We can’t stop now!

Thousands are being massacred in Gaza, and the Western world remains silent. Israel has treacherously broken the ceasefire. For the last two weeks, Israel has completely blockaded Gaza, using starvation as a weapon of war as it continues to kill Palestinians with impunity in the occupied West Bank as well as the beleaguered Palestinian enclave. And now, with the blessing of Donald Trump the Zionists have resumed their genocidal assault on Gaza.  
The Israeli war-machine has killed at least 45,000 Palestinians in Gaza and displaced more than 90 per cent of Gaza’s population. Palestinians in Gaza are facing imminent famine. Yet our political leaders still refuse to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, and for Britain to stop arming Israel. 
All we get are weasel words from Starmer. His Foreign Minister, David Lammy told the House of Commons on Monday that Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip was “appalling and unacceptable” and “a breach of international law”. The next day it was watered-down by Downing Street. Starmer’s spokesman Dave Pares refused to repeat that line, telling reporters that  “our position remains that Israel’s actions in Gaza have a clear risk of breaking international humanitarian law”. Shameful nonsense.
Hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets in London and all over the country to demand a halt to Zionist aggression and call for justice for the Palestinian Arabs. As Israel’s genocidal assault continues we must keep on taking action until the Palestinians win their fight for freedom. We can’t stop now!

Tax the rich instead

Opposition to Labour’s new austerity programme is growing. “Slashing disability benefits is a cruel political choice that will cost lives” says Jeremy Corbyn. The former Labour leader says none of the cuts announced are necessary and the government should tax the super-rich instead. Diane Abbott dismisses Sir Keir Starmer’s claim that the cuts in benefits had a moral purpose. “This is not about morality,” she says. It is “about the Treasury’s wish to balance the country’s books on the back of the most vulnerable and poor people in this society”. And the Greens tell Starmer that millions were struggling in “a deeply unfair, unequal economic system” while billionaires got ever richer. Why put the burden for tackling the crisis on the elderly, children, the sick and disabled “rather than on the shoulders of the super-rich with a wealth tax”. 
The Starmer government pleads poverty to justify means-testing the pensioners’ winter fuel benefit. It won’t pay compensation to the three million or so women born in the 1950s who were not properly informed about the state pension age increase. But it can find plenty to fuel the proxy war against Russia and pay for Trident and the rest of our so-called nuclear deterrent.  
The Labour biggies and the ruling class that they serve maintain that capitalism is the only game in town. And it is – but only for themselves. Capitalism, in the final analysis, is simply a system designed to perpetuate the rule of the landowners, industrialists and capitalists to ensure that a tiny handful of parasites can live the lives of Roman emperors off the backs of millions upon millions of working people. There is only one solution to the capitalist crisis – socialism! 

NHS England goes…

 

...in a reform of the health service that they say will cut bureaucracy and save money that will be better spent in delivering front-line services to the frail and infirm. Sir Keir Starmer said “I don’t see why decisions about £200 billion of taxpayer money on something as fundamental to our security as the NHS should be taken by an arm’s length body, NHS England. And I can’t, in all honesty, explain to the British people why they should spend their money on two layers of bureaucracy. That money could and should be spent on nurses, doctors, operations, GP appointments. So I’m bringing management of the NHS back into democratic control by abolishing NHS England. That will put the NHS back at the heart of government where it belongs, free it to focus on patients — less bureaucracy with more money for nurses”. Whether that actually happens when the NHS returns directly to the “democratic control” of the Department of Health and Social Care is, of course, a matter of opinion.
Hugh Alderwick, the Director of Policy at the Health Foundation, said “Abolishing NHS England is a watershed moment in how the English NHS is governed and managed – and ends a 12-year experiment with trying to manage the NHS more independently from ministers.
“There is some logic in bringing the workings of NHS England and the government more closely together – for example, to help provide clarity to the health service on priorities for improvement. And – in reality – it is impossible to take politics out of the NHS.
“But history tells us that rejigging NHS organisations is hugely distracting and rarely delivers the benefits politicians expect. Scrapping NHS England completely will cause disruption and divert time and energy of senior leaders at a time when attention should be focused on improving care for patients”.
The unions were equally unimpressed. PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said “technology has a part to play in improving public services and enhancing our members’ job satisfaction, but we are also clear that it cannot be used as a blunt instrument to cut jobs. Better public services and better front-line delivery will require human beings making empathetic decisions, not automatons incapable of understanding people’s needs”.
Only time will tell whether this will end the shameful sight of patients left for days in hospital corridors due to the shortage of beds or better pay for nurses and the other medical staff that keep the NHS going. What is certain is that around 9,000 jobs will be axed at NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care as part of the changes – and that is largely what lies behind the Prime Minister’s decision.

