While slashing welfare and public services, Labour’s spring statement delivers a bonanza for death-dealing bomb merchants. We now see the true and terrible face of austerity 2.0, writes MICHAEL BURKE
Entertainment or propaganda? Washington's insidious grip on the arts
MATTHEW ALFORD asks how innocent the arts and the celebrities who front them up really are

AN EVIL dictator is on the brink of making a nuclear bomb at a secret facility carved deep inside the Zagros mountains. With no option, the American military deploys jets and, against all odds, destroys the factory — then flies home to the strains of [Highway to the] Danger Zone.
An evil dictator is on the brink of using a nuclear bomb. With no option, the American military deploys secret agents and, against all odds, triggers a democratic revolution by blowing up the dictator in his helicopter to the strains of Katy Perry’s Firework.
I‘ve just outlined the plots of Top Gun: Maverick starring Tom Cruise and The Interview starring Seth Rogan.
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MATTHEW ALFORD considers the principal four reasons there wasn’t a nuclear exchange this year, despite the Ukraine war, the carnage in the Middle East, the provocations over Taiwan — and his best predictions

MATTHEW ALFORD questions the establishment-pleasing politics that underlie so-called ‘political satire’

No matter how black our satire, the government goes blacker – as shown in the WikiLeaks founders’ case, says MATTHEW ALFORD

As a civilisation we are in thrall to and infantilised by our own righteousness, while ignoring the corporate interests that make war miserably predictable, writes MATTHEW ALFORD
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