and victimised last year for his anti-cuts activities, poses that "it is time the majority of independents got organised within NCAFC".

Edd is correct and the work must begin now.

Clarkson's Folly is Deadly Serious

Everybody already knew Jeremy Clarkson was a professional horse's ass when he commented on Wednesday, the day of the biggest strike in Britain in decades, that striking workers "should be executed in front of their families".

Welsh Draft Budget: Death of a thousand cuts

The Welsh Government's 2012-2013 Draft Budget, published yesterday by Labour finance minister Jane Hutt, is the second one in a row to cut Welsh public services. 12.2% cuts to education, 3% cuts to the NHS and an average of 6% cuts to environment, housing, fire services and elsewhere across the public sector promise to make Welsh residents less healthy, less safe, and less financially secure over the coming year while hurting social mobility and wasting resources.

Unemployment up in Wales

Enterprise zones doomed; invest in jobs, not business handouts

Figures released today show unemployment in Wales has leapt by more than half a percentage point to 8.4% over the past quarter. Over ten thousand people are on jobseekers' allowance in Cardiff
alone.

Welsh-language teaching union UCAC to strike October 5th

Members of UCAC (Undeb Cenedlaethol Athrawon Cymru, "National Union of Teachers of Wales") have overwhelmingly voted to strike in defence of teachers' pensions, the Welsh-language teaching union announced today.