Latest editorial
THE drive towards an authoritarian state continued at the weekend as the Tories announced legislation to prevent elected local authorities from pursuing ethical investment policies.
The more you think about it, the more outrageous this is. Far from the picture painted by Communities and Local Government Minister Greg Clark and Cabinet Office Minister Matthew Hancock, this has nothing to do with preventing “militant”authorities from “undermining our international security” — whatever that is.
In fact, this legislation will force local authorities to invest in the arms trade and in production in illegal settlements in Palestine, as long as these investments secure a decent rate of return — which no doubt they do.
The social base of the old Tory Party has disappeared as surely as that of Labour, argues ANDREW MURRAY – today’s right are the debased offspring of a capitalism that speculates without investing and profits without producing
ARTHUR WEST surveys the achievements of the Scottish campaign against South African apartheid and how we can draw on them to fight a rising far right
History suggests apartheid ends not through appeals to conscience alone but through sustained economic and political pressure, says HUGH LANNING
ROGER MCKENZIE recalls the one-in-a-generation communist leader murdered at the dawn of a new South Africa 33 years ago last April 10