Wakey, Wakey!

By John Maryon

A humorous exclamation from the 1940s. The catch-phrase of Billy Cotton’s band in the 1950s. A gentle expression softly whispered into the ear of a sleepy recruit by a benevolent Sergeant-Major.  Such a call is needed today and it is the working class that needs to wake up.  To start to think and become aware of the true reality of the modern world. 
It is important to overcome the anaesthetising effects of constant bourgeois propaganda, lies and half truths pushed every day by TV, popular internet sources and newspapers.  All made palatable with a diet that includes bland trivia, affordable alcohol and an excessive dose of big money sport.
The reality is that Britain has a prime minister who is one of the worst warmongers in Europe and the country is heading towards becoming a failed state.  Decades of government incompetence, a lack of long term investment and planning and also an eager role of playing lackey to the USA have all taken their toll.  Faced with irreconcilable contradictions imperialism is in its terminal crisis.  And there can be no doubt that it is the workers who are intended to carry the burdens of it's failure.
Continued austerity, collapsing public services, inflation, a  falling value of wages and benefits, increasing taxation and job losses are the symptoms of the crisis that has created poverty and anxiety in Britain. Ways must be found to make workers aware of their exploitation and the reasons behind it.  To wake up and come to realise that fundamental change is necessary.  Marxist philosophy, enriched and adapted to suit specific conditions, has enabled workers and peasants to achieve real freedom and growing prosperity in many parts of the world.  It has demonstrated that ordinary people from a humble background can reach for the stars.  Socialism has allowed formally down-trodden workers to flourish and reach their full potential without the exploitation of and subjugation to a parasitic elite ruling class.  The guiding principles of Marxism, with adjustments to reflect the history and culture of Britain, can bring socialist values to enable everyone to become masters of their own destiny. 
Socialism made possible Sputnik 1,  put the first man and woman into space and made it possible for the Soviet Union, the world's first workers’ state, to grow into a powerful force for peace. The USSR was able to play a major role in assisting countries break free from colonialism.  Socialism in People's China facilitated the transformation of a poverty-ridden largely peasant society into an industrial powerhouse on a scale that the world has never seen.  Socialism in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has enabled its people, against overwhelming odds, to build a successful modern industrial state. Socialism has given hope to oppressed peoples everywhere. It's what we need in Britain today. 
A cross-party alliance of UK politicians remain in denial about the seriousness of the country’s economic position.  They still exist within a colonial mindset. A Rule Britannia day dream in which they imagine Britain is still all-powerful, remains influential and continues to rule the waves. Any problems are blamed on others, which the media then demonise.  The UK Parliament, which they regard as the 'mother of parliaments' and a model for the world to copy, has become little more than a chamber for the living dead. 
Long gone are the days of stimulating debates resounding in the House as after the shouting the whips then tell anxious members what to vote for. It is no wonder that a majority support keeping the Ukraine tragedy going with no genuine proposals for peace. 
To tackle Britain's economic problems fundamental action for change is required.  Not ineffective half measures or tinkering by social democrats of a system well past its sell by date.  We need decisive action to put forward a real socialist alternative based upon a full Marxist analysis. The New Communist Party of Britain has clear policies for the peaceful, sustainable and stable development of Britain. A number of it's proposals now follows. 

