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

WE ARE in a bizarre situation where the leaders of the two parties of government — for the moment let’s forget the Tory’s “first reserves” gathered in the ranks of the Lib Dems — are barely trusted by the electorate.
Rishi Sunak has an unfavourable rating of 49 per cent while 38 per cent are unfavourably disposed towards Keir Starmer.
In a YouGov poll carried out in July, Jeremy Corbyn — despite years of vilification by the media and the New Labour restoration regime — emerged as the most popular living Labour leader.

Holding office in local government is a poisoned chalice for a party that bases its electoral appeal around issues where it has no power whatsoever, argues NICK WRIGHT

From Gaza complicity to welfare cuts chaos, Starmer’s baggage accumulates, and voters will indeed find ‘somewhere else’ to go — to the Greens, nationalists, Lib Dems, Reform UK or a new, working-class left party, writes NICK WRIGHT

There is no doubt that Trump’s regime is a right-wing one, but the clash between the state apparatus and the national and local government is a good example of what any future left-wing formation will face here in Britain, writes NICK WRIGHT

European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde sees Trump’s many disruptions as an opportunity to challenge the dollar’s ‘exorbitant privilege’ — but greater Euro assertiveness will also mean greater warmongering and militarism, warns NICK WRIGHT