Archive for May 2024

UNISON issued a serious legal letter to the Chief Executive of Barnet Council John Hooton regarding a decision made by senior officers to procure the services of an organisation called Imperium Solutions to procure these workers to operate LBB’s mental health duties and triage functions.

All patients at Broadmoor are detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 and have serious conditions like schizophrenia which mean they can’t be in normal prison. The average length of stay at Broadmoor is five-and-a-half years. Broadmoor has space to cater for 240 patients who suffer from mental illness and personality disorders.

Regardless of where or when a heat wave strikes, one pattern is a constant: Older adults are the most likely to die from extreme heat, and this crisis will worsen in the coming years. We study climate change and population aging. Our research documents two global trends that together portend a dire future. Above: Rickshaw drivers have little escape from the sun in New Delhi

Chinese migrants’ encounters with U.S. border authorities were 10 times higher in 2023 than in pre-pandemic years. The economic slowdown back home coupled with human rights concerns is prompting many to seek new lives in America.

Last week, the United Auto Workers faced a setback in its organizing drive with a union election loss at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama. An autoworker at the factory reflects on why the union lost and what it might do differently next time.

The bulk of this megacompany’s earnings, however, comes from selling food. Out of CAD $13.6 billion in total revenue the company reported in the first quarter of 2024, $9.4 billion came from food retail, representing 69 percent. Shareholders pocketed $460 million in profit, a 10 percent increase from the first quarter of 2023. Meanwhile, 18 percent of Canadian households face food insecurity…. The boycott campaign, organized by members of the r/loblawsisoutofcontrol subreddit, is demanding price caps on certain essential items, a commitment to end price gouging, increased cost transparency, and for the company to sign on to the federal government’s grocers’ code of conduct.

I speak, of course, of our competition agenda, which in the context of today’s convening, we can easily and correctly think of in terms as an anti-monopoly agenda. In the next few minutes, I’ll briefly clarify how we think about competition, market power, monopoly and monopsony, and then discuss our whole-of-government approach to competition.