A recent Financial Times column on the Iran war exemplifies how the Western elite worldview is more concerned with strategy and power than legality or human life, writes ANDREW MURRAY
When Labour chose austerity: the 1976 IMF crisis
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
TURNING POINT: The anti-cuts plan put forward by Tony Benn (left) was rejected by James Callaghan (right) — and Labour has never looked back
STEVE BISHOP considers the prospects for a settlement of the conflict and how the demands of both sides are being viewed
The PM is drawing cautious distance from Donald Trump over Iran – but history suggests Britain’s support may run deeper than it appears, just as it did during the Vietnam war, says KEITH FLETT
Years of austerity and political failure have left classrooms overcrowded and staff overstretched – now educators are organising across roles to demand change, says ED HARLOW
While US restrictions tighten economic and social pressures on Cuba, international allies and grassroots campaigns are stepping in to support the island’s resilience, writes BERNARD REGAN, secretary of Cuba Solidarity Campaign
Labour’s approach to Scotland reveals a long-running tension between rhetoric and reality, warns PAULINE BRYAN
IN 1973 there was a military coup against a democratically elected left-wing government in Chile. It was a bloody and vicious affair (on the part of the army and its US backers) but is probably not the preferred instrument of the ruling order for regime change or, perhaps more accurately, regime changes.
Sometimes there are people who have to go or be moved to “keep the markets happy.” It happened to Tony Benn in 1975 after Labour was elected twice in 1974, February and October.
But more often it’s about policy changes. What it meant for Britain in 1976 is largely a matter of historical record and memoirs now.
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While Hardie, MacDonald and Wilson faced down war pressure from their own Establishment, today’s leadership appears to have forgotten that opposing imperial adventures has historically defined Labour’s moral authority, writes KEITH FLETT
KEITH FLETT traces how the ‘world’s most successful political party’ has imploded since Thatcher’s fall, from nine leaders in 30 years to losing all 16 English councils, with Reform UK symbolically capturing Peel’s birthplace, Tamworth — but the beast is not dead yet
