UNISON members at Ash Field Academy, a SEND school in Evington, Leicester, have voted overwhelmingly to take strike action to demand the reinstatement of their elected representative, Tom Barker.

In a formal industrial action ballot which closed on 18 March, 87% of voting members supported strike action. This is due to the suspension of Barker, their workplace steward, who has been suspended since October 2025, and the attack this represents on their trade union rights. The turnout easily cleared the legal 50% participation threshold.

For more than four months, UNISON’s Leicester City branch has been campaigning for Barker’s reinstatement. Discovery Schools Academy Trust (DSAT), the multi-academy trust which runs the school, claims it’s still investigating his case. Although DSAT has changed the allegations it claims to be investigating since the initial suspension.

More than 400 trade unionists, including UNISON’s new general secretary Andrea Egan and MP Zarah Sultana, have signed an open letter demanding Barker’s reinstatement.

Background to Barker’s suspension

During the 2024/25 academic year, UNISON, which represents the vast majority of Ash Field’s support staff, repeatedly raised concerns relating to health and safety. This situation worsened when DSAT, despite UNISON’s strenuous objections, cut several further staff via a hugely rushed redundancy process. UNISON members voted for strike action over the staffing situation, with that ballot closing on 20 October 2025.

On 30 October, DSAT leaders suspended Barker from his duties, citing allegations against him. Originally they said that the suspension was due to an incident that allegedly took place on 29 October. However, Barker obtained emails via a Subject Access Request. And these showed that, as far back as December, the independent investigating officer had reported that there was no case to answer and recommended lifting the suspension. But DSAT failed to act on this.

Many UNISON members at Ash Field signed a statement describing his suspension as “a bad-faith attack on…. UNISON members” and a “reprisal for [members] voting for industrial action”.

On 12 January 2026, DSAT leaders asserted that Barker’s suspension was to protect the integrity of an investigation into a grievance. This investigation concluded in February, yet DSAT didn’t reinstate Barker.

The external investigators into the two previous allegations found no case to answer. But the trust has since appointed a new investigator from a separate organisation to investigate again. And Barker, after 4 months out of work, has been resuspended.

UNISON Leicester City continues to call for Barker’s reinstatement, and for DSAT to cease this union-busting activity. Sam Randfield, UNISON Leicester City’s branch secretary, stated at a public meeting in February:

It was clear at the time of the suspension, and it is even clearer today, that this was an act of bad faith towards UNISON and Tom himself. The case against Tom is practically non-existent. There is no reason to keep him suspended for this long.

What has happened to Tom is appalling, and is as clear a case of trade union victimisation as I have ever seen. In voting for strike action so overwhelmingly, our members have made a clear statement that they will not tolerate union-busting in their workplace.

There is a quick and easy way for DSAT to end this dispute and avoid strike action. They simply need to lift Tom’s suspension and reinstate him to duty. That is the one and only demand our members are making.

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Featured image via the Canary

The Save Bristol Gardens Alliance gathered to protest outside Acorn Property Group’s offices in Clifton on 25 March.

Ever since the closure of Bristol Zoo in September 2022, campaigners have been opposing the site’s planned redevelopment.

The Alliance wants see the gardens preserved as “a site of huge cultural, historical and environmental importance with many listed buildings.”

Acorn Property Group

Although the sale of the former Bristol Zoo has not yet gone through, Acorn have nonetheless started clearing bushes and felling trees.

Campaigners are concerned about Acorn’s track record, and have written to the Bristol Zoological Society (BZS) repeatedly to raise their objections.

A spokesperson for Save Bristol Gardens Alliance said:

Acorn Property Group is a wholly unsuitable developer for the Zoo Gardens site, and it seems clear that BZS Trustees have failed to complete independent due diligence on Acorn.

Our concerns relate directly to the reputation, financial resilience, track record, and funding model of Acorn, as well as to the likelihood of Acorn not delivering on its agreement with BZS, the development itself or indeed any of the so-called ‘public benefits’.

Given the site’s importance to the local area, campaigners are also disappointed in the lack of transparency surrounding the planned redevelopment. The spokesperson continued:

Trustees are required to demonstrate that they have properly scrutinised risk, applied independent judgement and operated transparently – particularly in relation to decisions of this scale and sensitivity.

Given the significance of the decision and the level of public interest the people of Bristol are entitled to expect transparent decision making. It is not enough just to delegate due diligence to Savills, who of course act for Acorn in respect of a number of other developments.

So far, the Society “have declined to answer a single point” the Alliance has raised. They are now urging the BZS “to address these concerns fully and transparently before any contractual commitment is completed.”

They argue that the BZS “risks making a reckless decision, which could be catastrophic for trustee reputations, BZS’s reputation and, of course, for a treasured part of Bristol’s heritage.”

More protests to come

The protest on 25 March was the third – and largest – protest to take place outside Acorn’s offices in recent weeks. 50 members of the Save Bristol Gardens Alliance first gathered there on 11 March.

