Labour’s persistent failure to address its electorate’s salient concerns is behind the protest vote, asserts DIANE ABBOTT
EARLIER this month, the euro-US dollar (EUR/USD) exchange rate fell about the same time that sterling fell after the Bank of England raised its main interest rate by 0.75 percentage points to 3 per cent. This brought borrowing costs to the highest level since 2008.
The exchange rate shift has also resulted in a slowdown in employment growth.
This is a direct result of the US Federal Reserve tightening its policy earlier this year around longer-term interest rates that have moved significantly higher, where stock prices have declined sharply and the dollar has increased in value.
Washington’s tariff policies become explicable in light of the US economy’s relative decline and the astonishing rise of China, argues MICHAEL BURKE
The US president’s universal tariffs mirror the disastrous Smoot-Hawley Act that triggered retaliatory measures, collapsed international trade, fuelled political extremism — and led to world war, warns Dr DYLAN MURPHY



