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Alan Simpson
US President Donald Trump stands in the presidential box as
Features / 20 March 2025
20 March 2025
As the ‘NRx movement’ plots to replace democracy with corporate-feudal dictatorship, Britain must pursue a radical alternative of local food security and genuine wealth redistribution to withstand the coming upheaval, writes ALAN SIMPSON
10trump
Features / 30 January 2025
30 January 2025
Some hard political choices must be made in Trump’s post-truth era – starting by abandoning any illusions about the ‘special relationship’ and waking up to the need for bold policy-making on the climate, argues ALAN SIMPSON
PLUMMETING IN THE POLLS: Keir Starmer’s popularity ratings
3 January 2025
3 January 2025
Centrist governments around the world face rejection by their electorates as neoliberalism fails to deliver the public prosperity it never promised – and the same fate awaits Labour unless it starts to deliver for those struggling to survive, says ALAN SIMPSON
demo
Features / 2 December 2024
2 December 2024
Undaunted by Big Oil success, ALAN SIMPSON looks at alternatives to lack of courage and imagination stifling the Labour government and it policies
A volunteer rests during a clean up in an area affected by f
Features / 1 November 2024
1 November 2024
As deadly weather events spread death and destruction, ALAN SIMPSON argues that Labour’s first Budget has failed to address the converging crises of climate breakdown and democratic alienation that require transformative change
brum
Features / 15 August 2024
15 August 2024
Following the wave of far-right violence, people came together across the land, demonstrating that we are so much better than the racists would have you believe and a better Britain can be built, writes ALAN SIMPSON
8 - wind farm
Features / 15 July 2024
15 July 2024
From 1945-style credit creation to rapid decarbonisation, ALAN SIMPSON outlines the radical steps needed to tackle Britain’s crises — timidity risks squandering a historic opportunity
demo
Features / 27 June 2024
27 June 2024
Visionary leadership is needed to tackle the existential climate crisis, but Labour risks squandering any opportunity for transformative change by clinging to the neoliberal economic orthodoxy, writes ALAN SIMPSON
factory
Features / 17 May 2024
17 May 2024
A new generation of protesters is targeting the warmongers promoting Israel’s ethnic cleansing who are determined to live outside the law, writes ALAN SIMPSON
Tractors pass in front of the Coliseum in a farmers’ prote
Features / 18 February 2024
18 February 2024
We need alternative modes of food production, but these won’t come out of an adherence to today’s corporately rigged markets or from a politics desperate to become more anodyne by the day, warns ALAN SIMPSON
GB News
Features / 30 January 2024
30 January 2024
The right can offer divisions and diversions to justify our increasingly broken society, but the left can marry genuinely transformative policies with the one thing our enemies can never offer: hope, explains ALAN SIMPSON
Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer gives a speech, at the
Features / 7 January 2024
7 January 2024
What use is Starmer’s politics that ‘treads lighter on our lives,’ when the scale of the problems Britain is facing are crying out for drastic action, says ALAN SIMPSON
Mitzi Jonelle Tan, of the Philippines, embraces Adriana Cald
Features / 17 December 2023
17 December 2023
The contradictions of oil-producing nations hosting and leading a climate change summit have been unavoidable. They could easily transition to renewable-based economies – we just need a new ‘1945 moment,’ explains ALAN SIMPSON
WAR SPIRAL: Israeli soldiers drive a tank to a staging area
Features / 27 November 2023
27 November 2023
As even the most cynical international politicians begin to realise they cannot deny that Israel’s war has gone far beyond ‘defeating Hamas,’ ALAN SIMPSON looks at how other countries could force a peace on the region
People at a rally in Trafalgar Square, London, during Stop t
Features / 5 November 2023
5 November 2023
Israel’s recently revealed plans for displacing millions of Palestinians into Egypt won’t bring peace, and neither will more war of any kind — what can progressives in the West call for instead, asks ALAN SIMPSON
Residents walk through flood water in Retford in Nottinghams
Features / 22 October 2023
22 October 2023
The world faces huge threats that know no national boundaries. ALAN SIMPSON asks where is the radical thinking needed to meet these challenges
ON THE WRONG PLANET: Former Bank of England governor Mervyn
Features / 25 September 2023
25 September 2023
Amid increasing floods and drought brought about by climate change, water security and its effective management are going to become pivotal factors in tomorrow’s politics, warns ALAN SIMPSON
Damage inside Parks Primary School in Leicester which has be
