The massacre of Red Crescent and civil defence aid workers has elicited little coverage and no condemnation by major powers — this is the age of lawlessness, warns JOE GILL
Back to the ’90s with Starmer?
KEVIN OVENDEN asks how far parallels can be drawn between Blair’s and Starmer’s Labour Parties and how we should interpret left insurgent ruptures and their underlying processes

IT WAS not only the hammy stage performance by Tony Blair and Keir Starmer this week that summoned up comparisons between now and the run-up to the 1997 general election.
Thursday’s elections did the same, with swings against the Tories reminiscent of the 1993-97 period. That included Uxbridge, despite confounding local factors.
As it was three decades ago, a chunk of voters consolidated of their own accord behind the best placed anti-Tory candidate. Elaborate schemes for tactical voting are redundant.
More from this author

The shameful passage of the assisted dying Bill where safeguards have been all but jettisoned is symptomatic of a hyper-liberalised society where the cult of individualism reigns supreme, argues KEVIN OVENDEN

The proxy war in Ukraine is heading to a denouement with the US and Russia dividing the spoils while the European powers stand bewildered by events they have been wilfully blind to, says KEVIN OVENDEN

As heavy industry flees and public-sector strikes paralyse the nation, the French leader’s increasingly desperate attempts to rule without a majority reveal the deep crisis at the heart of European liberal democracy, writes KEVIN OVENDEN

KEVIN OVENDEN draws on the Greek anti-fascist movement’s resounding successes against the neonazi Golden Dawn to outline a united front strategy to challenge state racism and surging mob violence