Robinson successfully defended his school from closure, fought for the unification of the teaching unions, mentored future trade union leaders and transformed teaching at the Marx Memorial Library, writes JOHN FOSTER

ANY illusions that the European Union is a force for peace in the world, or even on its own doorstep, vanished on the final day of the Munich Security Conference.
Convened in great luxury in the Bayerische Hof Hotel, dozens of new cold warriors heard Estonian premier Kaja Kallas propose that the EU collectively buy artillery munitions for Ukraine and, in lockstep, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell gave it the imprimatur of the EU hierarchy.
The significance of this stand lies not in the talk about ramping up production — which is presently insufficient to meet Ukraine’s demands and the delivery of which is further threatened by the collapsing US consensus about supply — but in the fuller integration of the EU into the Nato war-fighting strategy.

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