Craig Meighan

Last month Theresa May announced she would ban restaurants owners from taking the tips from waiters and waitresses. Restaurants such as Prezzo and Zizi have garnered widespread criticism for their role in taking a cut in the tips that their staff have earned. But with over 165,000 businesses in hospitality that employ well over one million people there have remained a plethora of companies who have avoided the sunlight that was shone onto these bigger chains, avoiding media scrutiny and publish backlash. News of restaurants taking a cut of 10% in the tips staff receive - which Zizi, for example, was found to have been doing - to some was a shocking surprise – but to others, it earned the response: “is that all?”.  Some waiting staff find this to be a meagre reduction as they claim they have had up to 100% of their tips taken from them. Most aren’t aware of their rights, the laws surrounding tipping and are too scared to speak out in fear of losing their job. Whil...

Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images At her party conference in Birmingham last month Prime Minister Theresa May boldly claimed ‘austerity’ is over. ‘Better days are coming,’ she said to a country reeling from cuts to public spending. In a tumultuous time where the head spin of Brexit negotiations brings new and frantic warnings of gloom and economic doom day in and day out it’s a sigh of relief for most to hear that austerity is over. Cash-strapped families who’ve seen their incomes fall over the years will be happier hearing they might not see a further reduction in their working tax credits. The cuts to welfare have been deep ones for many families in the UK as shown by the  Child Poverty Action Group and the Institute for Public Policy Research’s report that a couple with two young children, one working full-time and the other part-time on the national living wage, will lose more than £1,200 a year due to universal credit cuts. The Institute for Fiscal Studies show...