Features / 14 September 2023
14 September 2023
The self-rewarding rich fear any notion of radical change in the way that politics, government and economics works, but this is our only lifeline, warns ALAN SIMPSON
Lord Goldsmith
Features / 20 August 2023
20 August 2023
The Tories are in the grip of their lunatic right, leaving Labour to ‘triangulate’ towards the centre – instead, it should embrace the proposals of the Green New Deal Group, writes ALAN SIMPSON
A Just Stop Oil protester is taken away by police during day
Features / 6 August 2023
6 August 2023
Huge transformations in energy production usage are already underway and Britain is off the pace – brave thinking and brave action are needed if we’re to avert climate calamity, argues ALAN SIMPSON
General views of Cantref Reservoir in Brecon Beacons Nationa
Features / 3 July 2023
3 July 2023
ALAN SIMPSON looks to ‘tomorrow’s economics today,’ as found in a new initiative pioneered by Barbados which allows the poorest access to low-cost finance for climate investment programmes
Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during a press c
Features / 10 March 2023
10 March 2023
ALAN SIMPSON charts Britain’s descent into dystopian democracy where those echoing the flotilla of falsehoods coming from ministers become the stormtroopers for a government with no other cards to play
Nurses strike
Features / 20 December 2022
20 December 2022
People know that today’s disputes are not the cause of a crisis within the NHS – it is the crisis of NHS underfunding that led to the disputes, argues ALAN SIMPSON
ROAD TO PROGRESS: Protesters block roads outside Parliament
Features / 21 November 2022
21 November 2022
ALAN SIMPSON laments the historic failure of Cop27 and the increasing criminalisation of climate activism as all parties ignore the simple ways out of the crisis we face
Liz Truss
Features / 21 October 2022
21 October 2022
While the Tory Party tears itself apart, the left is in need of a different script to address today’s economic, democratic and ecological challenges, argues ALAN SIMPSON
Truss and turmoil
Features / 11 October 2022
11 October 2022
Don't look for the electoral logic in our new PM's ‘neoliberal jihad’ — there isn't any: she is on a suicide mission to do as much irreversible damage to our democracy and our environment as she can, warns ALAN SIMPSON
Liz Truss
Features / 12 September 2022
12 September 2022
As Britain lurches from one crisis to another, the Truss administration seems to have nothing to offer, says ALAN SIMPSON
beach sewage
Features / 22 August 2022
22 August 2022
We urgently need to move beyond climate denial and short-termism, but neither Truss nor Sunak are capable of doing so, says ALAN SIMPSON
Parched grass on Parker's Piece in Cambridge, as a drought h
Features / 13 August 2022
13 August 2022
The hostility to the environment from the remaining two Tory leadership candidates is truly terrifying — we have the solutions to the looming water crisis in front of our faces, but who will fight for them, asks ALAN SIMPSON
Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss
Features / 22 July 2022
22 July 2022
Why was there almost no overlap in this week's major news events: the Tory leadership race and the hottest days on record? Because the party of small-mindedness and big business has nothing but contempt for our planet, writes ALAN SIMPSON
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, speaks to the media after arri
Features / 19 June 2022
19 June 2022
ALAN SIMPSON says modern Western societies show all the signs of impending civilisational collapse
A panel session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switze
Features / 24 May 2022
24 May 2022
We move from partygate to blame games, never acknowledging the bigger picture that even arch-neoliberal forums like Davos can no longer avoid. The answers are out there, but our political elite will be the last to listen, writes ALAN SIMPSON
Britain urgently needs a 'national food plan'
Features / 19 May 2022
19 May 2022
With global supply routes choked up by Covid and the war in Ukraine leading to a catastrophic shortage of grain, our nation urgently needs a 'national food plan' that will us becoming self-reliant once again, writes ALAN SIMPSON
an E10 petrol pumps at a Petrol Station in Liverpool
Features / 30 March 2022
30 March 2022
Sunak’s decision to cut petrol prices rather than to fund public transport or commit to renewable, affordable energy, is just more evidence that we need to take power — in all its forms — into our collective hands, writes ALAN SIMPSON
Do Look Up
Features / 17 January 2022
17 January 2022
Those who seek to rescue democracy – and construct the different climate politics that tomorrow requires – must shift the terms of debate and the analysis of choices we face, argues ALAN SIMPSON
Insulate Britain climate activists take part in a demonstrat
