Washington’s inability to subjugate Iran is an example of how it is trying to preserve a regional order that no longer exists, argues RAMZY BAROUD
Empty boasts of money-saving
SOLOMON HUGHES examines questions raised about the Crown Commercial Service’s organisation of cross-departmental spending – and finds Labour sadly committed to ‘more of the same’
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves speaking about the economy at the Association of British Insurers in the City of London, May 7, 2024
US financial instability is exposing the limits of a dollar-dominated global economy — and giving the Global South a historic chance to build an alternative, says MURAD QURESHI
DOUG NICHOLLS says the parasitic finance markets must be challenged or another British government could be toppled
The late country singer’s Imagination Library has put hundreds of millions of books into children’s hands. We should build on that legacy by defending the libraries at the heart of our communities, says BRENDA AITCHISON
Deprivation is a fundamental factor in criminal behaviour that must be addressed but, KENNY MacASKILL argues, there needs to a major rethink in sentencing to tackle overcrowding
MML director MEIRIAN JUMP outlines the recently refreshed library’s busy autumn schedule that ranges from book sales, archival exploration, community work with online education and the ever popular site tours
TONY BURKE surveys the shifting political landscape and the challenges Labour needs to address if it is to prevail in the 2028 federal elections
THE government celebrated the Crown Commercial Service’s 10th anniversary last month, claiming this special “procurement department” had “saved taxpayers £3.8 billion last year alone.”
But the Crown Commercial Service was central to some of the worst Covid contracts, and arguably sometimes limits competition for government work. Crown Commercial was set up by the Tories, but Rachel Reeves has expressed enthusiasm for its methods, so it may hang around under a Labour government too.
The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) was set up by David Cameron’s privatisation guru Lord Maude in 2014: this Cabinet Office department tries saving money by organising cross-departmental purchasing.
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