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
Scottish universities – for education not for profit
Students are being treated as cash cows for unis and landlords, and with ever-rising fees and rents, no wonder mental health problems are rising too, says LAUREN HARPER
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
I’LL SOON graduate from a Scottish university, and, having come from a background where neither parent attended university, I know I am incredibly lucky — but what I don’t feel lucky for is the student experience. In typical student fashion I’d like to take this opportunity to moan about it.
While the course fees for Scottish universities are free, living costs are not; when we graduate with clouds of debt hanging over us, can we really call this “free education”?
Even then the loans do not come close to covering living costs. When I started university the minimum Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) payment was roughly £475 a month and by now it has risen to £600. This year it will rise to £800 a month. So over five years it has almost doubled, but considering rents have risen further beyond affordable levels (a third of income would be reasonable, but most spend far more), can we seriously call this an improvement? It’s not nearly enough.
More from this author
Having endured 14 years of Tory austerity followed by Starmerite cuts, young voters are desperate for change — but Anas Sarwar’s refusal to differentiate from Westminster means Scottish Labour risks electoral catastrophe, writes LAUREN HARPER
Putting the refinery in public hands could safeguard jobs, aid Scotland’s transition to Net Zero, reinvest wealth locally, and avoid past policy failures that devastated communities and fueled Scotland's drug crisis, writes LAUREN HARPER
LAUREN HARPER reports from a young trade unionists’ May Day brigade visit to Cuba
