TUC general secretary PAUL NOWAK speaks to the Morning Star’s Berny Torre about the increasing frustration the trade union movement feels at a government that promised change, but has been too slow to bring it about

IN the Westminster world of cross-play politics, Keir Starmer’s embrace of the corporate land bankers and construction firms is garlanded with a pledge to “back the builders, not the blockers.”
On the other side of the gangway Rishi Sunak — no less a corporate crony of big business and the banks — is a new-born partisan of the pastoral.
Responding to the wave of nimbyism that has sprung up wherever the construction monopolies take advantage of his government’s planning and housebuilding regime, the Prime Minister aims to shore up the Tory vote with a pledge to protect the green belt and slacken the housebuilding targets his government has imposed on local councils.

US tariffs have had Von der Leyen bowing in submission, while comments from the former European Central Bank leader call for more European political integration and less individual state sovereignty. All this adds up to more pain and austerity ahead, argues NICK WRIGHT

Starmer sabotaged Labour with his second referendum campaign, mobilising a liberal backlash that sincerely felt progressive ideals were at stake — but the EU was then and is now an entity Britain should have nothing to do with, explains NICK WRIGHT

Deep disillusionment with the Westminster cross-party consensus means rupture with the status quo is on the cards – bringing not only opportunities but also dangers, says NICK WRIGHT

Holding office in local government is a poisoned chalice for a party that bases its electoral appeal around issues where it has no power whatsoever, argues NICK WRIGHT