TUC general secretary PAUL NOWAK speaks to the Morning Star’s Berny Torre about the increasing frustration the trade union movement feels at a government that promised change, but has been too slow to bring it about

IT IS A cliche, or perhaps a truism, of British parliamentary politics that in the “first-past-the-post” parliamentary electoral system, the odds are stacked against independent candidates and even against the smaller political parties.
The Greens, despite having a solid voter base and receiving more than a million votes in 2015, have only had Caroline Lucas in the House of Commons.
That view was borne out for decades. From the abolition of university constituencies in 1950 to the end of the 20th century, the only MP elected as an independent was former war correspondent Martin Bell, who became MP for Tatton after declaring his candidacy only 24 days before the 1997 general election.

CLAUDIA WEBBE says a UN agency’s finding that Gaza’s famine, killing up to 400 people a day, is entirely man-made must prompt a renewed revolt against our government’s complicity in this horror

Starmer’s decision to suspend Diane Abbott yet again demonstrates a determination to maintain and propagate a hierarchy of racism, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE

The New York mayoral candidate has electrified the US public with policies of social justice and his refusal to be cowed. We can follow his example here, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE

Israel’s monopolisation of ‘aid’ to slaughter Palestinians means there is no other option: direct international intervention now, says CLAUDIA WEBBE