Labour prospects in May elections may be irrevocably damaged by Birmingham Council’s costly refusal to settle the year-long dispute, warns STEVE WRIGHT
Robin Hood dies: the legend lives on
Britain’s first council-run, not-for-profit energy company did not ‘fail’ — it was doomed by our rigged system; in Europe, harnessing energy surpluses has been enthusiastically adopted, writes ALAN SIMPSON
The Robin Hood statue outside Nottingham Castle
[Arran Bee / Creative Commons]
HENRY FOWLER and ROB POOLE explain the significance of today’s Megapicket
One hundred years after 1.7m workers shut the country down in defence of the miners, the struggles that sparked the 1926 General Strike are still with us – and will be honoured on London’s May Day march this year, writes MARY ADOSSIDES
The Labour Growth Group and its think tank partner, the Good Growth Foundation, have taken funding from major lobbying firms linked to housebuilders, banks and Heathrow – raising questions about corporate influence at the heart of Starmer’s pro-growth project. SOLOMON HUGHES reports
The fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a registered nurse and union member, has sparked nationwide protests and renewed calls from National Nurses United to dismantle Ice and related agencies, says MARK GRUENBERG
A Vatican photo-op, a hard-right donor and a rhetoric of mass deportations reveal how appeals to ‘Christian values’ are being reshaped by Reform and Tory MPs, says SOLOMON HUGHES
AS news hits the press about the imminent demise of Nottingham’s Robin Hood Energy company (RHE), I took a look at the plinth in front of St Mary’s church in the middle of Nottingham.
The plinth offers a mythical version of Robin Hood’s demise; slowly being “bled” to death in a priory run by his cousin. There’s an image of Robin, summoning enough energy to call his friend Little John to help fire the arrow that was to define his final resting place.
Hailed initially as visionaries and pioneers, Labour councillors who set up Britain’s first not-for-profit, municipal energy company since 1948 are now being pilloried for its “failure.” Instead of this being a story about how rigged and crooked the British energy market is, it has become a stick with which to beat municipal enterprise. Instead of asking why such companies flourish elsewhere in Europe — but not in Britain — it is being used as a way of telling the public sector to keep out of domains in which private companies have systematically fleeced the poor.
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As the dollar falters and US power turns predatory, Britain and Europe must abandon transatlantic illusions and build a collectivist alternative before the system implodes, writes ALAN SIMPSON
ALAN SIMPSON warns that Starmer’s triangulation strategy will fail just as New Labour’s did, with each rightward move by Labour pushing Tories further right
