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
Liberal derangement and the new world order
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

THE term “woke-washing” emerged in 2018 to describe how corporate PR was being spun for millennial audiences.
My colleagues and I thought it was also somewhat relevant to how conservative institutions like the military, universities and monarchy are “made nice” to suit a new liberal sensibility.
With the Russo-Ukrainian war, though, “woke-washing” has rapidly become a pervasive aspect of how Western empire presents itself.
More from this author

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

MATTHEW ALFORD asks how innocent the arts and the celebrities who front them up really are
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