Facing economic turmoil, Jim Callaghan’s government rejected Tony Benn’s alternative economic strategy in favour of cuts that paved the way for Thatcherism — and the cuts-loving Labour of the present era, writes KEITH FLETT
The past is disappearing and the future is bleak: a Philippine election reflection
Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jnr has won, using a tech-savvy social media rewrite of his parents’ dictatorship and a troll army to smear his closest competitor — DR TOM SYKES reports on a society seemingly unable to leave its own dark age

FILIPINOS have been suffering the Marcos dynasty’s love of spectacle since the mid-1960s when Ferdinand and Imelda took power, presenting themselves as a glamorous Hollywoodesque couple and promising a golden age of progress and prosperity.
But away from the vanity building projects and PR stunts like staged TV reports of Imelda donating homes to the poor, they built an iron-fisted dictatorship, dropped their country into masses of debt, murdered, maimed and jailed thousands and embezzled perhaps $11 billion from state coffers.
On May 9 2022, Ferdinand and Imelda’s son, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jnr, took the presidency with 56 per cent of the vote, the highest share since his dad won in 1981 — when most other parties boycotted it.
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While the West celebrates Duterte’s extradition, the selective application of international law reveals deeper geopolitical motives behind the prosecution of a leader from a poor, exploited nation, argues KENNY COYLE

While the West celebrates Duterte’s extradition, the selective application of international law reveals deeper geopolitical motives behind the prosecution of a leader from a poor, exploited nation, argues KENNY COYLE