Features / 9 December 2021
9 December 2021
Forget the shenanigans about Tory Party partying, something far more insidious is taking place — something eating away at the foundations of British democracy — and socialised distraction is just a cover for doing so, warns ALAN SIMPSON
Iroquois
Features / 15 November 2021
15 November 2021
The world's leaders have failed to put greed aside and come together to save the planet — ALAN SIMPSON looks at what we citizens can do ourselves to ensure life on Earth survives
Climate change flash floods
Features / 5 November 2021
5 November 2021
Neoliberalism has collapsed: everlasting growth and unlimited consumption were doomed to fail – so what now, asks ALAN SIMPSON
Extinction Rebellion
Features / 22 October 2021
22 October 2021
Britain doesn’t lack options for the radical decarbonisation of its economy, we just lack the leadership and vision to deliver it, argues ALAN SIMPSON
Pylons
Features / 24 September 2021
24 September 2021
Faced with an unprecedented existential threat to humanity politicians churn out platitudes while opting for inaction, agues ALAN SIMPSON
Burbo Bank wind farm off Merseyside in north west England
Features / 11 July 2021
11 July 2021
From new housebuilding techniques to pedestrianising cities and localising food supply, the examples of solutions to climate change are all around us — but this government's predilection for chaos over responsible leadership does not bode well, writes ALAN SIMPSON
Pollution
Features / 5 July 2021
5 July 2021
From flash floods to heatwaves and drought, Britain is woefully unprepared for the climate impacts ahead — but growing civil society resistance could force the state's hand, writes ALAN SIMPSON
wind turbines, a source of renewable energy, sticking out th
Features / 19 May 2021
19 May 2021
It may feel like Boris Johnson can do no wrong and Labour are determined to slip quietly into the night — but the government's promises on climate change are their achilles heel. We must hold them to account with a radical alternative, writes ALAN SIMPSON
Police
Features / 26 March 2021
26 March 2021
The draconian extension of police powers is disaster capitalism creating a new control framework for the corporate feudalism that will follow Covid-19 — and let them rule over the ruins of a climate-changed world. It's time to hit the streets, writes ALAN SIMPSON
Veteran Labour politician, Tony Benn, in Grosvenor Square, L
Features / 13 March 2021
13 March 2021
On the anniversary of the Labour legend’s death, ALAN SIMPSON wonders what words of wisdom he’d have for us today
Scottish Independence
Features / 13 February 2021
13 February 2021
A new democratic settlement cannot replicate the old one. It must go beyond the fanciful claims of micronationalism and identity politics, says ALAN SIMPSON
Jeremy Corbyn putting on mask
Features / 20 November 2020
20 November 2020
by ALAN SIMPSON
Marcus Rashford mural
Features / 11 November 2020
11 November 2020
Thanks to Marcus Rashford the national conversation is about food politics — now we must start making the connections between what we eat, how we farm and the most effective ways of taking carbon out of the atmosphere, writes ALAN SIMPSON
The Prisoner
Features / 13 October 2020
13 October 2020
The organised incoherence of government policies creates the perfect cover for Johnson’s deconstruction of democracy, with a ruthless transfer of powers from citizens to corporations, says ALAN SIMPSON
Johnson the builder?
Features / 25 August 2020
25 August 2020
The current atmosphere of chaos at the top is no accident — Boris and his new crew of extreme ‘libertarian’ crusaders are hiding their open venality, corruption and unhinged neoliberal agenda behind a facade of incompetence, writes ALAN SIMPSON
Robin Hood
Features / 16 August 2020
16 August 2020
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
climate apocalypse
Features / 26 July 2020
26 July 2020
We face a crisis like no other, from bubonic plague outbreaks to an imminent 3 billion climate refugees. We have the solution and it’s to use less and waste less – what we lack is the leadership to get us to the promised land, writes ALAN SIMPSON
A protest
Features / 6 July 2020
6 July 2020
Green-washing a recovery of yesterday’s economics is a death-wish, not a plan. It would race the planet towards dystopian climate collapse, writes ALAN SIMPSON
Traffic
Features / 9 June 2020
9 June 2020
Can a pandemic and a climate precipice drive home the message that our addiction to ever-growing energy use must be curbed, asks ALAN SIMPSON
Melting icecaps
Features / 5 May 2020
5 May 2020
In part 4 of a series looking at ecology and economics in the era of rapidly accelerating global crises, ALAN SIMPSON reflects on what the future holds
A quiet high street in West Bridgford, Nottingham as the UK
Features / 30 March 2020
30 March 2020