Defence: It is said that the British army now has more horses than working tanks.  If this is the case anyone who wanted to attack the UK would already have done so while a significant response would have been limited to a slow motion charge of the light brigade.  Defence spending serves the military industrial complex creating huge profits for companies and associated warmongers.  Defence spending, £53.9 billion in 2023/24, will increase massively under proposals by Sir Keir Starmer with his commitment to increase the amount to 2.5 per cent of nominal GDP in an obvious attempt to appease Washington.  The NCP's priorities include drastically cutting military expenditure and using the money saved to secure the future of the NHS, investing in Britain's future and  increasing social welfare spending to eliminate poverty.  And importantly to work tirelessly for peace with sincere diplomacy. 

Nationalisation: Old photographs taken in the late 1940s say it all.  Miners are shown standing outside a pit admiring a new sign.  "This Colliery is now managed by the National Coal Board on Behalf of the People".  Winston Churchill, at the onset of World War One, had recognised that for a secure and reliable source of oil without being ripped off he needed to take a majority stake in the Anglo Persian Oil Company.  Full public ownership of energy companies and utilities is still essential today.  While private companies focus on profits to announce at the next AGM, public institutions can look ahead to plan and invest long term for an affordable and secure future.  Privatisation has been a disaster for Britain.  The NCP is fully committed to full democratic public ownership. Not state capitalism in which temporary ownership enables public money to be spent bailing out a failing industry.   We seek worker participation on the governing boards to protect their interests and promote good service above profits.  I believe also that it would be a good idea to establish a National Housing Board to oversee the building of badly needed council houses which could be financed by the issue of government bonds. 

Taxation: It is the working class, the ordinary people, who are being made to carry the can for the failure of capitalism.  Cuts to welfare benefits and vital public services have contributed to growing poverty in Britain today. Young families are turning to foodbanks for support while the elderly fear for their future. Meanwhile the wealthy elite who control our lives are laughing all the way to their tax havens.  The NCP would tax the rich with hard hitting fiscal policies that would redistribute wealth to the workers who with their hands and brains created it. 

In conclusion as capitalism fails it is time for the working class to turn off their televisions and start to think freely for themselves.  To wake up to reality and start to fight back. To organise, become involved, join a trade union and support a genuine political party committed to Socialism based upon Marxist philosophy.  We cannot rely on the Labour Party with its long history of betrayal and class collaboration to achieve success.  Building Socialism requires the vanguard role of a proper Communist Party such as the New Communist Party of Britain with its full commitment to Marxism.  

Arise ye starvelings from your slumbers!

Free Palestine – Boycott Israel!

by New Worker correspondent

Coca-Cola will no longer be served at the Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT) after objections from the staff. Workers at the Glasgow Film Theatre have led demands at the charity-run cinema to show support for the Palestinian Arabs amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza as staff and well-known figures from the arts called for the venue to support a boycott of Israeli goods. Coca-Cola does business in Israel and owns vineyards in both the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Golan Heights through a subsidiary.  
Last week, Unite members at the cinema announced they would not be handling any goods on the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement’s list. Coca-Cola products are part of that list. 
An open letter from the Unite Hospitality branch was published last week calling for the theatre to adhere to the BDS movement’s boycott list and endorse the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). The branch’s stand was backed by Ghassan Abu-Sittah, rector of the University of Glasgow, and film director Ken Loach, who, of course, supports an academic and cultural boycott of the Zionist entity. 
The branch deplored “GFT’s failure to agree to endorse BDS and PACBI. For over a year our members have petitioned the board on numerous occasions to agree to scrap financial and cultural ties to the Israeli regime which has plausibly committed genocide, and continues to practice apartheid in the occupied territories and Jerusalem”.
 It also declared that “we recognise the contradiction of an institution that is willing to profit financially from the screening of popular Palestinian films and documentaries while refusing to cut ties with the apartheid regime which so often appears as the antagonist in them”.
 The branch’s industrial officer Yana Petticrew added that: “Our branch would like to convey our unwavering support for our members and friends at the GFT in their service boycott of BDS-listed items and products”. 
 Campaigns officer, Max McCluskey, said “our members understand that the same CEOs profiting from your can of coke, your extortionate food and energy bills, the privatisation of our NHS, and the political capture of our elected politicians through lobbying and pressure, are the same ones lining up to invest in Trump’s barbaric plans for ethnic-cleansing in the Gaza Strip. Cultural venues like the GFT have a moral and political duty to divest from such regimes and commit to a cultural output that is starkly opposed to them. The modern global economy connects workers across the world financially, socially and politically”.
 In response the GFT said “We understand the significance of the issues raised and the depth of feeling raised by members of our communities. The Board and Executive are reviewing the detailed points and requests submitted by staff with the necessary due diligence, essential legal review and consultation required to ensure that we meet our charitable obligations”. 
 Cinema goers desiring a tooth rotting drink can always make do with Irn Bru. And if any of them like rum, it should be Havana Club, not Bacardi!

