Latest editorial
LABOUR shadow chancellor John McDonnell unveiled plans yesterday to pump billions of pounds of investment into Britain’s regions to boost industry and create hundreds of thousands of jobs.
He pledged radical changes, including giving workers the right to sit on company boards and funding for co-operative enterprises — proposals reminiscent of the 1975 Bullock Report commissioned by Harold Wilson’s Labour government.
Speaking at the National Glass Centre in Sunderland, Mr McDonnell said a Labour government would create a publicly controlled national investment bank and similar banks for Britain’s regions with access to £500 billion to boost industrial development and jobs.
The 2025 Budget shores up the PM’s political position with headline-grabbing welfare U-turns, but with no improvements on offer to declining public services or living standards, writes MICHAEL BURKE
Since 2010, one in five firefighter jobs has disappeared alongside 30% funding cuts — all while climate breakdown brings record blazes and flooding. It’s time to fund our fire service properly, writes FBU general secretary STEVE WRIGHT
The electorate see no evidence of the government’s promises of change, and the good jobs and decent pay that people are crying out for. Bold action is needed right now, warns SHARON GRAHAM
Under current policy, welfare cuts are just a small downpayment on future austerity, argues MICHAEL BURKE