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
Talk of national governments and new parties shows the desperation of those opposed to a radical Labour government
by Richard Burgon
The original ‘gang of four’ pictured in 1981 (left to right) Bill Rodgers, David Owen, Roy Jenkins and Shirley Williams
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
SUMMER is often described as silly season in politics and this summer two very silly ideas have come to the fore with much talk of a new party to the right of the modern Labour Party and the formation of a so-called “national government.”
Neither phenomenon is new. The formation of the SDP breakaway from the Labour Party by Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, David Owen and Bill Rodgers in 1981 was an anti-socialist betrayal that helped to gift the 1980s to Thatcherism and her brutal anti-working-class policies.
Ramsay MacDonald’s formation of a “national government” with the Conservatives, Liberals, Liberal Nationals and so-called “National Labour” in 1931 was done to push through austerity politics, guaranteeing that his name went down in history as a byword for betrayal.
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RICHARD BURGON MP points to the recent relative success of widespread opposition to the Labour leadership’s regressive policies as the blueprint for exacting the changes required to build a fairer society
In his May Day message for the Morning Star, RICHARD BURGON says the call for peace, equality and socialism has never been more relevant
RICHARD BURGON MP argues that a broad, united mass movement can stop the cuts and ensure it’s the wealthiest that pay their fair share
RICHARD BURGON MP says the government should use the Employment Rights Bill to reverse a shameful Tory decision on discrimination