The Alliance plans to keep demonstrating outside Acorn’s offices, meeting every Wednesday at 12:30.

A newly discovered documentary film provides an extraordinary first-hand account of the General Strike of 1926. And it shows how close many of the strikers thought it brought them to a revolution.

This historic documentary, The General Strike – A Revolution Betrayed?, made in the early 1970s, was unearthed in the archive of radical filmmaker Platform Films.

Norman Thomas of Platform Films says that the power of the 70 minute film lies in its extensive use of first hand testimony of strikers and strikers’ relatives.

Thomas said:

This is the General Strike of 1926 as told by the people who actually lived through it. The film vividly illustrates how the strike was opposed by the full force of the British establishment but how close the strikers felt they came to success.

He added:

Many strikers believed they were on the verge of a revolution – a revolution that only failed because they were betrayed by union leaders.

It’s been a hundred years since workers across the country come out in support of over a million miners locked out of work for refusing to accept lower pay. Thomas claims the film contains vital lessons for present day trade unionists.

He said:

The film highlights the importance of rank and file solidarity across industries, highly disciplined grassroots organisation – and a deep distrust of union leaders!

The film also provides a unique insight into the human impact of the General Strike – an aspect, Thomas argues, that’s had too little coverage.

He said:

The film shows how people came out of the strike devastated. Whole communities were in pieces. The failure of the strike was a hugely traumatic event.

And Thomas added:

Watching the film, you get a real sense of how close the strike came to success. If it had succeeded, the strike would have undoubtedly changed the course of British history.

Award-winning radical filmmaker Platform Films has made the documentary available for screenings and viewings. You can get a copy of the film on memory stick, DVD or via an online link. The cost to institutions, including trades union councils, is £60. For individuals and union branches the cost is £20. There is no additional charge for screening the film publicly but donations are welcome. Email [email protected] for more details.

Watch a trailer of the film on YouTube.

Featured image via Platform Films

British Medical Association (BMA) staff have set further strike dates for Monday 6 and Tuesday 7 April. These will coincide with the start of the six-day resident doctors’ strike on 7 April.

The first round of BMA strikes kicks off this week, on Friday 27 and Saturday 28 March.

Like the resident doctors, BMA staff are in dispute with their employer over years of sub-inflationary pay awards, which have seen staff pay eroded by almost 17%.

The BMA’s most recent pay offer to its staff of 2.75% is lower than the latest doctors’ and dentists’ pay review body recommendation of 3.5% to resident doctors. The BMA described that as a “crushing blow” to doctors.

Hundreds of staff, who are represented by GMB Union, recently voted 96% to strike on an 80% turnout.

Many doctor BMA members have shared public messages of solidarity with the staff.

Gavin Davies, GMB senior organiser, said:

These strikes have laid bare the BMA’s ongoing hypocrisy. Our members want to focus on doing what they do best: supporting their members at work.

But just like the resident doctors they support, they cannot continue to accept another year of pay erosion while the cost of living continues to spiral.

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We are urging the BMA to come back to the table with a constructive offer that recognises our members’ value.

Picket details for BMA staff strikes on Friday 27 March:

• London 8am-2pm: BMA House, Tavistock Square, London, WC1H 9JP.
• Belfast 11am: BMA Northern Ireland, Urban HQ, Eagle Star House, 5-7 Upper Queen Street, Belfast, BT1 6FB.
• Cardiff 10am-12pm: BMA Cymru Wales, 2 Caspian Point, Caspian Way, Cardiff Bay, Cardiff, CF10 4DQ.
• Edinburgh 10.30am-12pm: BMA Scotland, 14 Queen Street, Edinburgh EH2 1LL.

Featured image via the Canary

The executives behind 5’s new drama about Huw Edwards have opened up about the show’s surreal final moments.

Power: The Downfall Of Huw Edwards aired on Tuesday night, starring Martin Clunes as the disgraced former BBC News presenter.

While the feature-length drama opened with a recreation of Edwards announcing the news of Queen Elizabeth II’s death to the nation, in what was intended to serve as a reminder of the position of authority he held before he became embroiled in scandal, it ended with an imagined news broadcast featuring him reporting on his own fall from grace.

On Tuesday, Variety published an interview with 5 commissioners Guy Davies in which they reflected on how these book-end scenes came to be.

Testar said the opening sequence highlighted that “there is no more trusted emblem of the establishment in our society than the person who’s given the responsibility of telling the public that the Queen had died”.

Davies agreed: “[Edwards was] incredibly trusted by the public, and in a way, that trust became a bit of a metaphor in the film, because that’s also about power and the abuse of power. And that’s why I think it’s such an interesting story…”

Testar said that the idea for the final scene wasn’t in “the very first draft” but arose “pretty early on” in the creative process.

“It felt like a very important thing to end the story on, to remind the audience what the scale and detail of Edward’s crimes were,” he claimed, with Davies adding: “And being, you know, finally accountable to the public in the medium which he worked in.”