It is possible to use today’s coronavirus crisis to rethink Britain’s policies — on food security, food health, social inclusion and ecological repair. But we face a second crisis — of leadership, explains ALAN SIMPSON
Coronavirus
Features / 17 March 2020
17 March 2020
By turning his back on more interventionist measures to tackle Covid-19, Johnson is courting disaster for Britain, writes ALAN SIMPSON
Russian paramedics coronavirus
Features / 8 March 2020
8 March 2020
A cynical desire to save money is the reason why governments are refusing to say how serious the coronavirus crisis really is, explains ALAN SIMPSON
California burning
Features / 15 November 2019
15 November 2019
In a shockingly frank report, the US military has now admitted it is totally unprepared for the breakdown and collapse climate change will wreak cross the world. But Britain has a way out, explains ALAN SIMPSON
Extinction rebellion
Features / 11 October 2019
11 October 2019
The worst thing about the Brexit debacle is that it has blinded Parliament to bigger issues like the climate catastrophe, says ALAN SIMPSON
Electric car
Features / 10 June 2019
10 June 2019
ALAN SIMPSON looks at the possible ways redistributive economics could be used to fight climate change, from vertical gardens to 'fur miles'
Sun
Opinion: / 9 June 2019
9 June 2019
Moving to ‘bigger picture’ politics, including the politics of climate, will assist Labour in its quest to engage today’s voters, writes ALAN SIMPSON
sad polar bears
Features / 15 May 2019
15 May 2019
We need to stop building more runways, motorways, or shopping malls and replant forests, green our cities and give pollinators places to feed, breed and shelter in, writes ALAN SIMPSON
Extinction Rebellion
Features / 24 April 2019
24 April 2019
Extinction Rebellion has forced political engagement with the existential threats science has been warning about for decades, writes ALAN SIMPSON
game over
Features / 8 April 2019
8 April 2019
It is climate change that most threatens our children’s prospects – not Brexit, writes ALAN SIMPSON
Students from the Youth Strike 4 Climate movement during a c
Features / 20 February 2019
20 February 2019
Last week's worldwide school strikes for action on climate change are a wake-up call for a system sleepwalking into ecological genocide, writes ALAN SIMPSON
Brexit
Features / 4 February 2019
4 February 2019
Parliament is obsessed with the petty, bitter politics of division. Labour has to shift the conversation into a politics of hope, says ALAN SIMPSON
trash
Features / 10 December 2018
10 December 2018
Much of today’s economics has been driven by short-term profiteering. It’s why the planet is in the mess it is in, writes ALAN SIMPSON
EU flag
Features / 3 December 2018
3 December 2018
For both the left and right the next steps involve shedding some painful delusions, says ALAN SIMPSON
planet
Features / 13 November 2018
13 November 2018
Identity politics is a trap organised capital has set for the selfie generation, says ALAN SIMPSON
Sunrise over the Earth
Features / 3 August 2018
3 August 2018
In the era of climate chaos, we need the courage to build a new, greener world right now, says ALAN SIMPSON
Heathrow protester balloons
Features / 27 June 2018
27 June 2018
The debate on Heathrow expansion showed a staggering ignorance of the real battle facing our society
Ash tree
Environment / 1 May 2018
1 May 2018
ALAN SIMPSON
Therea May 23/4/18
Politics / 22 April 2018
22 April 2018
For governments in crisis, paranoia and misinformation are great weapons to avert our attention away from their mistakes, writes ALAN SIMPSON
Money 5/2/18
Features / 4 March 2018
4 March 2018
Any economics that defines the time given to human interaction as negative productivity has lost the plot, writes ALAN SIMPSON
Robot 23/2/18
Features / 23 February 2018
23 February 2018
In a time of increasing mechanisation, ideas about a universal basic income are being raised. ALAN SIMPSON is sceptical
cartoon
opinion / 1 February 2018
1 February 2018
Game on as ALAN SIMPSON proposes an unorthodox problem-tackling perspective
May 14/1/18
Environment / 15 January 2018
15 January 2018
ALAN SIMPSON writes on the politics of land and nature, food and farming 
Food Security / 15 December 2017
15 December 2017
The key is to put safety, sustainability and accountability at the centre of the conversation, says ALAN SIMPSON
ECONOMICS / 3 December 2017
3 December 2017
McDonnell’s plan is not about filling in potholes. It is the wholesale transformation of how we live, work and protect, writes ALAN SIMPSON
CLIMATE / 16 October 2017
16 October 2017
The government’s new environment policy document is full of platitudes, but there will be no market disruption or climate duties, writes ALAN SIMPSON
CLIMATE CHANGE / 1 October 2017
1 October 2017
Extreme weather events will dominate everyday economics unless economics itself embraces climate. Can Corbyn’s collective, inclusive approach get us out of the mess, asks ALAN SIMPSON