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
Their ‘mobs’ and our protests: knowing the difference
EP Thompson opposed romanticising riots, but the democratic intent of Palestinian protests is evident – which is why the powers that be really hate them. Looking at history, from the Chartists to today, they always have, explains KEITH FLETT
A young protester is pounced on by police officers on Whitehall, December 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
THE right-wing media is full of bellicose Tories, including the Prime Minister, who say that Palestinian protests are “aggressive mobs” that are apparently threatening democracy. Yet more measures are planned to “crack down” on protest, except for ones that the Tories support such as farmers, of course.
Before she was sacked as home secretary, Suella Braverman said Palestinian protests were “hate marches” and protesters an “intimidating mob,” which is also what the reactionary thinker Edmund Burke said about the French revolution.
She then summoned up far-right groups who duly appeared and attacked police at the Cenotaph on Armistice Day. Meanwhile, crowds of many hundreds of thousands have continued to march peacefully calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in central London.
More from this author
KEITH FLETT looks at the long history of coercion in British employment laws
The government cracking down on something it can’t comprehend and doesn’t want to engage with is a repeating pattern of history, says KEITH FLETT
While Hardie, MacDonald and Wilson faced down war pressure from their own Establishment, today’s leadership appears to have forgotten that opposing imperial adventures has historically defined Labour’s moral authority, writes KEITH FLETT
10 years ago this month, Corbyn saved Labour from its right-wing problem, and then the party machine turned on him. But all is not lost yet for the left, says KEITH FLETT
