Whether in recycling or energy policy, a deeper crisis in long-term thinking is apparent in Scotland. With the new Budget looming, MATT KERR wonders if we can move beyond shallow, headline-grabbing measures
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We need to take on the Tory claim that public investment is unaffordable
RICHARD BURGON MP says we need to prevent the Tories from using this crisis to push another era of damaging austerity
Wreckers: David Cameron and George Osborne's policies undermined public services leaving them in a poor state when the pandemic struck
From mass protests to plummeting poll numbers on immigration and health policy, and from devastating cuts to Medicaid and Medicare to the anti-science upheaval at federal health agencies, the president’s agenda is radicalising voters against him, argues JOHN LISTER
Ahead of elections next year, Scottish Labour is seeking to jump-start its political fortunes – but without bringing wealth and wealth production under democratic control, the party’s future looks in doubt, says VINCE MILLS
In part IV of a serialisation of his new book, JOHN McINALLY tells how austerity minister Francis Maude’s attempt to destroy the PCS Civil Service union totally backfired
Building is the solution for much of our housing crisis – and will also help to address poverty, ill health, and even anti-social behaviour and alienation, writes KENNY MacASKILL
MAT COWARD advocates cultivating blackberries, a growing in popularity crop for gardens and allotments
WATCHING David Cameron and George Osborne at the Covid inquiry claim that austerity did not leave the NHS weaker ahead of the pandemic was like being thrown back in time 10 years.
The evidence is totally clear. Austerity left our whole society weaker — with reversals in life expectancy for many communities, 300,000 excess deaths due to austerity and the undermining of many of the vital services that bind our society together and make people’s lives better.
It also severely undermined our economy. One of the key lies of Cameron and Osborne throughout the austerity years was that an economic crisis meant we could not afford to make the public investment necessary. Worryingly, that damaging logic seems to be back in fashion.
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RICHARD BURGON MP points to the recent relative success of widespread opposition to the Labour leadership’s regressive policies as the blueprint for exacting the changes required to build a fairer society
Exempting military expenditure from austerity while slashing welfare represents a fundamental misallocation of resources that guarantees continued decline, argues MICHAEL BURKE
