Head of education, campaigns and organising for the General Federation of Trade Unions HENRY FOWLER explains why it is launching a fund to support trades councils and give them access to a new range of courses and resources

IN THE discussion around the Budget, you may have noticed the odd reference to “modern supply-side economics,” much beloved of the Biden and now the Starmer administrations.
Supply side economics in Britain was an ideological approach shared by both Labour’s last administration and of course the Tories.
There were two key elements to it. The primary drivers were tax cuts and deregulation on the expectation that both would encourage growth by incentivising economic activity and consequently that this wealth would “trickle down” to the rest of society, because, it was argued, in the face of globalisation there was little else governments could do.

VINCE MILLS gathers some sobering facts that would inevitably be major obstacles to any such initiative

That Scotland was an active participant and beneficiary of colonialism and slavery is not a question of blame games and guilt peddling, but a crucial fact assessing the class nature of the questions of devolution and independence, writes VINCE MILLS