Topsy-turvy land

The Halifax Forum’s Anti-Democratic Agenda

by Roland Boer

An organisation of supposed statesmen and intellectuals was formed in the city of Halifax in Canada with the aim of reigniting and overthrowing the people’s government in China.
This so-called “Halifax Forum” held a meeting in Taipei, the capital of the breakaway Chinese province of Taiwan, last month with both open and closed sessions to discuss issues of “security” and “democracy”.
To begin with, this gathering of the representatives of the parasite class was clearly a provocative move, since the island of Taiwan is recognised internationally as an inalienable part of China. It is clear that despite all the nice “buzz words” the Halifax Forum promotes, it actually supports separatism, extremism, and terrorism.
However, let us have a closer look at what the Halifax Forum claims to be. Initially established on a Canadian initiative (hence “Halifax”) it has on its board of directors and team people from Canada, the USA, various countries in Eastern and Western Europe and one or two from African countries. No one, it seems comes from China, Australia, or New Zealand.
Further, the funding of the Halifax Forum is revealing, since one of them is NATO – the aggressive military alliance led by the USA that has attacked countries such as Yugoslavia (and dismembered it), Afghanistan, and more recently Russia. NATO is, as we know, facing a crisis, with the USA at the time of writing disdainfully casting aside “old Europe” in its direct suing for peace with Russia in relation to Ukraine.
While the Halifax Forum boasts such funding – and there are others – it claims to be “non-partisan” in its promotion of “democracy”. Readers will know that “democracy” here stands for Western political systems imposed on countries against their will and indeed against their historical logic. In other words, they try to promote capitalist democracy and refuse to recognise the superior form of socialist democracy practised in People’s China. Indeed, if one looks at the “Halifax China” page, one sees the lies and distortions concerning China that have become common in some corners of the West. We are led to the following conclusion: since the Halifax Forum takes an anti-China stance, it is in essence a partisan and ultimately anti-democratic organisation.
However, there is a deeper problem that is endemic to Western approaches: they think that the political system determines everything else. Thus, if they can change a political system in their favour, they think that they have solved the problem. This is topsy-turvy. Why? It is the economic system that determined and shapes in complex ways the political system. Real and qualitative change takes place through socioeconomic transformation, as we see with China’s revolution, socialist construction, and reform. Suitable political structures emerge as a result.
In socio-economic terms, we note the following: that the island of Taiwan’s derivative and imbalanced capitalist approach has led to economic stagnation is clear; that it relies on the mainland for its economic survival is also clear; that it will in due time normalise relations with the mainland is the path of history. The Halifax Forum’s inverted approach simply tries to delay the reality of Chinese compatriots across the straights coming truly together once again.

