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From The Socialist newspaper, 15 June 2016
Them & Us
Them and us fishes, photo Suzanne Beishon (Click to enlarge)
Student sharks
Students paying £9,000 a year tuition fees finally have an escape from chronic pennilessness: a loan shark especially for students!
Wonga-style lender 'Smart-Pig.com' - tagline 'loans for students' - advertises rip-off credit arrangements on beermats. Even the Advertising Standards Authority has slammed the firm for inciting vulnerable students to borrow for booze.
The regulator also criticised ads which exploited the housing crisis. Posters seemed to encourage students to take out extortionate loans for a chance at winning a term's rent.
Smart-Pig.com makes much of being a "student start-up", and claims more humane savagery than other payday lenders. But it still has its nose in the trough of financial misery - and what a trough! The pig-sharks advertise their 'representative APR' - yearly interest and fees on borrowings - as a succulent 1,084%.
BHS burglary
Department store BHS will close, at a loss of 11,000 jobs, confirm administrators Duff and Phelps.
MPs are now questioning Mike Ashley, workhouse-master of retailer Sports Direct, who allegedly bid on the failing enterprise. No doubt he'd have used his wealth and influence to save BHS jobs and pensions.
Sorry, we meant to write: "No doubt he'd have used his wealth and influence to disembowel BHS jobs and pensions, like the frenzied, profit-hungry asset stripper he is." The Socialist, in contrast, called for nationalisation.
While workers ready themselves for the cruel gauntlet of job seeking, previous owner Philip Green recently bought his third superyacht.
Having a Giraffe
Supermarket Tesco is selling its restaurant subsidiary Giraffe to Ranjit Boparan. If that name sounds familiar, it's because Boparan owns 2 Sisters - which recently tried to slash pay at Pennine Foods in Sheffield (see Pennine Foods strike forces bosses back to the table).
While Giraffe staff face uncertain futures in the hands of another vicious anti-worker bully, Tesco returned to profit this year. Its pre-tax profits were £162 million for the year to February, after posting its first loss in two decades in 2015.
Giraffe workers would do well to follow Pennine Foods: join a union and be ready to fight.
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In The Socialist 15 June 2016:
EU referendum
EU referendum: whatever the result, political turmoil is ahead
EU: busting the myths that Remain is best for the 99%
TUSC anti-EU tour touches down in Wales
International socialist news and analysis
Orlando massacre: working class unity to defeat homophobia, terrorism and racism
France: workers' revolt against labour law grows
Socialist readers' comments and reviews
Hilarious, innovative satire on state bureaucracy
Workplace news and analysis
Unison conference 2016: fighting leadership needed more than ever
GMB backs no-cuts budgets and steel nationalisation
Pennine Foods strike forces bosses back to the table
Hospital porters and domestic staff claim jobs and pay victory
Strike at Argos depot against contracting out of jobs
Buses parked three deep in Leeds strike
School support staff mobilise against slashing of pay
Uber drivers strike against unfair fares
Lorry stoppage paves the way to victory
Solidarity with victimised bakers' union rep
Housing crisis
Action to defeat the Housing Act: we won't move!
Housing Act: landlords and developers set to profit
Generation rent demands affordable housing
NHS
Re-open Chorley A&E - end the staff shortages
Hands Off HRI campaign grows from strength to strength
Socialist Party news and analysis
Systemic failures hurt kids in justice system
Socialist Party fundraising: punching above our weight
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