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London Underground (LU) has become the first public body to join the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) - an alliance of retailers, unions and charities committed to improving workers’ conditions in supplier factories. LU issues about 300,000 items of uniform a year to its 12,000 staff, much of it made in the Far East and Eastern Europe. Companies supplying LU clothing will now have to demonstrate their efforts towards complying with a set of stringent standards covering health and safety, wages, discrimination and other labour issues. It remains to be seen whether other public bodies will sign up following this announcement. Ethical Trading Initiative

With the news of the imminent arrival, I though it best to get researching on the rather massive area of all things baby related. To my dismay, I’ve discovered that most of the main toy brands have a rather dark side and I’m faced with the ethical dilemma of buying toys for my child that may well have caused distress to someone else’s family. What is clear is that it is very difficult to find ethical toys on the high street and avoid potentially risky chemicals found in plastics. According to a report by Ethical Consumer, 'sweatshop' labour is still a stark reality in toy factories. "Although most companies we investigated have signed up to support industry standards, when it comes to their factories, these standards just aren't strict enough. Most companies allow staff to work in excess of 60 hours per week, something that we at Ethical Consumer find unacceptable. Their supply chain codes of conduct also make little provision for ensuring workers earn a 'living wa...

News from a few film buff friends of mine in Australia of two good documentaries viewed at Melbourne Film Festival. Our Daily Bread is a film that enters the lurid world of industrial food production and high-tech farming. Not for the faint-hearted apparently, as about a third of the audience walked out. Bound to send ripples through the industry once it gets released at the London Film Festival this September. View Our Daily Bread website here Workingman's Death explores heavy manual labour in the 21st century - down illegal mines in the Ukraine, among the sulfur workers in Indonesia, with lions at a slaughterhouse in Nigeria, ship breaking yards in Pakistan, and Chinese steel workers. Looks like amazing cinematography. View Workingman's Death website here

McDonald's has agreed to stop buying chicken fed on soya grown in deforested areas of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. So what's so bad about soya? Soya farming is chewing up the Amazon rainforest at unprecedented rates as huge areas are cleared to make way for massive monoculture plantations. The impact is huge, not only on the plants and animals that make up the forest itself but also on the communities that live there. From an illegal port built in the heart of the Amazon by agribusiness giant Cargill to handle the vast quantities of soya being shipped out from the region, soya exported by Cargill goes directly to Europe to feed the chickens found in fast food retailers like McDonald's and supermarkets across Europe. A campaign by Greenpeace has been so successful that not only have McDonald's made their own pledge, but with the help of Greenpeace, they've been instrumental in getting other food companies and supermarkets, such as Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury...

Returned to one of my favourite city haunts - Barcelona. Great to see the space invaders are still popping up in unexpected corners. Anyone up for invading Norwich?

Anna Mudeka Back to work after a seriously chilled out weekend at Drum Camp, a small-scale WOMAD in Bungay, Suffolk. The festival was a refreshing change from the usual frenzied affairs; intimate workshops with world-class musicians such as Modou Diouf and Nansady Keita and a truly eclectic mix of evening performances at the Main Stage, from flamenco to bhangra with can-can dancers in between! As I don't have a musical bone in my body I planned to simply soak up the vibe and enjoy the live music. But the constant drum beats were infectious and it's almost impossible not to pick up one of the many varieties of drums lying around and join in. So I decided to attend an Indian Dhol workshop with the Dhol Foundation and attempt to learn some bhangra rhythms. The Dhol is a traditional North Indian instrument made from a large wooden shell. It has two skins on either side which are made from goat hide. Rope is then woven through the edge of both the skins and they are tensioned to pr...

I spent many an hour in this nook of Bedales library poring over texts of Zola and Beckett. I used to love staring out onto the apple orchard dreaming of becoming a famous writer and having my book placed in this section. Sadly nowhere near that goal yet but at least my name may crop up from time to time in their new magazine section! Returning here after 10 years made me realise that very little changes in this space of time. The library smells exactly as it did, the globe still glows and the teachers remain timeless masterpieces. So I guess there's plenty more time to write that chef d'oeuvre; the 25 year reunion should be about right.