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
It will be up to us to protect pensioners and the triple lock
The vast gap between Britain’s pensions and those of other comparable nations shows that low pensions are a political choice, not an economic necessity — and now the Tories are attacking what remains, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE MP
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 “triple lock” on pensions is all that is left after 12 years of a disastrous Conservative government — and even that is now under threat. In a society where millions are routinely and knowingly condemned to poverty, hunger and misery by Conservative policies, the hope of some stability in retirement was one of the few lights at the end of a very long and very dimly lit tunnel.
The government, with an obliging mainstream media and numerous think tanks, has exerted significant energies into warning us that with annual Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation running at 10.1 per cent, a 40-year high, adhering to the triple lock would prove hugely expensive.
Economists have warned that further figures to be released this week will show that inflation accelerated to 10.8 per cent in October. Those who are briefing the media have argued that an estimated £5 billion more, based on current inflation estimates, in the next tax year would be required than if the average earnings figure were used instead.
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