Apart from a bright spark of hope in the victory of the Gaza motion, this year’s conference lacked vision and purpose — we need to urgently reconnect Labour with its roots rather than weakly aping the flag-waving right, argues KIM JOHNSON MP

EVERSHOLT is one of the “rolling stock companies” or “Roscos” created when British Rail was privatised — like Porterbrook, which I wrote about a few weeks ago. These private companies own the trains which roll on British railways.
Eversholt’s accounts, published in April this year, show that in 2020 and 2021, the years of the pandemic when the rail industry was entirely dependent on a vast, publicly funded bailout to keep running, the firm paid a total dividend of £83 million.
The money from Britain’s railways was shunted to its owners, based in Luxembourg.

The new angle from private firms shmoozing their way into public contracts was the much-trumpeted arrival of ‘artificial intelligence’ — and no-one seemed to have heard the numerous criticisms of this unproven miracle cure, reports SOLOMON HUGHES

It is rather strange that Labour continues to give prestigious roles to inappropriate, controversy-mired businessmen who are also major Tory donors. What could Labour possibly be hoping to get out of it, asks SOLOMON HUGHES

Keir Starmer’s hiring Tim Allan from Tory-led Strand Partners is another illustration of Labour’s corporate-influence world where party differences matter less than business connections, writes SOLOMON HUGHES

MBDA’s Alabama factory makes components for Boeing’s GBU-39 bombs used to kill civilians in Gaza. Its profits flow through Stevenage to Paris — and it is one of the British government’s favourite firms, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES