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
Glasgow’s visitor levy is a start – but what next?
While the council can generate much-needed income with this new charge, making the city sustainable and affordable for its all-important workers needs a wider approach that’s not just focused on tourism, writes IAN MacCORQUODALE
Bath Street in Glasgow
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
GLASGOW is struggling, public services have been repeatedly cut back, there are thousands left stuck on social housing lists and we have a public transport system that only makes sense to the profiteering shareholders of the private companies that have been allowed to run it.
But right now the council is consulting on introducing a visitor levy across the city that has the potential to generate much needed cash for our city’s struggling services. The only problem? They want to put the money back into tourism.
For most workers and tenants Glasgow is no longer an affordable place to live. Since 2010 private rent has increased 30 points above inflation while workers’ wages have stagnated. As a result thousands are considering having to move out of the neighbourhoods and communities they call home, often having to move away from family, friends and established caring and support networks.
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Our housing crisis isn’t an accident – it’s class war, trapping millions in poverty while landlords and billionaires profit. To solve it, we need comprehensive transformation, not mere tokenistic reform, writes BECK ROBERTSON
Rough sleeping in England rises in a year with record numbers of children crammed into B&Bs
A new Bill seeks to prevent price-gouging landlords evicting tenants under dubious grounds only to hike up the rent for the next tenant. Living Rent is campaigning hard to make sure this provision becomes law, writes ADITI JEHANGIR
After sustained campaigning by Living Rent, Edinburgh council is to introduce a visitor levy, with some of the money raised going towards council housing in the capital – a welcome step in a city under great pressure from an ever-expanding tourist industry, says KATHARINA BANDMANN