News and Analysis

By Alec Thraves 2020 has been a health, social and economic disaster for workers across Wales and is graphically outlined in a Senedd Research document earlier this summer. But more importantly is the living experience and the devastating impact Covid has had on almost every community, workplace and family in Wales, particularly on the poorest and most vulnerable sections of ...

By Dave Warren, Swansea Trades Council and PCS (personal capacity) As we enter the month of October, 15 of the 21 Welsh counties with over 2.3 million people are subject to local COVID restrictions. Already, as of 30 September there have been 24,383 recorded cases and 1,622 deaths even according to the sanitised official figures and this is while the ...

Expensive online courses in ghost towns Going to university right now feels like walking into a trap made of fire, surrounded by circling sharks, as alarms blare off in every direction. Watching the news and seeing the blame go to students for the rise in cases just goes to show how afraid the capitalist class is of young people today. ...

Two million people in lockdown, virtually the whole of South Wales from Llanelli to Newport and two thirds of the Welsh population – the second wave has arrived. The Welsh government has announced strict restrictions on people’s movements, but only as far as their personal lives are concerned. If they are involved in making money for other people then the ...

By Beth Webster, UHW nurse, Cardiff West Socialist Party Boris Johnson has finally admitted that we are heading into a second Covid wave. NHS workers deserve a pay rise and need more resources to cope. At least 13 million people are now back under local lockdown, with an R rate as high as 1.4 in some areas. NHS and social ...

By Dave Reid Hundreds of people in Covid-hit Rhondda Cynon Taff were turned away from a local Serco-run testing centre after the UK government had imposed a quota of just 60 tests because of high demand in England that the private corporations contracted to process the tests could not cope with. This happened despite when Rhondda Cynon Taff is on ...

By Dave Reid The rise in coronavirus cases that has led an announcement of a partial lock-down in Caerphilly county has caused worry and concern for many people in the area. The Welsh government has imposed the lock-down as the number of confirmed cases of cases of Covid-19 has risen above 50 per 100,000. Welsh health minister, Vaughn Gething, said ...

By Gareth Bromhall Gareth Bromall (GB) spoke with a 12 year old pupil of Penyreol Comprehensive in Swansea about their experience of what going back to school was like last week. Penyreol Comprehensive has its own risk assessment that stipulates how social distancing will be maintained with a one way system in the school and bubbles for each year etc. ...

By a Caerphilly National Education Union (NEU) rep When we returned to work in Caerphilly, despite the headteacher’s best efforts, lack of routine testing was causing huge anxiety among staff. Students weren’t in yet – but we knew that, within a few days of reopening, there would be 33 different students in front of us every hour. We were advised ...

By Mark Evans, Secretary Carmarthenshire County Unison (in a personal capacity) A report from the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) Finance Subgroup paints a bleak picture for the future of local government and the important services it provides in Wales (COVID-19 INCOME AND EXPENDITURE SURVEY FOR QUARTER TWO AND FUTURE BUDGET PRESSURES). The report includes a survey by the WLGA ...