Reading
“It should not melt in yo’ mouth” And Bootycandy, at the Gate Theatre, London, certainly does not. Just when it seems the flavour of this play will settle into something recognisable and palatable, then some new wig, or trapdoor, or officiant in a rubber suit and gimp mask starts a non-commitment ceremony, and we choke […]
INET Grantee & Academic Advisor Perry Mehrling talks about his new book "Money and Empire: Charles P. Kindleberger and the Dollar System"
During the recent wave of strike action across the NHS, I reflected on pivotal moments in my healthcare career that made it clear things were going disastrously wrong in terms of staffing and patient safety. After graduating with a nursing degree, I started out in a Mental Health Trust in London. It was there that […]
In April, the government plans to push millions more into fuel poverty by hiking energy bills — it shows just how much suffering the political elite is prepared to accept to prop up the privatised energy fiasco. As I write this article, we have just finished a Power to the People protest outside the offices of […]
When Enough is Enough rallies swept through the country last autumn, there was a feeling among those of us organising the Luton launch event that we were punching above our weight. We had formed our Luton Tribune Club only a few weeks prior. We lacked the established activist networks and student populations that characterised many […]
‘Is austerity over?’ the Times asked the current Chancellor Jeremy Hunt in 2019, when he was running to replace Theresa May as Tory Party leader. ‘I think austerity is coming to a close,’ he replied, ‘but the need for financial discipline is never over.’ Three years later, Hunt was the hatchet-man for what has widely […]
Medical school is widely regarded as one of the most difficult paths for a young person. Applicants require exceptional academic qualifications and, even then, medical school acceptance rates are extremely low. Public perception has always been that once you have got into medical school, life would get easier. The medical profession is, after all, a […]
Jeff Bezos is one of the celebrity capitalists of the twenty-first century. Alongside Elon Musk, he is arguably as well known in the public sphere for his yacht collection and his contributions to the billionaire space race. With a net worth of over £104 billion as of February 2023, he’s the third wealthiest person in […]
Last month saw the first national teachers’ strike across England and Wales in seven years. On 1 February itself, thousands turned out across both nations to support teachers — as well as university workers and civil servants — in the largest mass demonstrations of the strike wave so far. These National Education Union (NEU) strikes together with […]
As Europe was ravaged by austerity policies in the past decade, numerous left-wing insurgencies emerged to challenge for government: Syriza in Greece, Podemos in Spain, La France Insoumise and, from 2015 to 2019, the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn. Each came from outside the traditional centre-left and learned, to some degree, from the others. They […]
Every liberal democracy recognises, to some degree, that workers have a right to strike. That right is protected in law, sometimes in the constitution itself. Strikes are also one of the most common forms of disruptive collective protest. After a long decline in the number of strike days, many countries in the West have seen […]
Over the last decade, economic debate in Britain has been dominated by one subject: austerity. The size of a government’s budget deficit and total public debt have always been hot topics among economists, but since the financial crisis these metrics have acquired greater popular significance. Mentions of the word ‘austerity’ in books and articles, for […]
The consequences of austerity in Britain are now so apparent that even many of its erstwhile cheerleaders are, at last, sheepishly facing up to them. The last thirteen years of underfunding and neglect have left the NHS, in particular, in a state of near collapse. Accident and emergency departments are overwhelmed, and many patients find […]