To rescue Kahlo from the clutches of the corporate art market, we need to acknowledge the overt and covert political dimensions of the work, demands GAVIN O’TOOLE
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Billions in profit, millions in need
GLYN ROBBINS recommends an exposé of how speculative property investment is destroying access to public-sector housing
BUILDING INEQUALITY: The big 10 housebuilders generated 30 per cent of new homes in Britain in 2018
If you can see past the relentless commodification you will be rewarded by enormously powerful work, suggests JENNY MITCHELL
CHRIS SEARLE revels in the one-off collaboration between an American polymath and a British Muslim, and detects the presence of their revolutionary forebear
GORDON PARSONS revels in an ebullient production of Shakespeare’s magical comedy
BRENT CUTLER welcomes a thoughtful analysis of the Erdogan regime, viewed through the evolving history of a neighbourhood in Istanbul
GORDON PARSONS regrets the price, but is dazzled by an outstandingly ambitious study of the way art restoration in particular, and culture in general was weaponised by the Nazis
The Property Lobby: The Hidden Reality Behind the Housing Crisis
by Bob Colenutt
Policy Press, £13.59
IN 1975, Bob Colenutt and the late Peter Ambrose — a staunch ally of the Defend Council Housing campaign — wrote a brilliant little book, The Property Machine. It was one of the first attempts to describe the dynamics of the corporate development industry, a subject that remains shrouded in commercial confidentiality and PR spin.
In the 45 years since, that machine has become a monster, dominating the economies and urban landscapes of global capitalism. But the forces that have allowed speculative property investment to steam-roller working-class communities around the world are still not widely understood.
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SYLVIA HIKINS welcomes a survey of successful contemporary worker co-operatives and economy-based co-operative systems
Building is the solution for much of our housing crisis – and will also help to address poverty, ill health, and even anti-social behaviour and alienation, writes KENNY MacASKILL
CAROL WILCOX argues for the proper implementation of the land value tax, which could see unused plots sold off and landlords priced out of landlordism, potentially resolving the housing and planning crises
