‘Nothing works anymore’: Tories accused of having ‘broken Britain’ with public services ‘in crisis’

Published

2 years ago

September 11, 2023

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The Conservatives will be accused of having “broken Britain” in a keynote speech by the new leader of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) attacking the state of the economy and public services.

In his first speech as head of the union federation, Paul Nowak will highlight that “nothing works in this country anymore and no one in government cares”.

He will point to problems such as sewage in the rivers and the school concrete fiasco as proof that the country needs “urgent political change”.

Politics Live: Ex-Tory compares running government to fish and chip shop

Addressing union delegates in his home city of Liverpool, Mr Nowak will say on Monday: “Nothing works in this country anymore and no one in government cares. The Conservatives have broken Britain.

“They’ve had 13 years to sort out crumbling concrete in our schools. But five days before the new term they tell schools they can’t open.

“Because – and I quote the education secretary – everyone is ‘on their arses’.

“Could you think of a more perfect metaphor for this government? A crisis of their making, but someone else gets the blame.

“Yet, this government that can’t keep our rivers clean, or run trains on time, or run a functioning NHS can find time to attack the right to strike.”

Mr Nowak’s speech will come on the second day of the annual TUC conference which opened in Liverpool on Sunday.

The event kicked off with Mr Nowak announcing in a news conference that he is reporting the government to the UN’s workers’ rights watchdog over its controversial “anti-strikes” legislation.

Unions ‘will fight anti-strikes law on picket line’

The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill seeks to ensure a legally mandated level of service across key sectors like the NHS during a strike, and will allow bosses to fire employees who ignore notices ordering them to work on strike day.

The government has said the purpose of the legislation is to protect lives and ensure people can continue to access vital public services during strikes.

But in his speech Mr Nowak will argue that rather than preserving services for the public, the new law is about “telling us to get back in our place and to not demand better”.

He will warn: “When the first worker is sacked for refusing to work on a strike day, we’ll fight it in workplaces and on the picket lines.

“Congress – this movement will fight it every single day until it is repealed.”

Debates about how to oppose the the legislation are expected to dominate the TUC conference, which will also hear from deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner.

Sir Keir Starmer will not address the conference but he will host a private dinner for members of the TUC general counsel on Monday.

Unions will also discuss issues like the cost of living crisis, workers’ rights and nationalising public services.

It comes after a bruising week for the Tories which saw the escape of a terror suspect turn into a political row about the state of the justice system and cuts to staffing and funding.

Meanwhile over 100 schools were forced to shut or partially shut because of collapse-prone concrete, with embattled Prime Minister Rishi Sunak facing accusations he refused to fully fund a programme of repairs while chancellor.

‘Years of austerity have left services reeling’

Unions used the two crises’ to argue the Conservative governments’ austerity agenda had left public services reeling as they opened four days of debate.

Listing problems in the public sector Unison general secretary Christina McAnea said: “The longest NHS waiting lists in history, huge cuts to police forces and councils going bust. Care services are unable to deliver for patients, their families, or the workforce, but generate huge profits for offshore private equity trusts.

“Inmates are escaping overcrowded prisons and unsafe schools are crumbling, although you can bet Eton, Winchester and Harrow won’t be among them.

“Workers across all public services, and everyone who relies on them, can see austerity has fractured and smashed the economy.”

In a scathing attack on Westminster leaders she added: “This is the most venal, corrupt, inept government I can remember.”

Labour ‘must be more like Atlee in 1945’

The conference follows a year of unprecedented industrial action by hundreds of thousands of workers including nurses, teachers, civil servants and railway staff.

Unions are calling for change in the form of a Labour government.

In his speech, Mr Nowak will attack the current “cabinet of millionaires” and in a ringing endorsement of Sir Keir Starmer say: “When the time comes I will tell anyone who ask: vote for working people, vote for change, vote for the party we named for our movement. Vote Labour.”

But while Labour traditionally enjoys the support of trade unions, others had some choice words for the potential future incumbent of Downing Street.

Mark Serwotka, leader of the Public and Commercial Services union, called on Labour to commit to a radical programme of investment to tackle low pay, homelessness, under-staffing in prisons, library closures and “crumbling” school buildings.

