Austerity in a red tie is still austerity, warns RAMONA McCARTNEY of the People’s Assembly – rally with us to demand different choices
Latest editorial
State pensions: a diminishing ‘benefit’ under the Tories
What was once common sense to both major parties – that we all pay a little of our wages to receive a pension when we are too old to work – has been viciously undermined by decades of neoliberalism, explains NICK WRIGHT
A pile of one pound coins
CONOR BOLLINS looks at the sinister moves to entice young people towards military and arms industry careers
From a “basket of deplorables” to “imbecilic morons,” US officials have ramped up their ad hominem rhetoric towards their own citizens, writes Linda Pentz Gunter
Spanish dictator Francisco Franco died 50 years ago today November 20. JIM JUMP looks back at his blood-soaked rule and toxic legacy on Spain today
The Morning Star here publishes a statement from the Egyptian Communist Party condemning the UN security council resolution on Gaza
Inspired by a hit TV show, KEITH FLETT takes a look at the murky history of undercover class war
TWO days ago my state pension went up in lockstep with the inflation figures for last year.
Useful, if not really keeping pace with the basket of price rises that devalues the average pension, but, raised in line with the Tories’ electorally effective “triple lock,” it is an effective marker of the ways in which the weekly income of working people and pensioners loses its value.
But it is not a bloody “benefit” — at least in the reworked meaning of that word. I paid for it with National Insurance deductions from my wages over decades. The proof is brought home with the carefully annotated reminder that my state pension is a bit higher than otherwise might be the case when I paid Barbara Castle’s enhanced State Earnings-Related Pension (Serps) contribution.
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