By Celia Foote EVEN before the covid-19 pandemic there was a large gap in achievement between rich and poor school pupils. In Britain, for example, children from disadvantaged backgrounds were already twice as likely to leave school without basic qualifications in English and maths. After months of coronavirus-induced school closures, the inequality gap has grownContinue reading “Back to school”
Author Archives: Hugh Barnes
Letter from Italy
By Toby Abse Mario Draghi’s new Italian government of national unity, sworn in on 13th February 2021, has sought to present itself as much more ‘green’ than its immediate predecessor, Giuseppe Conte’s second government (September 2019 – January 2021). Most notably, Draghi has created a new Ministry of Ecological Transition, which has a slightly expanded remitContinue reading “Letter from Italy”
Learning from lockdown
By Bryn Glover The past year has witnessed a kind of global experiment in public health and social security. Most of the results have been depressing. In the United Kingdom, a corrupt and incompetent government has allowed over 125,000 of its citizens to die from the Sars-Cov-2 virus. Unemployment has soared to nearly two million.Continue reading “Learning from lockdown”
Grubs up!
Bryn Glover samples the green future of food HUMANITY faces a major challenge if we are to feed a global population of 10 billion by the end of the century. The simplest way to analyse the nature of this problem is to think in energy terms. Energy is measured in calories or joules and we’reContinue reading “Grubs up!”
Netanyahu’s endgame
TOBY ABSE surveys the fallout from Israel’s most recent election and the ousting of ‘King Bibi’ ISRAEL has held four elections since April 2019 that ended with no clear winner, and the outcome of the most recent poll, held in March this year, was just as inconclusive as the others. In other words, it didContinue reading “Netanyahu’s endgame”
Transport to the Future
By Mike Davies AS a society, in order to reduce global heating, we need urgently and drastically to reduce the greenhouse gases that we pump into our atmosphere. We must also cut the amount of other unhealthy pollutants that cause illness and death. A major source of both is transport of goods and people. ThereContinue reading “Transport to the Future”
Pigs in a poke
Mike Davies sounds the alarm over a toxic US trade deal post-Brexit Trade is a good thing as long as it’s on fair terms and to the benefit of both parties. Britons have been trading with countries as far away as the Pacific for thousands of years. So what is wrong with having more tradeContinue reading “Pigs in a poke”
Book Review
Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Powers by Cheryl Misak, Oxford University Press 2020 £25 ISBN: 978-0198755357 By Hugh Barnes Does socialism add up? This is a mathematical question as well as a political and moral one. A hundred years ago, mathematical economics was dominated by socialist advocates of Soviet-style central planning. Later, in the 1930s, JohnContinue reading “Book Review”
It’s a GLOBAL pandemic, stupid!
Rishi Sunak’s plan to cut the UK’s foreign aid target is misguided – and will further harm Britain’s international reputation International development has been one of the great success stories of the past 30 years. From 1990 until last year the number of victims of extreme poverty fell from two billion, or 36% of theContinue reading “It’s a GLOBAL pandemic, stupid!”
Trump the Fascist
Editorial In the end, Donald Trump’s coup failed but it was squeaky-bum time for a week or so. ‘I won the election,’ he tweeted in the early hours of 16th November, almost a fortnight after he lost the election. A week later, even as he finally permitted the transition to Joe Biden’s presidency to begin,Continue reading “Trump the Fascist”
Alliance for Green Socialism 