The US Republican administration has wasted no time in tightening the economic vice on the Caribbean island, with State Department officials making it clear that the aggression is only just beginning, writes NATASHA HICKMAN
Latest editorial
Behind the Budget smoke and mirrors, there is only more austerity
Comparing Budget measures to fictional Tory plans rather than actual spending levels conceals continued austerity, argues DIANE ABBOTT MP, as workers face stealth tax increases to bear the cost of economic stagnation
Any positives from the government’s green paper proposals are vastly overshadowed by the scale of the cuts to vulnerable low-income households, argues JENNY RATHBONE MS
While the council can generate much-needed income with this new charge, making the city sustainable and affordable for its all-important workers needs a wider approach that’s not just focused on tourism, writes IAN MacCORQUODALE
With young people, the disabled and the elderly in Labour’s sights as ‘easy targets’ for cuts, the labour movement must remember it’s in the vital interests of us all to defend the groups being picked off, writes DIANE ABBOTT MP
SOPHIE BOLT explains why Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is organising a national protest tour at nuclear bases, starting with a demo at BAE shipyard in Barrow, where Starmer and Healey have been banging the drum for war
The Employment Rights Bill is a vital opportunity to rebalance power between workers and employers. As it passes to the Lords, pressure must be brought to bear to strengthen this key legislation, argues ANDY McDONALD MP
The arrest of Palestinian activist and former Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil is just the beginning as the Trump administration moves to silence students and union members who support Palestine, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
BUDGETS are accompanied by a blizzard of documentation designed to illuminate the detail of the big fiscal events. But the real effect can be to obscure what the real thrust of policy is and what its impact is.
The confusion surrounding the October 2024 Budget is even greater than usual. Essentially, what is being discussed as a huge tax-and-spend Budget is in reality, a Budget which not only extends austerity but actually deepens it.
First, let us highlight some of the things that have happened (or not) that give the lie to the idea that this is a big tax-and-spend Budget. One striking development is that the IMF has welcomed the Budget. The IMF has never supported what might be called “Keynesian” increases in taxes and public spending; it is an institution gripped by neoliberalism. But it specifically welcomes the central aim to “reduce the deficit by raising revenues.” As we shall see, the burden of that deficit reduction will be taxes on ordinary people.
More from this author
With young people, the disabled and the elderly in Labour’s sights as ‘easy targets’ for cuts, the labour movement must remember it’s in the vital interests of us all to defend the groups being picked off, writes DIANE ABBOTT MP
As European leaders compete to increase military spending while threatening welfare cuts, the burden will fall disproportionately on working people and minority communities, warns DIANE ABBOTT MP
Dangerous and delusional military posturing on the world stage does not serve the interests of the public among the European powers, nor the people of Ukraine, writes DIANE ABBOTT
You only have to look at the dire polling of Labour’s sister parties in Europe to see that aping the hard right on migration leads to spectacularly bad results, argues DIANE ABBOTT MP
Similar stories
In his first of a new monthly economics column MICHAEL BURKE argues that public-sector investment is more effective, more productive than private-sector investment
In the first of two articles, ROBERT GRIFFITHS argues that despite a parliamentary majority, Labour’s timid Budget fails to seize a historic opportunity and lacks the ambition needed to address Britain’s deep social and economic crises
