Blair’s former policy chief Matthew Taylor to lead Fair Work Agency
Labour has appointed Tony Blair’s former policy chief to lead Britain’s new jobs market watchdog being created by the government to enforce its strengthening of workers’ rights.Matthew Taylor, who led the influential Taylor report on the gig economy and modern working practices for Theresa May’s government, will become the chair of the Fair Work Agency when the body launches next April.The new watchdog will form a key plank of Labour’s proposals to drastically strengthen workers’ rights by drawing together Britain’s existing labour enforcement agencies into a single body.It will have powers to tackle employers flouting the law, including naming and shaming rogue businesses paying staff below the legal minimum wage, issuing fines and bringing legal cases on workers’ behalf.Taylor, who ran Blair’s No 10 policy unit in the 2000s, used his gig economy review for May’s government to call for a drastic overhaul of workplace rights.
While his report was seen as central to Tory efforts to win over economically insecure Labour voters, it was largely mothballed as the party cycled through prime ministers.He also held the role as the government’s head of labour market enforcement between 2019 and 2021, but sharply attacked the Tories for backsliding on its pledges to protect workers from unscrupulous employment practices.Taylor told the Guardian Starmer’s government had the potential to make progress after the Tories had reneged on their promises.“I think it was quite clear that the previous government had not got that balance right, [and] I think this government is going to get that balance right,” he said.“Flexible work will always have an important role in our economy, but it mustn’t be at the price of the insecurity and unfairness towards workers.
”Hiring Taylor – one of the country’s leading employment experts – is expected to underscore Labour’s commitment to bolstering workplace rights despite mounting pressure from businesses for the party to water down planned changes,Bosses have warned the government’s landmark employment rights bill, which includes banning zero-hours contracts and day-one rights protecting against unfair dismissal, will drive up unemployment and hurt the economy,Business groups have ramped up their lobbying before Rachel Reeves’s 26 November budget, amid criticism that the chancellor added to a slowdown in the jobs market by raising taxes on employment in last year’s budget,Ministers have, though, insisted the bill will be enacted “in full” amid intense pressure from trade unions and leftwing MPs fearful that Keir Starmer’s government will backslide on the legislation,Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionStarmer’s reshuffle last month fuelled unease among trade unions after the resignation of Angela Rayner and replacement of Justin Madders, the employment minister, who had championed the plan.
Labour also faced a fierce trade union backlash after the Guardian revealed this month that ministers were exploring charging workers a fee to take their bosses to an employment tribunal.The justice secretary, David Lammy, then ruled out the measure last week.Kate Dearden, who replaced Madders last month, said Labour was “absolutely committed” to boosting workers’ rights.“We’ll always listen carefully to feedback from businesses and from trade unions, because we want to ensure this legislation works for workers and employers alike.That’s why it’s pro-business, it’s pro-worker, and pro-growth,” she said.
The creation of the Fair Work Agency, however, comes amid questions over the resourcing and the capacity of the government to oversee its tougher approach to the enforcement of its package of workers’ rights.While drawing together the functions and powers of the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, along with other existing enforcement responsibilities, to create the Fair Work Agency, experts believe extra resources are also likely to be required.
