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

LABOUR under Sir Keir Starmer has stalled. Where there was once a policy ferment that proved its capacity to mobilise millions, there is now a studied silence. Numbers are down — around 100,000 people have dropped their connection with the party.
Elections are exercises in human endeavour and party members know from practical experience over the last few weeks that — with local exceptions — there is nothing like the enthusiasm which transformed the 2017 general election campaign or even the sense of duty and dogged determination that drove the 2019 contest.
A mixed election result has confirmed the failure of Labour’s national leadership.

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