Half the Sky

This weekend working people in Britain and throughout the rest of the world paused to mark the struggle for equal rights and the ending of all discrimination against women that is re-affirmed every year on 8th March International Women’s Day. 
International Women’s Day was launched by the United Nations in those heady days of 1977. Back in the 1970s the imperialists were on the defensive. The Israelis got a bloody nose from the Arabs in the October war of 1973. Then, for the first and only time, the Arabs and the OPEC oil cartel used their oil wealth to screw concessions from the imperialists. In 1974 the pro-Western Emperor of Ethiopia was overthrown, the Portuguese empire collapsed and Yasser Arafat addressed the United Nations General Assembly in an epic call for Palestinian rights. The Americans were kicked out of Vietnam soon after. 
It was a decade of optimism and liberation and the holiday was widely celebrated throughout the Global South as well as Cuba, the Soviet Union, People’s China and  the people’s republics of Eastern Europe. It was also celebrated in the West as mass movements and trade unions took up the call for equality and women’s rights in the United States and Western Europe.
In the people’s democracies and other parts of the Global South the day is still genuinely celebrated to mark the end of feudal concepts and the emancipation of women who Chairman Mao famously said “hold up half the sky”.  But it barely goes beyond the inevitable commercialisation used to sell goods to the “women’s” market in the imperialist heartlands these days. Trade union bureaucrats and mainstream bourgeois politicians all pay lip-service to its aims but they rarely go beyond their usual attempts to woo the “women’s” vote while
women’s issues are reduced to the “woke” demands of the middle strata gurus that serve the ruling class in the mass media. 
They’ll elevate the problems of petty-bourgeois women in breaking through the “glass ceiling” of bourgeois society while routinely ignoring the problems of inequality, homelessness, unemployment, domestic violence, drink and drugs that hit working class women the hardest.
Many of the issues affecting women naturally also impact on men and the fight for equality for women is a crucial part of the class struggle. Inequalities sow divisions in the class when unity and solidarity are most needed.
The emancipation of women can only be achieved under socialism. Or as Lenin put it “it is precisely the Soviet system, and the Soviet system only, that secures democracy. This is clearly demonstrated by the position of the working class and the poor peasants. It is clearly demonstrated by the position of women…the working women’s movement has for its objective the fight for the economic and social, and not merely formal, equality of woman. The main task is to draw the women into socially productive labour, extricate them from "domestic slavery", free them of their stultifying and humiliating resignation to the perpetual and exclusive atmosphere of the kitchen and nursery”.

The cowardly, craven BBC

Hundreds of film, TV, and media professionals, have condemned censorship and racism after the BBC removed a documentary about the children of Gaza. In a letter to BBC executives, they criticised the decision as “racist” and “dehumanising”, blaming pressure from pro-Israel groups. Billed as “following the lives of four young people trying to survive the Israel-Hamas war as they hope for a ceasefire - a vivid and unflinching view of life in a warzone” the documentary has now been pulled by the BBC.
Gary Lineker and Miriam Margolyes are among more than 800 media figures who have condemned the BBC's decision to pull a documentary about children's lives in Gaza. 
The BBC says it removed Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone from iPlayer while it carried out "further due diligence" after discovering that the young narrator was the son of a Hamas official. Zionists, including the Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely, had written to the BBC asking how a child with alleged family ties to Hamas was allowed to be the focus of a documentary about the lives of ordinary Palestinians.   
The open protest letter published by Artists for Palestine UK criticised what the signatories said was a "racist" and "dehumanising" campaign targeting the documentary. It called on the BBC to reject efforts to have the film permanently removed or “subjected to undue disavowals” saying that surrendering to efforts to stop its return to iPlayer would indicate “racialised smears against Palestinians outweigh journalistic ethics and public interest”.
The signatories also warned against intrusive scrutiny of Abdullah Al-Yazouri, a 14-year-old  child who narrated Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone. His father, Dr Ayman Al-Yazouri, served as Gaza’s deputy agriculture minister – a civil service role concerned with food production.
“​​Almost half of Gaza’s population are children. What they have experienced over the past 17 months is something no child deserves to ever go through” said Liam O’Hare, an award-winning documentary producer/director who signed the letter. “As journalists and filmmakers we have a duty to help tell their story and that’s what this film did so brilliantly. The BBC cannot allow a politicised campaign to succeed in silencing the children of Gaza.”
Artists for Palestine UK (APUK) is a growing network of artists and cultural workers standing together in support of Palestinian liberation and for a just resolution for all in Israel/Palestine, including Palestinian refugees. 
The campaign that was launched in 2015 believes that those who work in the arts have a responsibility to consider the impact of their work when engaging in a situation of radical inequality.
APUK says that the arts are of particular significance where a people’s history, cultural heritage and future are under constant threat of erasure and it believes that the arts have an important role to play in connecting audiences with Palestinian experience. It opposes all forms of racism, including anti-Arab racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism.
“The UK film and TV industry will no longer be intimidated by those whose sole mission it is to censor the voices of the many who are defending the rights of children, the marginalised and those in desperate need. All stories have the right to be told and journalistic scrutiny should not be at the whim of those who deem certain lives unequal,” said letter signatory Nada Issa, an award-winning producer/director and journalist who is part Palestinian and Lebanese. We whole-heartedly agree.

