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
WE are in a bad place, a really bad place. The IMF predicts that the Covid-19 pandemic will shrink the global economy by 5 per cent this year, with a cumulative loss of around $9 trillion.
Britain’s Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) records a “lockdown” economic collapse of over 20 per cent and predicts an annual economic contraction of over 12 per cent.
Some 650,000 British workers have already been dropped from official payrolls. Eleven million more wait in the wings, on “furloughed” wages that come to an end in August.
As the dollar falters and US power turns predatory, Britain and Europe must abandon transatlantic illusions and build a collectivist alternative before the system implodes, writes ALAN SIMPSON
From summit to summit, imperialist companies and governments cut, delay or water down their commitments, warn the Communist Parties of Britain, France, Portugal and Spain and the Workers Party of Belgium in a joint statement on Cop30
Digital ID means the government could track anyone and then limit their speech, movements, finances — and it could get this all wrong, identifying the wrong people for the wrong reasons, as the numerous digital cockups so far demonstrate, warns DYLAN MURPHY
ALAN SIMPSON warns that Starmer’s triangulation strategy will fail just as New Labour’s did, with each rightward move by Labour pushing Tories further right



