While all of good faith on the left should wish the new party well, ANDREW MURRAY pinpoints some of the major challenges it will need to grapple with as it approaches its founding conference later this month
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A zombie budget from a dead-beat government
ROBERT GRIFFITHS reviews last Wednesday's Budget, outlining the obvious alternatives — that are not even radical let alone socialist — the government could have adopted to fix the sinking ship that is our economy
MUNICIPAL DREAMS THAT CAME TRUE: The Whittington Estate / Highgate New Town in North London was designed by Peter Tabori for Camden Council’s architects department and completed in 1979
TIM LEZARD dissects the motives behind the apoplectic right-wing attack on the BBC
Western nations’ increasingly aggressive stance is not prompted by any increase in security threats against these countries — rather, it is caused by a desire to bring about regime changes against governments that pose a threat to the hegemony of imperialism, writes PRABHAT PATNAIK
NICK MATTHEWS recalls how the ideals of socialism and the holding of goods in common have an older provenance than you might think
Reaching co-operation is supposed to be the beginning, not the end, of global climate governance, argues LISA VANHALA
CHANCELLOR Jeremy Hunt has scattered some scraps before the electorate in the hope of saving Tory skins at the forthcoming general election. All the signs are that it’s not working.
Nor does this zombie budget deserve to work.
The headline-grabbing bribes are worth more to the rich than to the poor. Yet even the Chancellor’s remaining friends in the City are unimpressed, if not downright sceptical. And with good reason, as Wednesday’s economic and fiscal outlook suggests.
In an unusually blunt summary near the beginning of its report, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) highlights the serious risks that could derail almost all present-day assumptions, estimates and forecasts, including those of the Chancellor and of the OBR itself.
As the report admits: “Historically large changes in energy prices, interest rates, wage growth and population growth have driven significant revisions to our recent economic and fiscal forecasts.”
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