Women should not still be needing to battle to receive equal pay.
Recent victories in retail, most notably at clothing chain Next where female workers complained they are paid between £2 and £14 an hour less than men doing jobs of equal value, could be a £100million triumph.
Succeed in claims against Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and the Co-op and it would be a supermarket sweep for women protesting they’re short-changed by employers.
That women are still struggling for fairness 135 years after the historic 1888 Bryant and May matchgirls’ strike in London and 53 years after the landmark 1970 Equal Pay Act brought in by Labour heroine Barbara Castle after the Made in Dagenham Ford sewing machinists’ strike is both regrettable and inspiring.
Regrettable that in 2023 too many women are not paid what they are worth and inspiring because the same women will never give up.
Horrific attack
The knife attack on four children and two adults in a French playground is horrific.
How an adult could stab the very young, including a baby in a pushchair, is beyond comprehension and sending shockwaves way beyond the town of Annecy.
Police are calling for calm after shooting and detaining a Syrian refugee said to have screamed “in the name of Jesus Christ” and clutched a necklace with a crucifix.
Our thoughts are with the injured and their families with many important questions to be answered. But we must not let political extremists spread hate, exploiting the terrible attack to turn people against each other.
Widespread condemnation of the attack reaffirms that more unites than divides us.
It’s knight time
Snobbery can be the only reason no Rugby League player has been knighted.
The working class sport has been played for 120 years and MP Yvette Cooper’s appeal that Kevin Sinfield and Rob Burrow be made Sirs is a call the establishment must heed.
