News and Analysis

By Dan Townsend (Pontypridd, RCT Socialist Party) Storm Bert has left communities across South Wales reeling. Streets have turned into rivers, homes are waterlogged, and Pontypridd’s lido – lovingly restored after the 2019-20 floods – is once again in ruins. While the destruction may seem natural, the root causes are anything but. RCT’s valleys, historically shaped by industry, now bear ...

By Joe Fathallah (Socialist Party National Committee) Keir Starmer’s New Labour government has announced its plans to raise tuition fees for the first time in nearly ten years. And such is the depth of crisis in university finances, this will not be enough to solve the funding crisis in higher education. Uni bosses will still go ahead and attempt to ...

By Dave Reid Thousands of farmers have been protesting at the changes to inheritance tax laws contained in Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves’s Budget. The changes mean that the exemption from paying inheritance tax on agricultural land valued at over £1.5 million is removed, and farms worth over that amount will be liable for 20% inheritance tax when the owners die. ...

By Mariam Kamish (RCT Socialist Party) Like most councils in Britain, RCT Council faces a funding gap, after years of austerity under Tory and Labour governments. And councillors are proposing devastating cuts. The Labour council is trying to divide us. The consultation process asks you to explain how a cut or closure would affect you – and where you think ...

By Robert Bechert The victory of Trump and his refashioned Republican party clearly opens new chapters in both US and world history. For many in a polarised US this victory of right populism will strike more than a note of fear, especially among women fearing attacks on their reproductive rights and migrants fearing they, or their family members, will be ...

In an unusual move, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) publicly praised Rachel Reeves’s first Budget speech as ‘sustainable’. Meanwhile, the editorial of the main newspaper of British capitalism, the Financial Times, welcomed it as having “begun to fix the foundations of Britain’s economy from a difficult starting point”. When sources like this praise a Budget, working-class people can be certain ...

Build the socialist opposition Editorial of the Socialist issue 1293 On Saturday 5 October 2024, the Socialist Party took part in the biggest anti-war demonstration since the first months of the onslaught on Gaza, marching on 10 Downing Street, the New Labour prime minister Keir Starmer’s residence. The marchers’ need to make their voices heard against the nightmarish events taking ...

By Dave Reid Labour-run Caerphilly council has doubled down on its £45 million cuts agenda by announcing 600 job losses at the authority. This follows threats to close meals on wheels, Blackwood Miners’ Institute and Llancaiach Fawr house (as reported in The Socialist Issues 1287-1292). At its latest meeting the Labour administration gave in to pressure not to close the ...

By Aris Prevost and Joe Fathallah Socialist Students was at freshers to meet and discuss with all those looking for an alternative to rising tuition fees, marketisation of higher education, slum housing, and universities investing in arms manufacturers responsible for death and destruction in the Middle East. Keir Starmer’s Labour government is threatening to raise the tuition fees cap to ...

By Paul Kershaw Pensioners’ groups and unions, including the National Pensioners Convention, Scottish Pensioners Forum and Unite, rallied outside Parliament before lobbying MPs to oppose Starmer’s abolition of the universal winter fuel payment. Unite branches where the campaign has been raised have found a big response from members and the lively crowd reflected the depth of feeling against this attack ...