RAMZY BAROUD on how Israel’s narrative collides with military failure
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Broadband supply: public money for private ineptitude
The Tories screwed up the energy market by artificially boosting phoney competition with lots of little firms that went bust and had to be bailed out — incredibly, they are now doing the same for broadband, reports SOLOMON HUGHES
Broadband installation has tended to favour wealthier urban areas
ROGER McKENZIE explains how Ibrahim Traore has sparked the flames of hope across Africa, while the Western powers seek to extinguish all attempts to build true sovereignty in the long-exploited continent
DANIEL GOVER considers the procedural complexities awaiting a Private Member’s Bill in its passage through Commons and Lords
JAMIE TUCKNUTT reports on an initiative that brings together two epochs of the city’s anti-fascist struggles
Just as German Social Democrats joined the Nazis in singing Deutschland Uber Alles, ANDREW MURRAY observes how Starmer tries to out-Farage Farage with anti-migrant policies — but evidence shows Reform voters come from Tories, not Labour, making this ploy morally bankrupt and politically pointless
KEITH FLETT traces how the ‘world’s most successful political party’ has imploded since Thatcher’s fall, from nine leaders in 30 years to losing all 16 English councils, with Reform UK symbolically capturing Peel’s birthplace, Tamworth — but the beast is not dead yet
With turnout plummeting and faith in Parliament collapsing, BERT SCHOUWENBURG explains how radical local government reform — including devolved taxation and removal of party politics from town halls — could restore power to communities currently ignored by profit-obsessed MPs
WHEN big corporations supplying critical services exploit their dominant positions, there are two common solutions: from the left, public ownership, and from the centre and right, “more competition.”
The “more competition” plan was tested in energy supply: instead of bringing lower prices and more choice, “more competition” just let a load of spivs cash in while the public was left with a £6 billion-plus bill. Now it looks like the same might be happening in broadband supply.
In energy, the government and the regulator Ofgem were under pressure over the behaviour of the big six energy suppliers. Many felt the top energy firms used their dominance to overcharge customers and generally treat them badly.
More from this author
Labour’s pop-loving front bench have snaffled up even more music tickets worth thousands apiece, reports SOLOMON HUGHES
Secret consultation documents finally released after the Morning Star’s two-year freedom of information battle show the Home Office misrepresented public opinion, claiming support for policies that most respondents actually strongly criticised as dangerous and unfair, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
SOLOMON HUGHES highlights a 1995 Sunday Times story about the disappearance of ‘defecting Iraqi nuclear scientist.’ Even though the story was debunked, it was widely repeated across the mainstream press, creating the false – and deadly – narrative of Iraqi WMD that eventually led to war
Despite Labour’s promises to bring things ‘in-house,’ the Justice Secretary has awarded notorious outsourcing outfit Mitie a £329 million contract to run a new prison — despite its track record of abuse and neglect in its migrant facilities, reports SOLOMON HUGHES
