SOLOMON HUGHES recommends Sunjeev Sahota’s recent novel set in a trade union election campaign for its fresh approach to what unites and divides workers, but wishes the union backdrop was truer to life
SOME people may be startled that Labour leader Keir Starmer is using Tory rhetoric to talk about the NHS. The key word is “reform” and phrases are used like “get real about reform.” These are euphemisms for opening up the NHS to the private sector.
For instance, it could mean insurance or co-payments — and the US model has meant that healthcare is the biggest cause of bankruptcy in that country. Pro-Starmer commentators have been anxious to reassure us all by claiming that what Starmer means by “reform” has no resemblance to Tory “reform.” But in reality, it means the same thing.
Starmer is using Tory rhetoric for a reason. And for the avoidance of doubt, he has placed his latest article calling for “reform” in the leading Tory newspaper, the Daily Telegraph.
In the second part of her critique of Wes Streeting’s TenYear Plan for Health, HELEN MERCER looks at the central planks of this privatisation blueprint
The BBC and OBR claim that failing to cut disability benefits could ‘destabilise the economy’ while ignoring the spendthrift approach to tens of billions on military spending that really spirals out of control, argues DIANE ABBOTT MP
JOE GILL looks at research on the reasons people voted as they did last week and concludes Labour is finished unless it ditches Starmer and changes course