Tales from a heroic age

by Ben Soton

Odyssey: Stephen Fry, Penguin London 2024, 416 pp, pbk rrp £10.99

Odyssey by Stephen Fry is the latest translation of Homer’s epic poem. The original, believed to have been written sometime in the eighth century BC, was probably written in an archaic form of Ancient Greek, probably Doric. Suffice to say there have been numerous translations of The Odyssey; some in poetic form others in prose.
The Odyssey has had an immense influence on Western literature. The Aeneid by the Roman Virgil has numerous similarities with The Odyssey; both stories originate in the Trojan War. James Joyce’s Ulysses (Joyce uses the Roman name for the hero Odysseus) is also based on it. In modern science fiction the famous words from Darth Vader to Luke Skywalker, “Luke I am your father”, has its origins in the meeting between Odysseus and his son, Telemachus, while the term “odyssey” is often synonymous with any epic journey.
Odyssey by Stephen Fry differs little from previous translations of Homer’s account of the king of Ithaca’s return from the Trojan war. His desire is to return to his wife Penelope, whom he has been parted from for twenty years and his son Telemachus, who was little more than a babe in arms when he left. Penelope is continually pestered by suitors who she manages to outwit who want to marry her and take the throne. Time is running out and few believe Odysseus to be alive. Meanwhile in his attempt to return home Odysseus, faces Cyclops, sea monsters and is continually shipwrecked.
Fry’s translation, which is written in prose format and reads more like a novel, differs slightly in that he makes passing reference to the Trojan prince Aeneas. Aeneas fled from Troy, put to the torch by the victorious Greeks, and his descendants eventually founded Rome.
Whilst Odyssey ends with the defeat of the suitors, other translations continue with further stories. For instance the E V Rieu translation of 1946 describes the brutal killing of the disloyal female slaves of his household who had sided with the suitors. Fry makes no mention of this, even in the prologue, making this translation more sympathetic to Odysseus.
The problem with the story is that so little is known about the original author, Homer. Some scholars even doubt his existence and attribute the work to a number of different writers. Perhaps Homer, assuming he existed, simply played an editorial role.
Nevertheless the Odyssey is still a timeless work of literature. It has inspired numerous translations, television series, feature films and will continue to arouse curiosity for many years to come. On that note Odyssey by Stephen Fry is well worth reading and will make a worthwhile addition to any bookshelf.

