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
Nicola Sturgeon in ‘Carry On Governing’
The First Minister was undoubtedly a skilled politician, but her record is one of dismal failure, from public service cuts to flogging off our wind energy market to foreign multinationals, writes NEIL FINDLAY
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaking during a press conference at Bute House in Edinburgh where she has announced that she will stand down as First Minister of Scotland after eight years. Picture date: Wednesday February 15, 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
A FEW weeks ago I was at First Minister’s Questions with a trade union deputation. I have to say it was a pretty poor session. The atmosphere in the chamber was flat and beyond lacklustre.
I said to colleagues afterwards that Nicola Sturgeon’s body language, oratory and general demeanour were one of someone whose time had passed. She was unconvincingly going through the motions. Whilst I expected her to stand down sometime over the next 18 months her sudden resignation caught many, including me, by surprise.
In politics, governments and political leaders normally stand or fall on their record of delivery. In healthy democracies parties and leaders who make endless bad decisions, show appalling levels of incompetence, repeatedly waste public money and fail to take responsibility for their actions are usually run out of office — and deservedly so.
More from this author
From Grangemouth’s closure to Europe’s highest drug deaths, 23 per cent of children in poverty and ferries seven years late, all parties who’ve governed in the last 20 years lack vision or inspiration — we need a new way forward, writes NEIL FINDLAY
It’s easy to lose your sense of optimism amid bleak political times. NEIL FINDLAY has some suggestions for what we need to see in 2025
NEIL FINDLAY slams the shocking lack of facilities and breaks forcing drivers to risk health and endure degrading conditions following a new report from train drivers’ union Aslef
The city of Jimmy Reid, Mary McArthur and other great class fighters must not be left without trade union learning provision, says NEIL FINDLAY
