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
Boycotts have a long history — and the Tories never like them
Boycotts are one of the oldest forms of working-class collective pressure on employers, hitting their profits in sales rather than the workplace. No wonder the party of business hates them, writes KEITH FLETT
Bishops, among the leaders of a peaceful anti-apartheid demonstration, are seen heading the 2000 marchers from Twickenham Station to the Rugby ground, before the start of the England v South Africa match in December 1969
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
DR DYLAN MURPHY looks at a Big Brother Watch report which exposes the government as an enabler of DWP secret spying on benefit claimants
The EU faces a critical choice: will it remain in the shadow of an increasingly unreliable US ally, or will it forge its own path in a multilateral world where co-operation with China is essential, asks MARC VANDEPITTE as leaders meet for the EU-China Summit
A lot of discussion about how the left should currently organise – including debate on whether the Green Party is a useful vehicle for advance – runs the risk of refusing to engage with or learn from the reasons the left was defeated previously, argues KEVIN OVENDEN
For Egypt trade trumps the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, but how long can the country’s ‘misleaders’ – and others in the region – continue their indifference against the popular will of their own people, asks ROGER McKENZIE
A PIECE of legislation designed to prevent public bodies, including local authorities, from steering clear of investments in countries whose human rights records they disagree with is before Parliament.
On July 3 only 10 MPs voted against it, with many abstaining. Backers included the legislation’s sponsor Michael Gove and the parliamentary frontman for Labour Friends of Israel Steve McCabe.
The target of the legislation is not, as might be supposed, Russia — but Israel. There is a significant boycott, divestment and sanction (BDS) movement that focuses on the activities of the Israeli government, which is currently of a hard to far-right political nature. Military intervention in Jenin, part of an area Israel occupies, underlines the reality of that government’s activities.
Meanwhile the government of course is officially boycotting Russia over the war with Ukraine. There clearly remain links, however, between the Tories the Russian government and business people.
More from this author
KEITH FLETT looks at the long history of coercion in British employment laws
The government cracking down on something it can’t comprehend and doesn’t want to engage with is a repeating pattern of history, says KEITH FLETT
While Hardie, MacDonald and Wilson faced down war pressure from their own Establishment, today’s leadership appears to have forgotten that opposing imperial adventures has historically defined Labour’s moral authority, writes KEITH FLETT
10 years ago this month, Corbyn saved Labour from its right-wing problem, and then the party machine turned on him. But all is not lost yet for the left, says KEITH FLETT