Between a rock and a hard place

Keir Starmer’s off to Washington next week to win support for a European plan to send 30,000 British and European Union troops to Ukraine as “peacekeepers” if and when a truce is agreed to end the Ukraine war. Though this force would allegedly be there to guarantee Ukraine’s independence its real role would be to preserve the British and European Union’s economic interests in a post-war Ukraine that Donald Trump clearly sees as no more than an American protectorate.
The war-lobby that reflects the most venal and aggressive sections of the British ruling class has gone into top gear with Labour, Tory and Liberal Democrat worthies all urging Starmer to “stand up” to Donald Trump. The Atlanticists who used to hail American presidents as leaders of the “free world” have closed ranks with those who look to an alliance with Franco-German imperialism to bleat on about “betrayal”.
“It's time for Starmer to stand up for Britain and our allies in Europe” says Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey. Former Tory defence secretary Gavin Williamson says that “we cannot let fake news and a false narrative become accepted. That has to be rebuffed at every moment. And if that causes some people offence, well, that's their problem”. And Tony Blair’s former spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, calls Donald Trump a “pathological liar, a narcissist” who is “concerned only about himself, his wealth and his power” in the Independent last week.
None of this is likely to sway those now at the helm of US imperialism. The initiative to start high-level talks between the Russian and American foreign ministers  in Saudi Arabia was not the whim of The Donald or a tiny clique of American oligarchs but a decision that reflects the needs and demands of the wing of the American ruling class that wants to cut its losses in Ukraine to enable them to strengthen their grip over the Middle East in their bid to control the entire global energy market. 
In reality there never was a “free world” and the “special relationship” the British bourgeoisie upheld was largely a figment of their own imagination. They feign suprise at Trump’s moves to build detente with the Russian Federation but the Trump camp made no secret of this in the run-up to the US presidential election last year. The simple fact is that Starmer and the rest of the pack in Europe didn’t think Trump would win. 
As we’ve said before secret diplomacy is rarely the best pathway to peace. But both the Russian and American sides are clearly working towards a win-win agreement over Ukraine. If that ends the war with a peace settlement that recognises the rights of the Crimeans, southern Ukrainians and the people of the Donbas to live in the Russian Federation well and good. It will clearly benefit the Ukrainian and Russian people.

A not so pointless murder

 

by Ben Soton

We Solve Murders: Richard Osman, Penguin, London 2024, 432 pp, Hbk £22, Pbk £9.99

Richard Osman is best known as the co-presenter of the television gameshow Pointless; however in 2020 he branched out into thriller writing with the Thursday Murder Club series.  However, the series, based around a group of elderly characters approaching eighty, may for obvious reasons have a limited lifespan.  Building on the success of his first series Osman appears to be starting a new set of novels, the first being We Solve Murders.         
The book’s main characters are a retired Met detective Steve Wheeler, now living in the New Forest, and his bodyguard daughter-in-law Amy.  Steve lives in the fictional village of Axley, which has strong similarities with the actual village of East Boldre.  Its inhabitants are mostly affluent commuters and retirees and Steve spends much of his time solving minor mysteries, such as money missing from the till in a local shop and the odd missing cat.  The highlight of his week is the pub quiz.       
Amy’s world could not be more different.  Currently working as a body-guard for an international best-selling author, Rosie D’Antonio; she inhabits a world where the higher echelons of organised crime meet the super-rich.  Is there much difference?
These two very contrasting worlds are brought together after a series of murders and an attempt by the real culprit to either frame Amy or have her murdered.  Amy is forced to ask Steve for help.   
It’s an odyssey that takes Rosie, Steve and Amy across the world starting in South Carolina and ending at the pub quiz in Axley.  Steve eventually solves the murder, bringing the guilty parties to justice.  He meanwhile manages to make the transition from the world of a quiet New Forest village to an action-adventure role including private jets, shootings and possibly the opportunity of romance.   
The novel reads more like a complicated word puzzle than a novel and the murderer was the character I suspected. Its interjections about teenage influencers, which I still wonder what they had to do with the murder, do not really help.  The characters did not immediately spike the imagination in the same way as the Thursday Murder Club series.  Meanwhile Osman missed an opportunity to provide Amy with a sufficient back story, which he managed to do with Steve.  However characters sometimes take several novels to fully develop.  The story ends with the possibility of further books. Let’s hope they are better than the first.