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
The good, the bad and the ugly: part two
VINCE MILLS concludes a critical assessment of Labour’s national policy forum’s final document, looking at crime, the NHS, welfare, transport and foreign policy promises
Lord Peter Mandelson (centre) listens as shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves delivers her keynote speech to the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, October 9, 2023
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
IT should be noted that many of the areas discussed here — education, health and some elements of social security — are devolved. An analysis of what the document says on constitutional matters is being covered by Pauline Bryan in Saturday’s paper.
3. Safe and secure communities
This section also has some progressive offerings as well as others that hark back to the authoritarian element of Tony Blair’s New Labour. The section on anti-social behaviour carries a commitment to introduce “Respect Orders.”
More from this author
VINCE MILLS cautions over the perils and pitfalls of ‘a new left party’
VINCE MILLS says politicians of various parties are interpreting the result in self-serving ways, but it contains little comfort for the left
VINCE MILLS gathers some sobering facts that would inevitably be major obstacles to any such initiative
That Scotland was an active participant and beneficiary of colonialism and slavery is not a question of blame games and guilt peddling, but a crucial fact assessing the class nature of the questions of devolution and independence, writes VINCE MILLS
