MBDA’s Alabama factory makes components for Boeing’s GBU-39 bombs used to kill civilians in Gaza. Its profits flow through Stevenage to Paris — and it is one of the British government’s favourite firms, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES

IN THE coming days — it may even be as soon as today — John Swinney will become the seventh first minister of Scotland.
I first met him almost four decades ago in the years immediately following the miners’ strike. He was working with the then Labour councillor and socialist economist, George Kerevan, who years later would become an SNP MP.
Back then, together with Dr Richard Saville and Debra Percival, they were researching and writing a report commissioned by the British Labour Group of MEPs on an alternative to the European Commission’s Plan For Coal.

As bus builder Alexander Dennis threatens Falkirk closure and Grangemouth faces ruthless shutdown by tax exile Jim Ratcliffe, RICHARD LEONARD MSP warns that global corporations must be resisted by a bold industrial strategy based on public ownership


