linksUK

Archive for June, 2008

‘One shirt at a time’*: Supply chains, BBC’s Panorama and Primark on the rack

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008

photo credit: Gene Hunt
Over the years how many companies have been exposed for their immoral and illegal supply chain practices? Why do they continue to forget about investigative journalism, trade unions and human rights /campaigning organisations?
Supply chains are often key to the success of a business; and as they become longer, with more links in [...]

Ronan Point: 40 years after the collapse

Monday, June 23rd, 2008

On May 16th 1968 Ivy Hodge went into the kitchen of her flat on the 17th floor of the Ronan Point tower block and struck a match to light the stove for her early morning cup of tea. The naked flame sparked a gas explosion, collapsing one whole corner of the building like a pack of cards.
To mark the 40th anniversary of [...]

Housing Benefit in 2008

Thursday, June 19th, 2008

“There are 66 words in the Lord’s Prayer; 42 laws of cricket; but housing benefit regulations runs to 967 pages, five parts, six schedules and 40 statutory instruments.”
(I Jones, 2005)
Housing benefit is the most complex benefit. There have been numerous amendments, resulting in the current system becoming extremely complicated. This makes its administration cumbersome, and [...]

Olympics 2012 ‘Fool’s Gold’: follow-up

Wednesday, June 18th, 2008

We co-hosted a follow-up meeting last week about our recent ‘Fool’s Gold’  report, (see earlier blog post) which we co-authored with new economics foundation.
The next day I went up to the roof of Holden Point in Stratford to get a panoramic view of the Olympics ‘building’ site, with among others London Borough of Newham’s Workplace.
The follow-up [...]

Refugee Week - “Experience Darfur”

Tuesday, June 17th, 2008

On my way to a meeting in Whitehall on Tuesday morning I was astounded to see a refugee encampment in Trafalgar Square.
On closer inspection I discovered a powerful exhibition of a burned out small house and several simple tents of plastic sheeting strecthed over a metal frame each designed to accomodate up to a dozen displaced individuals.
The exhibition “Experience [...]

Welcome to the linksUK blog

Wednesday, June 11th, 2008

Welcome to everyone visiting the linksUK blog for the first time after recieving our e-newsletter.
Community Links  pioneers new ideas and new ways of working locally, we go on to share the learning nationally; generating practical social action in other communities and influencing national policy. This blog will communicate the work of  linksUK - the national team [...]

Volunteering whilst on benefits

Friday, June 6th, 2008

At Community Links we’ve always worked closely with volunteers since we started over 30 years ago.
 This is still very much the case today. Volunteers are vital, without them we would not be able to continue our work.
This picture shows a group of volunteers from the Accenture resources team at who Worked on a garden project alongside the young people at [...]