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
Edinburgh International Festival — where do we go from here?
Festival board member ANN HENDERSON reports on the opening of a cultural behemoth determined to now embrace a more social role
Cuban dancers in Bristo Square, August 7, 2023
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
THE Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) opened last weekend, with fantastic performances and an energy which was very refreshing. In her first year as festival director, Nicola Benedetti has taken as her theme from Martin Luther King Junior’s last book Where do we go from Here: Chaos or Community?
The Hub, the building at the top of the Royal Mile by Edinburgh Castle, where the staff team is based and which was traditionally a festival hub, is open to the public, with a range of free (ticketed) events and evening performances. The opening night there, on Sunday August 6, brought some of those musicians together in warm and high-spirited performances, joined at various points by Benedetti.
Benedetti also played earlier that afternoon, with the Grit Orchestra, a unique ensemble which brings together leading jazz, folk and classical musicians, played in the Ross Bandstand in Princes Street Gardens for all to hear — in collaboration with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the performance was well received.
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