Hugh Barnes

The cost of living crisis

Mike Davies and Malcolm Christie argue that the Tories have no plan to help Britain’s poorest families weather a perfect economic storm Britain is suffering critically high inflation – the worst for forty years. Double digit price rises will be with us for years. Millions are already finding they cannot afford essentials like food and heating. Benefits, pensionsContinue reading “The cost of living crisis “

The rise of fascism in France

Toby Abse warns that Macron’s election victory does not herald the end of Europe’s far right The outcome of the second round of the French Presidential Election on 24th April came as a great relief to anybody concerned about the advance of the Far Right on a world scale over the last few years. Nonetheless, aContinue reading “The rise of fascism in France “

Back to school

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”

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”