Sharon Graham, leader of Labour’s biggest union donor Unite, accused the party of becoming a “1990s tribute act” – a reference to its last time in office under Tony Blair.

She said Sir Keir’s leadership needs to be more radical than then because there is less money in the public coffers to spend – and options such as wealth taxes and nationalising energy should be considered to raise capital.

In a reference to the post-war Labour government of Clement Attlee, which founded the NHS, she told Sky News: “Britain is in crisis. And what we need to do now is not to look back to 1997. What we need to do is be more like in 1945. The country needs a reboot and Labour needs to put policies forward that give it that reboot.”

Politics

Solana’s Loopscale pauses lending after $5.8M hack

Published

2 hours ago

April 26, 2025

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<div>Solana's Loopscale pauses lending after .8M hack</div>

Solana decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Loopscale has temporarily halted its lending markets after suffering an approximately $5.8 million exploit.

On April 26, a hacker siphoned approximately 5.7 million USDC (USDC) and 1200 Solana (SOL) from the lending protocol after taking out a “series of undercollateralized loans”, Loopscale co-founder Mary Gooneratne said in an X post.

The exploit only impacted Loopscale’s USDC and SOL vaults and the losses represent around 12% of Loopscale’s total value locked (TVL), Gooneratne added.

Loopscale is “working to resume repayment functionality as soon as possible to mitigate unforeseen liquidations,” its said in an X post.

“Our team is fully mobilized to investigate, recover funds, and ensure users are protected,” Gooneratne said.

Solana's Loopscale pauses lending after $5.8M hack — *Loopscale’s ‘Genesis’ lending vaults. Source: Loopscale*

In the first quarter of 2025, hackers stole more than $1.6 billion worth of crypto from exchanges and on-chain smart contracts, blockchain security firm PeckShield said in an April report.

More than 90% of those losses are attributable to a $1.5 billion attack on ByBit, a centralized cryptocurrency exchange, by North Korean hacking outfit Lazarus Group.

Unique DeFi lending model

Launched on April 10 after a six-month closed beta, Loopscale is a DeFi lending protocol designed to enhance capital efficiency by directly matching lenders and borrowers.

It also supports specialized lending markets, such as “structured credit, receivables financing, and undercollateralized lending,” Loopscale said in an April announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

Loopscale’s order book model distinguishes it from DeFi lending peers such as Aave that aggregate cryptocurrency deposits into liquidity pools.

Loopscale’s main USDC and SOL vaults yield APRs exceeding 5% and 10%, respectively. It also supports lending markets for tokens such as JitoSOL and BONK (BONK) and looping strategies for upwards of 40 different token pairs.

The DeFi protocol has approximately $40 million in TVL and has attracted upwards of 7,000 lenders, according to researcher OurNetwork.

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Politics

US Senator calls for Trump impeachment, cites memecoin dinner

Published

5 hours ago

April 26, 2025

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US Senator calls for Trump impeachment, cites memecoin dinner

United States Senator Jon Ossoff expressed support for impeaching President Donald Trump during an April 25 town hall, citing the President’s plan to host a private dinner for top Official Trump memecoin holders.

“I mean, I saw just 48 hours ago, he is granting audiences to people who buy his meme coin,” said Ossoff, a Democrat, according to a report by NBC News.

“When the sitting president of the United States is selling access for what are effectively payments directly to him. There is no question that that rises to the level of an impeachable offense.”

Senator Ossoff said he “strongly” supports impeachment proceedings during a town hall in the state of Georgia, where he is running for reelection to the Senate.

The Senator added that an impeachment is unlikely unless the Democratic Party gains control of Congress during the US midterm elections in 2026. Trump’s own Republican Party currently has a majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Conflicts of interest

On April 23, the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin’s website announced plans for Trump to host an exclusive dinner at his Washington, DC golf club with the top 220 TRUMP holders.

The website subsequently posted a leaderboard tracking top TRUMP wallets and a link to register for the event. The TRUMP token’s price has gained more than 50% since the announcement, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

The specific guest list is unclear, but the memecoin’s website states that applicants must pass a background check, “can not be from a [Know Your Customer] watchlist country,” and cannot bring any additional guests.

