Lessons from the United Kingdom: Fightback on Workplace Hazards, 1979–1992

1992 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. P. Dalton
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Working Class ◽  
European Community ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Workplace Hazards ◽  
The Past ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Made In ◽  
Union Government

For the past 13 years there has been an aggressive anti-union government in the United Kingdom. Yet despite this fact, very real advances have been made in the area of working-class activity over the issue of workplace hazards. Trade unions, because of membership concern and activity, have been forced to keep this topic on their agenda. The European Community has been a big factor in these advances. This article describes some of the issues and elements of the fightback. In the 1990s, with the rediscovery of environmental issues, the hazards movement of the United Kingdom, and elsewhere, is here to stay and set to expand.

Notes and records of the Royal Society of London

1946 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-145
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
General Problem ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Agricultural Science ◽  
The Other ◽  
Standing Committee ◽  
The Past ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Fundamental Science ◽  
Made In

A Conference of Fellows was held in the rooms of the Royal Society on 10 May 1945 to discuss certain questions arising from the Report on the Needs of Research in Fundamental Science, particularly in relation to ‘ rare subjects ’ in the universities. As a result of this meeting, a memorandum was drawn up by Professor A. V. Hill, then Biological Secretary. This memorandum, slightly abridged, was in the following terms: Under existing conditions there are various subjects of study for which little or no provision is made in any of the universities of the United Kingdom. There are sub/branches of subjects the study of which might be held to fall within the duties of some existing depart' ment but which, in fact, have been almost neglected. O n the other hand, there are subjects for which too widespread provision has been made in the past or for which too great a dispersion of effort has proved unhealthy. Certain subjects do not need to be studied at a higher level in more than a few places. A t Sir Charles Darwin’s suggestion to the Secretaries, a Conference was called at the Royal Society on 10 May to consider the general problem. Seventeen Fellows were present. A t this Conference it was decided to ask the Council of the Royal Society to invite the co-operation of the Sectional Committees, and of the newly formed Standing Committee on Agricultural Science, to explore it further.

The State of Industrial Ill-Health in the United Kingdom

1980 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Charles Clutterbuck
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
The State ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Safety Committees ◽  
Area Health

Recent health and safety legislation in the United Kingdom comes at a time of economic crisis. The only way of understanding its impact is to look back at the roles of employers, the State, trade unions, workers, and the medical establishment over the past 150 years since the rise of industrial capital. In many ways, issues that were current at the turn of the century—such as the conflict between profits and health, whether to clean up the production process or insulate workers from its hazards, compensation, and employers' liability—are still very much present today, although these issues are often obscured by the notions that there is an identity of interest between management and workers over health and safety and that profits and safety go together. The role of the trade unions in dealing with existing and new hazards of production has historically been ambiguous, yet the need for them to develop an overall policy of prevention has always been obvious. Although they are now part of the governing apparatus, other arms of the State—in particular the civil service—initiate changes in health and safety organization, while trade unions make sure they are enacted. The development of trade-union area health and safety groups represents the most important potential change and may well provide the necessary focus for information and organization to cut through the “concerned” propaganda from management and its safety committees and start the long-awaited cleanup of industry.

Waking Up in the Poll Booth

2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 901-910
Author(s):  
Robert E. Goodin ◽  
James Mahmud Rice
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Panel Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Past ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Waking Up

Judging from Gallup Polls in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, opinion often changes during an election campaign. Come election day itself, however, opinion often reverts back nearer to where it was before the campaign began. That that happens even in Australia, where voting is compulsory and turnout is near-universal, suggests that differential turnout among those who have and have not been influenced by the campaign is not the whole story. Inspection of individual-level panel data from 1987 and 2005 British General Elections confirms that between 3 and 5 percent of voters switch voting intentions during the campaign, only to switch back toward their original intentions on election day. One explanation, we suggest, is that people become more responsible when stepping into the poll booth: when voting they reflect back on the government's whole time in office, rather than just responding (as when talking to pollsters) to the noise of the past few days' campaigning. Inspection of Gallup Polls for UK snap elections suggests that this effect is even stronger in elections that were in that sense unanticipated.

Le parlement européen : Comparaison des résultats de juin 1979 et portrait de l'Assemblée élue

Res Publica ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 471-501
Author(s):  
Dusan Sidjanski
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
European Community ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
General Distribution ◽  
The Political ◽  
European Elections ◽  
Minor Parties ◽  
The Past ◽  
Democratic Control ◽  
Comparison Of The Results

The results of the first European elections reflect the general distribution of the European electorate slightly center-right oriented, even if the abstentionism of almost 40 % caused some distorsions as in the case of United Kingdom. After the comparison of the results, state by state, it appears globally that the socialists ( 113) and liberals (40) regressed, the gaullists and their allies (22) suffered a serious defeat, white the christian democrats ( 107) and the communists (44) progressed and some minor parties (leftists and regionalists) entered the European Parliament.The second part contains a portrait of the new European Parliament which is younger than its predecessor, has more women including its president and has many high personnalities. As in the past, the political groupsplay a central and dynamic role. The question is to know if they will be capable of maintaining their cohesion. The examined cases give no evidence of the existence of the center-right majority in front of the left opposition. In fact, there were changing coalitions and voting constellations according to different problems, ideological options or concrete choices. The recent vote rejecting the proposed budget expresses a will of the European Parliament to impose its style and its democratic control on the European Community.

scholarly journals Faith in Rights: the Struggle Over Same- Sex Adoption in the United Kingdom

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (1, 2 & 3) ◽  
pp. 2008
Author(s):  
Carl F. Stychin
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Labour Government ◽  
The Past ◽  
The United Kingdom

Over the past decade of Labour government in the United Kingdom (U.K.), the regulation of sexual orientation through law has frequently been explained by its supporters through a nar- rative of progress and even emancipation. The most recent junction in this journey came in 2007, with the coming into force of the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations on 30 April 2007.1 These Regulations contain measures pro- hibiting discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in the provision of goods, facilities and services, education, the use and disposal of premises, and the exercise of public functions.

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