Media yesterday announced a new report that the state pension age for Britons “may need” to rise to 71. I got mine – plus free bus travel in England, also under threat – at 65. The threshold now stands between … Read More »
Twenty years ago, with Tony Blair still prime minister, I struck up a conversation with a stranger on a train. His eldest was about to enter infant school and he was bewildered by the choices – or as I would … Read More »
It’s not just Ukraine, Taiwan and Gaza. From tensions in the Horn of Africa to echoes of Baltic sabotage in the Black Sea – and from Sahel through Bangladesh to repression in Latin America – it is not reductive to say that no major conflict today, hot or cold, … Read More »
… continued from Part 1 …. [ezcol_1half][/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end]Left, the message; right, the messengers[/ezcol_1half_end] [ezcol_1half][/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end]Left, the truth; right, the witness[/ezcol_1half_end] * In a piece replicated in full on this site – Who pays for the US war machine? – my … Read More »
Well of course it is! Same as there’s a rude word in Scunthorpe and a big cat in billionaire. Just look at the spelling of trouble, will ya? But as you no doubt guessed, I refer to headlines like this … Read More »
For some time I’ve been hammering away at the point that China’s capitalists are subordinate to the state, while in the West the reverse applies. My aim is not to counter mainstream media propaganda, predictably immense and ceaseless; upmarket no … Read More »
In his post yesterday, blogger, tax specialist and MMT pundit Richard Murphy cites a tweet by a Dr James Davies: ‘Resilience’ is a sneaky neoliberal trope. It frames, as a psychological virtue, painful endurance of circumstances from which others benefit … Read More »
For the second time this week I’m replicating a column by tax specialist and modern monetary theorist Richard Murphy. Here (lightly edited) is what he wrote yesterday. Why interest rate rises are fuelling inflation I have been suggesting interest rate … Read More »
Few alive today in the West have experienced destitution. Yes, baby boomers raised on working class streets knew the haunted look of mothers with too much week and too little money. I recall – I’d be seven or eight – … Read More »
At close of my last post but one – War over Taiwan? A gorgeous stupidity! – a “coming soon” alert promised: Three discussions which progressively widen the focus: from Alex Mercouris on Kiev’s much heralded spring counter-offensive, through Brian Berletic … Read More »