VIJAY PRASHAD looks at the web of militias and drug-trafficking gangs that emerged in the Sweida region through the Syrian civil war, and how they relate to recent clashes and Israel’s intervention
Latest editorial
Halfon’s ‘white privilege’ dead cat has been eviscerated by the Social Mobility Commission
SOLOMON HUGHES welcomes a thorough deconstruction of the Tory bid to blame anti-racists for working-class underachievement
Robert Halfon
by Roger D Harris and John Perry
VINCE MILLS says Scottish Labour has adopted better positions than its Westminster counterpart — but unless it starts to fight for them that will count for nothing
Labour MSP CAROL MOCHAN calls for Britain to follow France’s lead and recognise the Palestinian state as part of efforts to end this war
A Chilean court ruled that funds were illegally taken by the dictator to accumulate family wealth that is now disputed among his heirs, writes PABLO MERIGUET
The shock suspension of socialist MPs and Diane Abbott’s re-suspension reveals a leadership intent on crushing internal debate — but MERCEDES VILLALBA MSP warns against surrendering party democracy without a fight
THE government’s own Social Mobility Commission has attacked Tory MP Robert Halfon’s attempt to say the reason poor white kids do poorly at school is because teachers care too much about black and Asian kids.
Halfon’s education select committee issued a report this June about poor school performance of white pupils who get free school meals: this is a very real problem as poor kids, especially in small towns, have been neglected, and don’t do well at school.
Thanks largely to previous Labour governments, some efforts to improve school performance of the poorest kids has paid off in London and other big cities. But less well-off kids in towns and smaller cities – often poor white kids – still do very badly.
More from this author
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
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
US General Stanley McChrystal has been invited to advise on creating a ‘team of teams’ for healthcare transformation. His credentials? He previously ran interrogation bases where Iraqis were stripped naked and beaten, reports SOLOMON HUGHES
