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
India's workers left high and dry
TONY BURKE warns that employment and environment rights clauses have been removed from the trade deal with India
LEFT UNPROTECTED: India general strike Novmber 26 2020
[IndustriALL Global Union/flickr/CC] 
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
PRIME Minister Rishi Sunak’s proposed trade deal with India will not include legally enforceable commitments on employment rights or environmental standards.
In January last year the Tory government said the British government was committed to negotiating enforceable labour and environment chapters as it laid out its strategic approach.
“We remain committed to upholding our high environmental, labour, food safety and animal welfare standards in our trade agreement with India.”
But Sunak is now going hell for leather to secure a trade deal with India before the next general election.
It appears he is prepared to dump clauses on the environment and employment rights to get deal “at any cost.”
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