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
There’s no reason to trust Serco
Despite being roundly criticised by Labour shadow ministers when in opposition, the notorious outsourcing company appears to be back in the party fold and expecting further lucrative government contracts, SOLOMON HUGHES reports
A Serco prison van arriving at the Central Criminal Court, better known as the Old Bailey, in central London, March 31, 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
PRIVATISER Serco held private talks with Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and other shadow cabinet members before the election about getting more work from a Labour government, according to comments made by its chief executive at this month’s Labour conference.
Reeves previously publicly condemned Serco and promised to reverse public-sector outsourcing, but it looks like Labour has now abandoned these positions.
Serco chief executive Anthony Kirby was addressing a Labour conference fringe meeting that his firm paid think tank Demos to organise. Thanks to funding the meeting, discussing Labour’s “missions” and “public services,” Kirby was on the panel for the event. He told the meeting, held in a 40-seater room in Liverpool’s Hilton hotel, that “before the election we were really excited by some of the conversations we had with Sir Keir and Rachel and some of the shadow cabinet.” By Rachel, he meant Rachel Reeves, so it looks like Serco’s boss is on first-name terms with the Chancellor.
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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
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
US General Stanley McChrystal has been invited to advise on creating a ‘team of teams’ for healthcare transformation. His credentials? He previously ran interrogation bases where Iraqis were stripped naked and beaten, reports SOLOMON HUGHES
