There have been penalties for those who looked the other way when Epstein was convicted of child sex offences and decided to maintain relationships with the financier — but not for the British ambassador to Washington, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES
The dangerous tempo of politics shifting rightward
Like pieces on a chess board, centrist parties lose ground as they accommodate rather than challenge far-right agendas — socialists must play things better, warns MATT KERR
Labour’s new Treasury unit will ‘challenge unnecessary regulation’ by forcing nominally independent bodies like Ofwat to bend to business demands — exactly what Iain Anderson’s corporate clients wanted, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
DR DYLAN MURPHY looks at a Big Brother Watch report which exposes the government as an enabler of DWP secret spying on benefit claimants
The EU faces a critical choice: will it remain in the shadow of an increasingly unreliable US ally, or will it forge its own path in a multilateral world where co-operation with China is essential, asks MARC VANDEPITTE as leaders meet for the EU-China Summit
A lot of discussion about how the left should currently organise – including debate on whether the Green Party is a useful vehicle for advance – runs the risk of refusing to engage with or learn from the reasons the left was defeated previously, argues KEVIN OVENDEN
For Egypt trade trumps the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, but how long can the country’s ‘misleaders’ – and others in the region – continue their indifference against the popular will of their own people, asks ROGER McKENZIE
I AGREE with Rishi Sunak on one thing: chess should be taught in schools. With everything going on in the classroom these days — lack of resources, lack of teachers, lack of time to learn rather than be taught to pass an exam — you’d be forgiven if you didn’t see it as much of a priority.
It’s a great leveller though. Whether you are rich, poor, man, woman, old or young it doesn’t count for much when the game begins. Well, not quite. There is one concession to the world — white begins with privilege.
At primary school in Saltcoats, there was a local man who would turn up one lunchtime a week, rain or shine on his bicycle to teach us primary sevens chess. Mr Tumelty ate his jam sandwiches offering gentle advice as we competed for position on the chess ladder. Some were more interested than others, but we all had a go, and a couple of us even played in a few competitions as a result.
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