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
The great fightback against austerity has begun
So much more is at stake in the rail workers’ dispute than the livelihoods of the RMT's 80,000 members — we may well be witnessing the struggle that will end not only this government, but the austerity era itself, writes DIANE ABBOTT MP
Members of the RMT picket at the entrance to Waverley Station in Edinburgh
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
AS THE late, great Bob Crow said: “If you fight you won’t always win. But if you don’t fight you will always lose.” Now, as current RMT general secretary Mick Lynch points out, his members accepted a wage freeze three years ago and two years ago but when they were offered zero again this year, plus far worse terms and conditions they decided enough was enough.
This sums up the experience of most workers not just over three years but ever since austerity was introduced by the Tory-led coalition in 2010. People’s budgets and their patience has been stretched to breaking point. Many just refuse to shoulder the financial burden of a crisis they did not create.
The same is true for millions of workers in the public sector including NHS workers and teachers but is also true of other transport workers and millions in the private sector. They simply cannot tolerate further attacks on their living standards.
More from this author
Our Foreign Secretary now condemns Israel in the Commons, yet Britain still supplies weapons and intelligence for its bombing campaigns — as the horror reaches perhaps the final stage, action must finally replace words, writes DIANE ABBOTT MP
The BBC and OBR claim that failing to cut disability benefits could ‘destabilise the economy’ while ignoring the spendthrift approach to tens of billions on military spending that really spirals out of control, argues DIANE ABBOTT MP
Europe is acquiescing in Trump’s manoeuvrings — where Europe takes over the US forever war in Ukraine while Washington gets ready for a future fight with China. And it’s working people who will be left paying the price, says DIANE ABBOTT MP
DIANE ABBOTT MP argues that Labour’s proposals contained in the recent white paper won’t actually bring down immigration numbers or win support from Reform voters — but they will succeed in making politics more nasty and poisonous
