Britain

Far from heralding a new promise for the British economy, the 1% growth figure announced a month ago has already been buried by a pile of bad news. Few economists are looking towards 2013 with any real hope. Socialist Appeal editor Rob Sewell explains why.

The Tories’ latest attack on welfare benefits threatens to place even more of the burden of the bankers’ crisis onto the shoulders of the unemployed, the disabled, children and pensioners.

In the run up to Christmas we are seeing the usual desperate appeals from charities to raise money but the recession has meant that even their income is now falling. At the same time, the Tory-led Coalition’s programme of cuts, combined with job-losses and pay freezes are forcing more and more people to rely on hand-outs from charities.

The BBC, the traditional mouthpiece of the British Establishment, is presently engulfed in a major scandal involving the Savile paedophile cover-up. This comes on top of the MPs’ expenses scandal, the News of the World phone hacking scandals and many others that have undermined the legitimacy of once highly respected institutions.

It’s finally been confirmed. After months of dithering and posturing from David Cameron last month saw the British and Scottish governments agree that there would be a referendum on Scottish independence in 2014.

Splits and divisions are haunting the Coalition. Such a situation could not have come at a worse time for Cameron and Osborne, as they sharpen their knives for further cuts.

On October 20th  we will witness another massive display of opposition to the Coalition government. Hundreds of thousands of angry workers will take to the streets in an attempt to push back the Tory austerity programme.

As we begin the new academic year thousands of students up down the country will be leaving home for the first time to begin their Higher Education (HE) studies. Unfortunately for these students what should be an exciting and liberating occasion is overshadowed by the colossal debt they will be forced to take on as they become the first to pay the new £9,000 a year tuition fees.

In the aftermath of the revelations presented by the Hillsborough Independent Panel (read report here) we publish here the thoughts of a Liverpool supporter Mike Jones who speaks for many in the city of Liverpool about the reaction to what the report findings have now officially confirmed.

After a long fight lasting 23 years, the families and friends of the 96 football supporters killed at the Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield on the afternoon of Saturday April 15 1989 have finally had official confirmation of what really happened that day. For 23 years they have had to fight alone against a torrent of lies, mistruths and a cover-up involving the police and others. Now a report published by the independent commission established by the last Labour government has made available the real damming evidence of the blunders on the day and all the lies that followed.

Yesterday’s (29 August 2012) decision by the UK Border Agency (UKBA) to revoke London Met’sHighly Trusted Sponsor (HTS) status for international student visas is a symptom of the wider economic crisis and of a government far removed from the lives of ordinary people.

The recent quarrel over the timing and constitutional validity of the proposed independence referendum in Scotland has again pushed the national question to the forefront of British politics. Such developments give us a fresh opportunity to revisit this important issue.

Thank God for the Olympics!” must be the cry from most if not all Tory Ministers after the economic news at the end of last month. They will be more than a little relieved that the London Games have been hogging all the news and will continue to do so over the next few weeks at least. However, we all live in the real world and in that world we can see the consequences of the just over two years of this Coalition. We are now in the longest “double dip” recession for over 50 years.