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Robin Hood dies: the legend lives on
Britain’s first council-run, not-for-profit energy company did not ‘fail’ — it was doomed by our rigged system; in Europe, harnessing energy surpluses has been enthusiastically adopted, writes ALAN SIMPSON
The Robin Hood statue outside Nottingham Castle
[Arran Bee / Creative Commons] 
The Tatar rebel argued that Western workers could be bought off, so instead a ‘colonial international’ must form a dictatorship over Europe and the US, ideas that led to his expulsion from the Bolsheviks and eventual execution, writes EDMUND GRIFFITHS
HEATHER WOOD reports back from another packed annual Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival, where Palestinian flags flew high and solidarity with Birmingham’s striking refuse workers was central
Robinson successfully defended his school from closure, fought for the unification of the teaching unions, mentored future trade union leaders and transformed teaching at the Marx Memorial Library, writes JOHN FOSTER
A judge in a German court ruled that the ban activity imposed on renowned Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah was unlawful, reports LEON WYSTRYCHOWSKI
At the very moment Britain faces poverty, housing and climate crises requiring radical solutions, the liberal press promotes ideologically narrow books while marginalising authors who offer the most accurate understanding of change, writes IAN SINCLAIR
AS news hits the press about the imminent demise of Nottingham’s Robin Hood Energy company (RHE), I took a look at the plinth in front of St Mary’s church in the middle of Nottingham.
The plinth offers a mythical version of Robin Hood’s demise; slowly being “bled” to death in a priory run by his cousin. There’s an image of Robin, summoning enough energy to call his friend Little John to help fire the arrow that was to define his final resting place.
Hailed initially as visionaries and pioneers, Labour councillors who set up Britain’s first not-for-profit, municipal energy company since 1948 are now being pilloried for its “failure.” Instead of this being a story about how rigged and crooked the British energy market is, it has become a stick with which to beat municipal enterprise. Instead of asking why such companies flourish elsewhere in Europe — but not in Britain — it is being used as a way of telling the public sector to keep out of domains in which private companies have systematically fleeced the poor.
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