Trump’s escalation against Venezuela is about more than oil, it is about regaining control over the ‘natural’ zone of influence of the United States at a moment where its hegemony is slipping, argues VIJAY PRASHAD
North Sea oil: Britain’s squandered windfall
As Starmer seeks his ‘Falklands moment’ while planning £6 billion in welfare cuts, a historical pattern repeats itself — natural resources weaponised against the working class rather than used for their benefit, writes MATT KERR
An oil platform standing amongst other rigs that have been left in the Cromarty Firth near Invergordon in the Highlands of Scotland, February 15, 2016
Evidence suggests Lammy’s proposals would come at a high cost: reduced fairness, diminished trust and greater racial inequality in the criminal justice system, argue TARA LAI QUINLAN and KATHARINA KARCHER
From the workhouses of the 1840s to today’s market capitalism, A Christmas Carol remains a sharp critique of charity rationed by class, says KEITH FLETT
The argument for a “significant expansion” of nuclear power will deliver soaring electricity prices that condemn underserved communities to unending hardship and poverty, argues LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
The new plan sets out an uncompromising bid for global dominance, casting even allies as obstacles to be subdued, writes DIANE ABBOTT
As we approach the half-anniversary of the Grenfell tragedy, the community gathers to remember loved ones while grappling with mixed emotions surrounding the ongoing deconstruction of the tower and the hopeful plans for a memorial, writes EMMA DENT COAD
I’M NOT sure about luck. An island of coal, surrounded by fish, and flush with the ill-gotten gains of slavery, the British state stole a march — along with a great deal more — from the world to industrialise early and forge the rules of the great game still being played out to this day.
The discovery of North Sea oil and gas in the 1960s was heralded as being every bit as significant. The oil price “crisis” of the early seventies made it even more economical to extract, the privately owned oil majors piled in and Britain’s political class of all stripes appeared to understand the need for the state to at least have some sort of stake — if not for ideological reasons, for reasons of national security.
It should now be plain to see that the gold rush ended in the way every one before it did, with the rich richer, and the poorest left wandering the land scavenging for something to cash in at the scrappy. Great machines, monstrous rigs that made millionaires and billionaires towed in to join the queue for the gas axe.
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