DIANE ABBOTT MP points out the false premises used by Rachel Reeves in the Spring Statement
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Orban and Vucic triumphant: liberalism in peril
KEVIN OVENDEN looks at how the Hungarian and Serbian elections failed to go the way the political centre wanted — and why that is as much the fault of the neoliberal opposition as it is due to support for the hard right
Orban and Vucic
MARK JONES of Toothless in England says the devastating report from MPs on Britain’s worsening dental crisis shows we need immediate action — and explains what must be done
In the last of four extracts from her new memoir, former NUM headquarters staffer HILARY CAVE recalls the 1985 campaign in the Nottinghamshire coalfield against the breakaway unions who went on to sabotage the great strike
Israel’s number one death dealer supplying the IDF in its murderous campaigns against the Palestinians is now actively wining and dining our military top brass, looking to flog its blood-soaked wares, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES
The massacre of Red Crescent and civil defence aid workers has elicited little coverage and no condemnation by major powers — this is the age of lawlessness, warns JOE GILL
Public libraries are sanctuaries which facilitate the exploration of the universe of ideas for free for those curious enough. ROGER McKENZIE advocates their protection against authoritarian incursions, US style
Trump’s recent executive order ends union rights for a large number of federal workers, citing national security concerns after some unions vowed to oppose the massive cuts proposed by the new administration, writes PEOPLE’S DISPATCH
SUNDAY’S ELECTIONS in Hungary and Serbia saw the return of incumbent right-wing nationalist leaders Viktor Orban and Aleksander Vucic against widespread predictions that they would do worse.
Orban’s Fidesz party won 135 of the 199 seats in the Hungarian parliament, giving him a two-thirds majority and a fifth term as prime minister. Vucic increased his direct vote for the presidency to 2.18 million. His party lost support in the parliamentary elections but that did not go to the liberal opposition. In both countries parties of the far right gained as did those ranging from sceptical of the West and its institutions through to pro-Russian.
The result should temper the triumphalism of politicians of the liberal centre who hailed first the victory of Emmanuel Macron in France five years ago and then of Joe Biden in the US as the vanquishing of “populism,” the restoration of “normal” politics and the inexorable advance of “progressive” capitalism.
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