From golf and football to Formula One, the kingdom uses unprecedented investments in global sport to divert attention from its persecution of journalists, dissidents and women, write BELLA KATZ and ROGER McKENZIE
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An error occurred while searching, try again later.Not a penny for war as public services crumble
As Britain plans to increase military spending to 2.6 per cent of the GDP while health services face devastating cuts and drug costs soar, working-class Scots urgently need united resistance, argues DREW GILCHRIST
With trade wars backfiring, allies resisting military demands, and approval ratings plummeting, Trump’s dangerous pursuit of colonial ambitions threatens to end the ‘American century’ with catastrophic conflict, warns CLAUDIA WEBBE
As the government moves to rein in academy freedoms, former darling of conservative education reform Katharine Birbalsingh cries ‘Marxism.’ Education columnist ROBERT POOLE examines how academisation has failed our children while enriching executives and empowering ideologues at the expense of democratic accountability
MAT COWARD recalls the occasion when the first man in space paid a visit to our shores in 1961
Shocking institutional racism in the schools system was exposed in a 1985 report highlighting the over-representation of black children branded ‘educationally subnormal.’ Four decades on the fight for justice continues, writes JAYDEE SEAFORTH
Communist Party of Ireland Statement on International Working Women’s Day 2025
Despite the harsh conditions they face, Iranian women have proved to be vanguards in the struggle for fundamental changes in our country, says Dr AZAR SEPEHR
TRADE WARS, genocides, and regional conflicts have brought us closer than ever to world war since 1945. Every major party is banging the war drum in one way or another — all while Scotland’s public services continue to rapidly crumble.
With the media in full swing on the threat of Russia and China, there are constant comparisons to 1939, but for many people, the comparison is better linked to the war fever of 1914.
Keir Starmer has called for a “coalition of the willing” within Europe and the EU has answered. Military spending will now increase by €150 billion with proposals to divert regional development funds into defence also being echoed in Brussels. Britain is hoping to lead the charge with a proposed increase in defence spending up to 2.6 per cent of GDP for 2027.
All the while Scotland’s infrastructure and public services are being decimated in the interests of private capital. Working-class people are being left without any sense of support or trust in the government’s duty of care to the people’s needs.
The NHS has been decimated by yet another year of service cuts to staff, health centres and acute sites. The voices of NHS workers have been completely ignored when calls for better investment and pay have been waved to the side.
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With local authorities and services in a dire state, what should be the strategy of the left? DREW GILCHRIST argues that building support for no-cuts budgets can be a powerful way of defending our communities