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Sticking to Tory tax and spending plans will be disastrous
Labour's adoption of austerity policies, like a National Insurance cut benefiting higher earners, suggests a bleak outlook with worsening living standards, increased inequality and heightened economic instability, warns DIANE ABBOTT MP
Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt leaves Downing Street, London, with his ministerial box before delivering his Budget in the Houses of Parliament, March 6, 2024
NICK WRIGHT considers how the isolation of Israel and a new film on the controversial Italian communist leader are creating new reference points for Italy’s left
CARLOS MARTINEZ says Cuba’s achievements in the face of a criminal blockade are startling, but the island’s future if the United States succeeds in crushing it looks bleak
AMNON BROWNFIELD STEIN reports that far-right MPs who mobbed the event organised by Hadash may have helped raise awareness of the brutality of the Israeli right
Born on this day in 1931, the heroic revolutionary faces a dangerous new wave of White House aggression. We must treat his birthday as a rallying cry to resist the illegal siege of Cuba, writes ROGER McKENZIE
RAMZY BAROUD decries the rats of Gaza, the rodent and human type. Both abound as profiteering from tragedy reaches obscene levels
JEREMY HUNT’S latest Budget continued themes of all his previous fiscal interventions. He takes from the poor to give to the rich and takes from working people to give to big business. But austerity has been imposed for so long that it has brought the economy to a virtual standstill, and the impact on living standards will get worse.
This then is the key domestic challenge for an incoming Labour government. Unfortunately, all the signs are that the current Labour leadership is completely wedded to austerity. Forcing sick people to work is not a recipe for higher living standards.
To leave no doubt, the shadow chief secretary even took to the airwaves to proclaim the party’s full adoption of the austerity policy. If the party persists with this line in office, it will have disastrous political and economic consequences.
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