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

AS THE left quit a meeting of Labour’s NEC over Starmer’s continuing purge we are reminded that left-right divisions in the working-class movement have a long history.
Matteo Renzi — the former leader of Italy’s Democratic Party (PD) and inspiration for a right-wing faction that split from it earlier this year — gave us last weekend an illuminating insight into the thinking of right-wing “social democrats” today.
To all round incredulity he tweeted: “In 2021 we will celebrate the anniversary of the Livorno split with a great event for many young people, where I will invite Tony Blair. Because the left is either reformist or loses and Joe Biden’s victory proves it.”

Holding office in local government is a poisoned chalice for a party that bases its electoral appeal around issues where it has no power whatsoever, argues NICK WRIGHT

From Gaza complicity to welfare cuts chaos, Starmer’s baggage accumulates, and voters will indeed find ‘somewhere else’ to go — to the Greens, nationalists, Lib Dems, Reform UK or a new, working-class left party, writes NICK WRIGHT

There is no doubt that Trump’s regime is a right-wing one, but the clash between the state apparatus and the national and local government is a good example of what any future left-wing formation will face here in Britain, writes NICK WRIGHT

European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde sees Trump’s many disruptions as an opportunity to challenge the dollar’s ‘exorbitant privilege’ — but greater Euro assertiveness will also mean greater warmongering and militarism, warns NICK WRIGHT