IAN LAVERY MP warns that decades of neoliberal policies have left former industrial communities behind — but a renewed Labour commitment to working people could change the political landscape
DURING the festive season we were reminded by television news broadcasters and newspapers in their customary hand-wringing way that this country’s bitterly cold streets have been “home” for rough sleepers. And that loneliness and poverty will plague the elderly. So, what’s new?
Sensationalist reporting aside, mainstream media have an attention deficit when it comes to the “unsexy” issue of rough sleeping and loneliness. More on that later.
Spiralling figures for homelessness and lack of affordable housing has made this social pandemic a hot political issue, with political parties from all sides falling over themselves to find measures that will resonate well with the public while cynically boosting their popularity and poll ratings.
Enduring myths blame print unions for their own destruction – but TONY BURKE argues that the Wapping dispute was a calculated assault by Murdoch on organised labour, which reshaped Britain’s media landscape and casts a long shadow over trade union rights today
Our housing crisis isn’t an accident – it’s class war, trapping millions in poverty while landlords and billionaires profit. To solve it, we need comprehensive transformation, not mere tokenistic reform, writes BECK ROBERTSON


