Month: January 2022

Now is the time to renationalise rail

When studies show we have one of the most expensive and inefficient railways in Europe, a new fare hike is the last straw: we need public ownership, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

This year is set to see yet another rise in Britain’s rail fares, with an increase of 3.8 per cent being introduced in March.

At this point these hikes in prices have begun to feel as much of a new year tradition as the London fireworks display or Jools Holland’s annual hootenanny, but we should never lose sight of just what a rip-off rail privatisation has been — or just how many opportunities governments have given it to fail us time after time.
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Stand with the heroic example of the Honduran people

Amid a difficult time for British progressives, the left’s victory in Honduras shows why we say ‘Don’t mourn, organise!’ writes KEN LIVINGSTONE

Twelve years ago, in 2009, I was part of the organising team of a meeting called by the Emergency Committee Against the Coup in Honduras alongside trade unionists, MPs and representatives of Latin American embassies and community groups.

That summer the Honduran army had forced elected president Manuel Zelaya from office — an outrageous but perhaps unsurprising move when you consider the political direction he sought to take the country in and the long history of attempts to undermine governments in the region that pursued progressive domestic agendas and independent foreign policy approaches.
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