My cultural awakening: ‘Kate Bush helped me come out as a trans woman’
As a not-yet-out trans teen, The Sensual World – the singer’s rejection of masculine influence – felt like an invocation of everything I was feelingIt wasn’t safe for me to discover The Sensual World, the eponymous track on what Kate Bush described as her “most female album”. The song was intended to be a rejection of the masculine influence that had unwittingly shaped the artist’s previous work, and an ode to something taboo within the female experience. Based on Molly Bloom’s soliloquy in James Joyce’s Ulysses – a stream of consciousness in which the character reflects on her experiences of nature, sex and love – Bush wanted to celebrate the experience of life inside a woman’s body, and the ways it gives her spiritual and sexual pleasure. I knew that, for someone like me, who was already being bullied, to openly love a song like this could make me an even more obvious target to those who saw femininity as a sign of weakness. More daunting than that, it might force me to confront my own repressed desires
From Tron: Ares to Riot Women: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead
Tron: AresOut now Perhaps the most exciting thing for many about this new Tron film is that it has a score from Nine Inch Nails. It also stars Jared Leto as the embodiment of a super-advanced AI program sent into the real world on a high-stakes mission. (Just try not to notice that Ares is an anagram of arse, because you won’t be able to unsee it.)I SwearOut nowRobert Aramayo gives a rousing turn as Tourette’s campaigner John Davidson, whose experience of the condition in the 1980s (before it was widely acknowledged to exist in the UK) led him to become one of the first people to try to raise awareness, leading to the presentation of an MBE during which he duly shouted “Fuck the queen”.Terence Davies retrospectiveCinemas nationwide, to 30 NovemberA major director, but not necessarily a household name, Terence Davies, who died two years ago, is now being honoured with a retrospective by the BFI in London, plus a UK-wide re-release of his acclaimed Edith Wharton adaptation The House of Mirth, starring Gillian Anderson
The Guide #212: The Taylor Swift backlash has me asking: how much good music can one artist really produce?
Amid the flood of discourse around Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl, one recurring sentiment jumped out: that the album – which many critics have declared a misstep in Swift’s otherwise consistently solid discography – felt hurried, hasty, rushed. “The Life of a Showgirl Is 40 Minutes of Elevator Music Rushed Out to Break a Beatles Record”, read the particularly savage headline of a piece on Collider. In the Guardian music desk’s excellent round table on the album, just about every panellist expressed a wish that Swift would take a break from the constant churn of releasing records, in order to recapture a lost spark.And it has been quite the churn. Since 2019 Swift has on average released an album a year, and that’s not counting the Taylor’s Version re-records of her older albums
Seth Meyers on Trump: ‘deeply unhinged, detached from reality’
Late-night hosts have questioned Donald Trump’s cognitive abilities as he makes further blunders during his second term.On Late Night, Seth Meyers replayed clips of various rightwingers talking about Joe Biden’s cognitive decline when he was president and then told viewers that the same people should be more aware of Trump having similar issues.Recently, he repeated the debunked claim that he predicted Osama bin Laden would engage in mass terrorist activity one year before 9/11. Meyers played footage of him slurring a catalogue of errors to a crowd. “Finding the dementia in that clip is like finding Waldo in a book called Oops! All Waldos,” he said
Spitting Image comics decry lawsuit over depiction of Paddington Bear
A decision to sue the makers of Spitting Image over a depiction of Paddington Bear as a foul-mouthed drug addict is an attack on comedy and freedom of expression, the comedians behind the reinvention have said.StudioCanal, the production company that made the recent Paddington movies, is taking legal action against the team behind Spitting Image over the character’s reimagining as the co-host of a satirical podcast, The Rest is Bulls*!t.In a new YouTube video responding to the lawsuit, however, a dishevelled Paddington is again seen snorting cocaine and using StudioCanal’s legal letter as toilet paper. The video calls on viewers to “remember to like and subscribe before Paddington gets cancelled”.The online show featuring Paddington’s makeover is produced by Avalon, the makers of Spitting Image – the satirical TV puppet show that angered numerous politicians when it ran throughout the 1980s
Jimmy Kimmel on Trump’s national guard deployments: ‘Incredibly dangerous and unnecessary’
Late-night hosts assessed Donald Trump’s deployment of the national guard for nonexistent crises and government dysfunction amid the ongoing shutdown.Jimmy Kimmel took a moment to acknowledge his home base of Los Angeles on Wednesday. “We are safe, we are sound, thanks to our president who saved us from ourselves by calling in the national guard to stop a conflict that never started – but could have! Had he not acted to prevent an entirely fabricated crisis from spilling out of his imagination and on to our streets,” he said, referring to Trump’s deployment of the national guard in LA to prevent a nonexistent insurrection.“Thank you, Mr President,” he continued. “Thank you for sending troops to occupy all of these Democrat-run cities, whether we want them or not
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