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
The SNP Growth Commission document has provoked a lot of debate this month. It has many flaws, but the most glaringly obvious is that it has woven into its fabric a belief that global capitalism with its free markets and neoliberal policies is the only possible economic structure for a future Scotland.
It seems to forget that this is the very system that Scotland has been operating under and that it can account for most of its economic woes.
Some SNP supporters may have believed that once it was free of the iron grip of the UK Treasury it would take a different course, but Nicola Sturgeon’s endorsement of the Growth Commission’s report has stated loud and clear that this is not the case.
On the release of her memoir that reveals everything except politics, Sturgeon’s endless media coverage has focused on her panic attacks, sexuality and personal tragedies while ignoring her government’s many failures, writes PAULINE BRYAN
As bus builder Alexander Dennis threatens Falkirk closure and Grangemouth faces ruthless shutdown by tax exile Jim Ratcliffe, RICHARD LEONARD MSP warns that global corporations must be resisted by a bold industrial strategy based on public ownership
From Workers’ Memorial Day to May Day rallies, TOM MORRISON examines the real challenges facing the labour movement as Reform UK’s glossy literature exploits legitimate grievances in traditional left strongholds
From the ‘marketisation’ of care services to the closure of cultural venues and criminalisation of youth, a new Red Paper reveals how austerity has weakened communities and disproportionately harmed the most vulnerable, write PAULINE BRYAN and VINCE MILLS



