Mask-off outbursts by Maga insiders and most strikingly, the destruction and reconstruction of the presidential seat, with a huge new $300m ballroom, means Trump isn’t planning to leave the White House when his term ends, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
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Local elections were a disaster for the Tories – and bad news for Labour
After 14 years of Tory rule there's little enthusiasm for Starmer and his menu of reheated Thatcherism, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak greets supporters in Teesside celebrating Lord Ben Houchen's re-election as Tees Valley Mayor, May 3, 2024
BEN CHACKO speaks with Knesset member OFER CASSIF about rising political violence, the prospects for peace and his continuous ‘silencing by suspension’
The City is leaning on Rachel Reeves to cut welfare spending — when what’s needed is cuts to all the benefits given to the mega rich, corporations and banks to help them not pay or blatantly dodge their fair share of tax, explains BERNIE EVANS
The choice between two Blairites to revamp the tepid centrism of our ruling party doesn’t even come as cold comfort as we wander the city streets suffering from their third decade of austerity and the fifth of wage stagnation, writes MATT KERR
ANN HENDERSON looks at the trailblazers of the Women’s Trade Union League and their successful fight for female factory inspectors — a battle that echoes in today’s workplace campaigns
HENRY FOWLER puts the strike of public-sector workers in New Zealand in the wider context of deteriorating employment conditions throughout the world’s major economies
MAT COWARD looks back at a protest 105 years ago this month, whose reporting by the media bears uncomfortable similarities with demos today
LAST WEEK’S local election results were widely and rightly portrayed as a disaster for the Conservatives and a sign that Britain is desperate for change.
Rishi Sunak’s party lost more than half the seats it was trying to hold, along with a slew of councils and mayoral contests — and lost heavily even in mayoral contests it managed to defend, such as Tees Valley. But in fact, the Tories only went backward slightly in terms of overall vote share compared to their already-poor performance, with “national equivalent vote” predictions putting the Tories on 27 per cent.
But while the results showed clearly that British voters want change, there was no landslide to Labour. While Keir Starmer’s party picked up seats, according to political scientist John Curtice, the party went backwards compared to a year ago and recent polling giving Labour as much as 47 per cent of the Westminster vote turned into a projected 34 per cent when voters went to the actual ballot box, just 7 per cent ahead of the Tories. On the equivalent measure, Tony Blair’s Labour was more than 20 points ahead of the Tories in 1995, before the 1997 general election landslide.
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With Reform UK surging and Labour determined not to offer anything different from the status quo, a clear opportunity opens for the left, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE
JOE GILL looks at research on the reasons people voted as they did last week and concludes Labour is finished unless it ditches Starmer and changes course
DIANE ABBOTT looks at the whys and hows of Labour’s spectacular own goal
While Starmer courts BlackRock and backs genocide, leading to despair and historically low voter turnout, the vultures of the new populist right circle Britain’s crumbling institutions, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE