A new generation of right-wing politicians have shifted from promoting deregulation to championing anti-migrant politics warns SOLOMON HUGHES
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We've seen the government's post-Covid strategy. It's not good for the working class
Some may be impressed with the tax increases and large figures pledged in the Chancellor's budget — but even a cursory look shows that it does little to abolish poverty for our heroic front-line workers and lots to transfer the cost of the pandemic onto the working class, writes ROBERT GRIFFITHS
by the Greater Manchester Workers’ and Tenants’ Association
The US relationship with Israel has evolved into a strategic liability, argues RAMZY BAROUD
A champion motorcyclist, trade union organiser and communist, Clem Beckett went from Britain’s speedway tracks to the battlefields of Spain, where he gave his life resisting Franco’s forces at Jarama. GEOFF BOTTOMS pays tribute to this remarkable anti-fascist
The greatest threat to democracy may no longer come from political parties but from unelected tech oligarchs like Peter Thiel and his powerful Silicon Valley network, argues JOHN GREEN
Claiming to ease a fertiliser shortage, the Trump administration has suspended tariffs on Moroccan phosphate imports – deepening US support for the Morocco’s control over Sahrawi territory, writes LUKE ROTELLO
MATHEMATICALLY, it was impressive stuff. Chancellor Rishi Sunak stood at the House of Commons dispatch box and reeled off a series of bountiful spending statistics.
For this year and next, he pledged an extra £65bn support for the economy in the face of the coronavirus crisis. The furlough job subsidy scheme will be extended until the end of September (£7bn) along with aid for the self-employed (£11bn net); reducing VAT will save the hospitality and leisure sectors almost £5bn; and businesses will benefit from higher capital investment allowances (£25bn), a rates freeze (£7bn) and many other grants and tax breaks.
Extending the £20 a week uplift in universal credit to the end of September will cost the Treasury just over £2bn and paying £500 to some working tax credit recipients about £765m.
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