Author Archives: Hugh Barnes

Why tax the rich?

By Bryn Glover The Labour government has chosen to shackle its activities to what the Treasury’s ‘fiscal rules’ say can be afforded. It was Mrs Thatcher who first – incorrectly – used the metaphor of a housewife in charge of the family purse strings to explain the need for painful spending cuts to get theContinue reading “Why tax the rich?”

A new party of the Left

By Mike Davies In 2015, when Jeremy Corbyn became leader of the Labour Party, the Alliance for Green Socialism waited to see what kind of basic policies he would adopt and what the response of the Establishment would be. (I produced a spreadsheet of possibilities including a scenario where the Deep State plotted his death!)Continue reading “A new party of the Left”

Reply of the Zaporizhzhian Cossacks

By Hugh Barnes The village of Robotyne stands on the high Zaporizhzhian steppe, a remote area that Ukrainians call the ‘wild fields’. Its wildness has only increased since the Russian invasion in February 2022. On the frontline in the war against Russia, halfway between Crimea and Donetsk, 150 miles in either direction, this battlefield withContinue reading “Reply of the Zaporizhzhian Cossacks”

Beyond the boundary of No Planet B

BY BRYN GLOVER During the first decade of this century, a number of separate specialist scientific groups, with members from around the globe, met independently, but with similar purposes. Their common objective was to attempt to quantify the precise mess that we had got ourselves into, with respect to our one-and-only planet. The outcome ofContinue reading “Beyond the boundary of No Planet B”

Green Socialist 108

Toby Abse sees a warning for the future in the outcome of the recent EU elections The June 2024 European elections may well prove to be a turning point in the history of the European Union. On the one hand, the majority in the European Parliament that elected Ursula von der Leyen as the President ofContinue reading “Green Socialist 108”

Eyeless in Gaza

Article 6(b) of the 1945 Charter of the International Military Tribunal, later enshrined in the Fourth Geneva Convention, classifies the indiscriminate bombardment of civilian targets, including hospitals, as a war crime. Yet Israel has subjected Gaza to intense bombardment since the Hamas assault on its territory on 7th October, killed more than 1,400 people, withContinue reading “Eyeless in Gaza”

In Bakhmut

Hugh Barnes watches a funeral on TV It was a Monday in September and all eyes were glued to a televised funeral. But the ceremony was taking place a thousand miles away from Westminster Abbey, at the National Opera House in Kyiv, mourning the loss of a 47-year-old Ukrainian ballet dancer. Oleksandr Shapoval, its principalContinue reading “In Bakhmut”