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Ron's rages are sincere and — according to his wife — healthily cathartic. But can these splenetic outbursts loosen the grip of capitalism at its most monstrous?
How local democracy is being taken from us
Who Stole the Town Hall? exposes the brutal neoliberal attack on councils says ANDY HEDGECOCK, and it underlines the need for socialist decentralisation serving the people, not profiteers
ANGUS REID considers the power of the podcast as a vehicle for consensus building in opposition to mainstream media narratives
GLENN FOSBRAEY recommends a biography worth reading for both existing George Michael fans and those yet to be converted
FRANCIS DEVINE introduces a new collection of essays that draws on Pease McKenna’s example to indicate future paths for the movement
KEVIN DONNELLY and MARIA DUARTE review Shoot the People, The Last One For The Road, Rosebush Pruning, and Moana
JAMES WALSH recommends an exceptional documentary about the experience of Western doctors in Gaza
Who Stole the Town Hall? The End of Local Government As We Know It by Peter Latham (Policy Press, £12.99)
WITH startling clarity, Peter Latham exposes the moral bankruptcy of neoliberalism and the risks it poses to all of us in Who Stole the Town Hall?, which deconstructs the government’s strategy of dressing self-serving centralisation in the clothes of “localism.”
It considers too the perilous state of public services and the corrosive impact of outsourcing, with Latham’s central argument summarised in a hard-hitting introduction by Rodney Bickerstaffe, former general secretary of Unison.
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IAN LAVERY MP warns that decades of neoliberal policies have left former industrial communities behind — but a renewed Labour commitment to working people could change the political landscape
Only an ambitious programme of state-led investment can restore growth and improve living standards, argues MICHAEL BURKE
Years of underfunding are eroding Scotland’s local services and deepening inequality in communities, says VINCE MILLS
LOTTE COLLETT welcomes the arrival of a new party for the left, a vehicle for councils to finally fight for progressive policies on housing, green spaces and public facilities, rather than administering cuts and misery from central government