Politicians who continue to welcome contracts with US companies without considering the risks and consequences of total dependency in the years to come are undermining the raison d’etre of the NHS, argues Dr JOHN PUNTIS
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Remembering John Smith
The late John Smith, pictured in 1993
MISH RAHMAN introduces the platform of a new organisation within Your Party, which will campaign for the highest level of democracy, accountability and participation, having learned from the mistakes of Labour in the 2015-19 era
The colonial mindset behind the governance of the UN is the reason for its inertia when it comes to conflict resolution, argues ROGER McKENZIE – but can China’s Global Governance Initiative point in a new direction of global equality?
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
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
ON SUNDAY many will be remembering the late Labour leader John Smith, 25 years on from his death. In a counterfactual history (as part of The Prime Ministers Who Never Were, Biteback, 2011), the writer and journalist Francis Beckett imagined if he had instead recovered from his heart attack.
In this fantasy, “Smith was happy, after September 11 2001, to send British troops to Afghanistan, but he drew the line at committing himself to war in Iraq, and made common cause with the French.”
Tony Blair never rose further than education secretary — and Gordon Brown’s hopes were thwarted by his “old nemesis Ken Livingstone, to whose 10-year occupancy of No 10 we owe, among much else, our pedestrianised city centres.”
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CONRAD LANDIN offers a guide to the diverse shows at Edinburgh Art Festival
