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 thin blue line: maintaining whose order?
In light of events in Clapham and Bristol, NICK WRIGHT looks at the policing of demonstrations, celebrations, protests, vigils and citizens' assemblies — and asks why the uniformed response varies so drastically and so dangerously
The breaking-up of the peaceful vigil for Sarah Everard has been a PR disaster for the police
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 last word is never uttered on the vexed question of policing in 21st-century Britain.
We have a long history of riots, disturbances, insurrections and demonstrations in which the public discussion is continually diverted from the substantive issues at stake — the repeal of the Corn Laws, the demand for a People’s Charter of democratic rights, the right to strike, the right to a job, against nuclear weapons and imperialist wars, against the imposition of the poll tax, anger at deaths in the hands of the police and so on.
The temper of the crowd and the tactical disposition of the police are always factors in determining what happens on the day while the attempt by authority — always buttressed by an obedient and servile media — to frame the principal issue as one of public order is always present.
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