ANDREW MURRAY wonders what the great communist foe of Oswald Mosley would make of today’s far-right surge, warning that while the triumph of Farage and ‘Robinson’ is far from inevitable, placing any faith in Starmer in an anti-fascist front is a fool’s errand
Interest rate hike risks financial crisis
The Bank of England has been swinging its interest rate bludgeon for the last year, and the wreckage is starting to pile up, warns JAMES MEADWAY
The Bank of England
LOTTE COLLETT welcomes the arrival of a new party for the left, a vehicle for councils to finally fight for progressive policies on housing, green spaces and public facilities, rather than administering cuts and misery from central government
KEVAN NELSON reports back from a delegation to the epic celebrations for the anniversary of Vietnam’s 1945 revolution, where British communists found a thriving, prosperous socialist country, brimming with ambition and well-earned national pride
Our economic system is broken – and unless we break with the government’s obsession with short-termist private profit, things are destined to get worse, warns Mercedes Villalba
Following the resignation of Nepali Prime Minister KP Oli amid mass youth-driven protests, different narratives have circulated which simplify and misrepresent the complexities and reality on the ground in Nepal at the roots of this crisis, argue VIJAY PRASHAD and ATUL CHANDRA
The US is desperate to stop Honduras’s process of social and democratic change, writes TIM YOUNG
THE Bank of England’s raising of interest rates this week was a poor decision that will do little to nothing to restrain price rises, adds to the financial burdens on households and small businesses and increases the joint risks of recession and financial crisis.
But it’s not all bad news: new figures from Unite the Union show that the four largest banks’ profits are up £7bn since the start of the pandemic, as rising Bank of England interest rates have been turned into higher borrowing costs for households and businesses — while, naturally, savings rates have barely moved.
Sarcasm aside, the best that can be said for the rates rise, with two dissenting members of the rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee voting to keep rates the same, is that the bank is less likely to repeat this madness in future.
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Already the extremism of the new Argentinian president’s administration is being watered down in the face of reality – but now the Chinese central bank has cut funding it could be in serious trouble, writes JAMES MEADWAY
JAMES MEADWAY looks at the multiple emerging crises, most linked to climate change, that will lead to price rises for consumers and bumper profits for big business. The solutions, however, are simple
An early adherent of free-market fundamentalism, at Thatcher's side throughout her most damaging years, Lawson attacked our unions, industry and the very fabric of our society, writes JAMES MEADWAY
JAMES MEADWAY reminds us that the standard eight-hour day, five days a week is only a relatively recent invention
