There have been penalties for those who looked the other way when Epstein was convicted of child sex offences and decided to maintain relationships with the financier — but not for the British ambassador to Washington, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES

THE Tory government decided to push the self-destruct button right in the middle of its own conference. Normally guaranteed to be the showcase that gets them good headlines, instead Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng engineered a financial crisis before the conference and crowned this with an embarrassing U-turn in the middle of their showcase event.
To get a sense why, I went to a Tory conference fringe meeting organised by the Thatcherite Centre for Policy Studies titled “What would Maggie do.” The short answer for how the Tories screwed themselves is that a life-size cardboard cut-out of Thatcher was put on the platform, as if this lifeless icon could join the debate.
The real-life Thatcher was a tactical fighter for their side, who by a mix of force and guile transferred money and power from working people to big business and the rich. Unable to repeat the trick, the Tories have settled for a cardboard imitation, which is rigid, thin and doesn’t work.

Labour’s new Treasury unit will ‘challenge unnecessary regulation’ by forcing nominally independent bodies like Ofwat to bend to business demands — exactly what Iain Anderson’s corporate clients wanted, writes SOLOMON HUGHES

There have been penalties for those who looked the other way when Epstein was convicted of child sex offences and decided to maintain relationships with the financier — but not for the British ambassador to Washington, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES

US General Stanley McChrystal has been invited to advise on creating a ‘team of teams’ for healthcare transformation. His credentials? He previously ran interrogation bases where Iraqis were stripped naked and beaten, reports SOLOMON HUGHES