The Milburn review presents itself as a plan to help young people into work, but Dr DYLAN MURPHY argues it is laying the groundwork for a harsher benefits regime
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Off colour: Spanish journalism’s ‘black Wednesdays’
International Federation of Journalists communications officer NATALIA QUERALT PINAS explains how an all-black ‘wardrobe protest’ has boosted Spanish journalists’ pay
El Pais journalists dressed all in black for their pay protest
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Peter Murrell’s weakness for the allure of prestige goods is symptomatic of modern consumer culture, says MATT KERR
STAND outside the offices where the Spanish national newspaper El Pais is published on any Wednesday morning in the past few months, and you might imagine that the staff are in mourning.
Despite the sunshine, they are all wearing black. Across Madrid, at the home of El Mundo, a similar scene could be observed. Indeed, at many newspapers all over Spain, journalists have been reporting for work on Wednesdays wearing black from head to toe for some months.
It is part of a nationwide protest against terrible pay in the media, which appears to have rattled bosses. In July, management at El Pais agreed to a progressive 8 per cent raise until 2025, with a staggered increase according to the different categories of journalists, after a 12-year wage freeze.
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