Rima Amin

Freelance journalist

I understand why people are angry by the woman who favoured functional inequalities and believed it to be a necessity for a dynamic economy as she cared little for those consequently suffering.

Adrian Ash

Head of research at BullionVault

Whatever your view of Margaret Thatcher and her legacy, she was a sure friend of gold. Long before she abolished exchange controls in 1979, she had barked against the Gold Coins Order of 1966 in Parliament, calling it "the final indignity" of the then-Labour government's economic mismanagement.

Sara Sheridan

Historical novelist and self-confessed swot

She was horribly, horribly right wing and I find it difficult to forgive her that. Despite believing in the policies she implemented (the woman really thought she was doing good) I look at the society we have today and I can see the scars her policies left behind. Enormous social immobility and a lack of political empathy.

Frances O’Grady

TUC General Secretary

On Saturday morning, I'm meeting Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the Greek Opposition and head of the left-wing Syriza coalition. We will be talking about the spectre that's haunting Europe: austerity. It may seem that Britain and Greece - at almost opposite ends of Europe - have little in common. In fact, we have lots in common, and lots to discuss.

Mark Serwotka

General secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union

It is clear that austerity isn't working, and it is clear that making it easier to sack people and harder for disabled people to live independently, is no kind of cure for our sick economy. Instead of these policies of despair and division we need investment in our economy and our public services to create jobs and opportunities to help our communities, and to support people who need it.

Mark Serwotka

General secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union

While these low turnouts will be debated and analysed, one thing is clear: they should sound the death knell for the ludicrously shrill cries from some quarters of the Tory party and their supporters for greater restrictions on trade union ballots.

Lucy Bone

Barrister at Littleton Chambers, Leading Specialist in Employment Law

My prediction is that many employers, especially smaller firms, will see the Employee/Owner contract as bringing little marginal benefit. They will prefer to avoid another swathe of administrative cost and stick with the risks they know.

Endeavour Press

London-based digital publisher

It may not have escaped your attention that there's a new and very different version of Windows due out in October. Whilst Vista was XP in smart suit and Windows 7 was Vista that worked properly they didn't make major changes to the day-to-day experience. Windows 8 does, and how.

Mark Serwotka

General secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union

When the shadow chancellor Ed Balls spoke at the TUC annual congress earlier this month the loudest cheer came when he was challenged over Labour's disastrous backing of the government's public sector pay freeze.

Owen Tudor

Head of the European Union and International Relations Department at the Trades Union Congress (TUC)

There's in paradise. The military regime that currently runs the small South Pacific island of Fiji this week added to its pariah status by 'asking' a delegation from the UN's workplace agency (the International Labour Organisation, or ILO) to leave the country.

Adam McGibbon

Activist, environmentalist, "domestic extremist"

It seems that the brief resurgence of student activism has disappeared as soon as it arrived. While the Northern Ireland Education Maintenance Allowance and nursing bursaries are slashed away, we hear absolutely nothing from the students' unions and just words from NUS-USI.

Mark Serwotka

General secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union

Yesterday when we announced that border officials, passport workers and other Home Office staff had decided to strike on the day before the Olympics opening ceremony, ministers went into overdrive.

Tom Wadsworth

Senior Consultant, Fishburn Hedges

History, we are told, is always repeating itself - and it feels to me like we're currently in an early '80s-lite period, at least in politics.

Tiernan Douieb

Beverage heretic. Nighttime maverick. Action calligrapher. Comedian. Loser.

The public sector, in my opinion is the most important of all the job areas in the UK, for they are the people employed to maintain some sense of order and safety amongst all us everyday loons who fart about on a daily basis landing ourselves in all sorts of mishaps.

Peter Watson

Managing Partner of Simpson Millar LLP

I am not a particular fan of the upper house in Parliament, being as it is populated by unelected peers, 70% of which have a party affiliation and thus take the whip in most cases. Nevertheless, when it is they upon whom we must rely for a sensible approach to legal reform, I wonder what on earth we did to deserve this situation.

Mags Waterhouse and Bev Clack

Vice Chair of Labour Left, a political think-tank that was formed in 2011

Labour lost 16 million votes in the 2010 general election. There are local elections in just under one month's time. This is Labour's opportunity to show people that we are on their side, that we share their struggles and their fears. Too many people feel ignored by the political class.