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Showing posts from September, 2018

Glasgow Council leader denies equal pay talks have collapsed

Glasgow City Council Leader has denied accusations that equal pay negotiations have collapsed, saying they are still underway and on time. In a tweet , Susan Aitken rebuked accusations from Labour that thousands of women had chosen to strike after negotiations with Glasgow City Council had failed. Aitken said: “Equal pay negotiations have not ‘collapsed’; they are continuing” and that the timescale of when payments are to be made is well on track. This was in response to a tweet by Labour’s communities and equalities spokeswoman, Monica Lennon. Lennon said: "[These women] deserve pay justice and they deserve it now. It should never have reached this point and on behalf of Scottish Labour I apologise that the legacy of pay inequality wasn’t resolved when our party led Glasgow City Council. "An apology, however, doesn’t pay the bills. The SNP came into power having promised to settle but women are still being failed.” Aitken hit back at Labour, sa

Number one: how Amazon exploited its way to the top

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon made international headlines this year by becoming the 2 nd US company to reach the milestone of a $1Tn market value. Founded in Jeff Bezos’ basement in 1994 Amazon started off as an online bookstore and since then has seen rapid growth to become the largest online retailer in the world, making over $170B in 2017 alone. Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO This boom has made its founder the richest person alive, with over $160B in net worth; 56% more wealth than the 2 nd richest person, Bill Gates. But how does Amazon make such a profit? How did it make Bezos the richest person on Earth? The answer lies, in part, to what plagues so many successful companies throughout history: the exploitation of workers and the evasion of tax. Sleeping under bridges. Urinating in bottles. Timed toilet breaks. These are just some of the accusations made against Amazon and they tell a story of a company so determined to maximise eff

Why the Louis CK accusations taint his comedy

Comedians say the things we all think but never say. They point out the absurdity of life in ways we would never think to. And they express what we thought were personal anomalies but are actually widely experienced. Good comedians even make us laugh. Louis CK was a perfect example of this. Famed for his brutal honesty, wit and insight his comedy struck a chord with millions of people to become one of the most popular comedians of his generation. His TV show Louie was unlike any I had seen before. Less plot-driven and more character focused than most shows it filled viewers with an insight into the mind of a lonely, middle-aged, newly-single father in New York City. Interlaced with pieces of stand-up the show felt less like a work of fiction and more an autobiographical documentary about CK’s life. And CK was doing well. With sell-out tours and two critically acclaimed TV shows under his belt, he was on top. And then came the accusations. In late 2017 the  New York Tim