On April 25, the team behind TRUMP denied social media rumors that TRUMP holders need at least $300,000 to participate in an upcoming dinner with the president.

“People have been incorrectly quoting #220 on the block explorer as the cutoff. That’s wrong because it includes things like locked tokens, exchanges, market makers, and those who are not participating. Instead, you should only be going off the leaderboard,” they wrote.

Law, Politics, Senate, Donald Trump, trumpcoin, Memecoin — *The TRUMP token jumped on news of the private dinner plans. Source:* *CoinMarketCap*

Legal experts told Cointelegraph that Trump’s cryptocurrency ventures, including the TRUMP memecoin and Trump-affiliated decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol World Liberty Financial, raise significant concerns about potential conflicts of interest.

“Within just a couple of days of him taking office, he’s signed a number of executive orders that are significantly going to affect the way that our crypto and digital assets industry works,” Charlyn Ho of law firm Rikka told Cointelegraph in February.

“So if he has a personal pecuniary benefit arising from his own policies, that’s a conflict of interest.”

Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions

Politics

Crypto sentiment recovers, but weekend liquidity risks remain

Published

8 hours ago

April 26, 2025

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Crypto sentiment recovers, but weekend liquidity risks remain

Crypto investor sentiment has seen a significant recovery from global tariff concerns, but analysts warn that the market’s structural weaknesses may still result in downside momentum during periods of weekend illiquidity.

Risk appetite appeared to return among crypto investors this week after US President Donald Trump adopted a softer tone, saying that import tariffs on Chinese goods may “come down substantially.”

However, the improved investor sentiment “does not guarantee that Bitcoin will avoid volatility over the weekend,” analysts from Bitfinex exchange told Cointelegraph:

“Sentiment improvements reduce fragility, but they do not eliminate structural risks like thin weekend liquidity.”

“Historically, weekends remain vulnerable to sharp moves — especially when open interest is high and market depth is low,” the analysts said, adding that unexpected macroeconomic news can still increase volatility during low liquidity periods.

Bitcoin (BTC) staged a near 11% recovery during the past week, but its rally has previously been limited by Sunday liquidity dynamics.

Bitcoin fell below $75,000 on Sunday, April 6, despite initially decoupling from the US stock market’s $3.5 trillion drop on April 4 after US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned that Trump’s tariffs may affect the economy and raise inflation.

The correction was exacerbated by the lack of weekend liquidity and the fact that Bitcoin was the only large liquid asset available for de-risking, industry watchers told Cointelegraph.

“While improved sentiment creates a more stable foundation, cryptocurrency markets are still susceptible to rapid movements during periods of reduced trading volume,” according to Marcin Kazmierczak, co-founder and chief operating officer of RedStone blockchain oracle firm.

“The sentiment recovery provides some cushioning, but traders should remain cautious as weekend liquidity constraints can still amplify price movements regardless of the current market mood,” he told Cointelegraph.

Crypto investors may have “maxed out on tariff-related fears”

Cryptocurrency markets may have priced in the full extent of tariff-related concerns, according to Aurelie Barthere, principal research analyst at crypto intelligence platform Nansen.

“It feels like we’ve maxed out on tariff-related fear,” she told Cointelegraph, adding:

“While many remain uncertain about where things are headed over the next month or so, it also seems like markets were just waiting for the slightest signal that we’re back in the game.”

“Whether the rally is sustainable depends on whether we can break through previous resistance levels, at least in isolation. It could have legs, as markets now seem to believe there’s a ‘Trump put’ under equities, the US dollar and US Treasurys,” Barthere added, warning of more potential volatility amid the upcoming negotiations.

Nansen previously predicted a 70% chance that crypto markets will bottom and start a recovery by June, but highlighted that the timing will depend on the outcome of tariff negotiations.

The tariff negotiations may only be “posturing” for the US to reach a trade agreement with China, which may be the “big prize” for Trump’s administration, according to Raoul Pal, founder and CEO of Global Macro Investor.