A leaked memo, a Maga-style hat and a trail of broken pledges – it’s Labour’s great housing betrayal | Aditya Chakrabortty

A leaked memo, a Maga-style hat and a trail of broken pledges – it’s Labour’s great housing betrayal | Aditya Chakrabortty

Ignore the bombast: Steve ‘build, baby, build’ Reed’s boast looks likely to end in targets more pathetic than they are now If the name Steve Reed means little to you, rest assured that is a pothole he is eager to fill. Having replaced Angela Rayner as housing secretary, he bounded around Labour conference last month dishing out Maga-red caps stamped with his credo “Build Baby Build!”. Headgear and slogan have both been filched from that very rightwing guy in the White House – because, like Robert Jenrick, Steve Reed is what happens when self-identified centrists turn populist. Imagine Donald Trump had, years ago, swerved TV fame to become instead ward councillor for Brixton Hill. Imagine if Trump had no towers, but knew his way round a Travelodge. Most of all, imagine this scene from the conference fringe, recounted by Inside Housing magazine: Aditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnist Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here . Continue reading...

The Guardian view on EU accession for Ukraine: Orbán must not be allowed to call the tune | Editorial

The Guardian view on EU accession for Ukraine: Orbán must not be allowed to call the tune | Editorial

In a critical phase, Brussels should find a way to bypass Hungary’s prime minister in the interests of European solidarity Hosting European Union leaders in Copenhagen earlier this month, the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, described Europe as facing “the most difficult and dangerous situation since the second world war”. There have been other moments of high tension, such as during the 1980s when US cruise missiles were deployed in Germany in response to an escalating arms race with the Soviet Union. From next year, long-range missiles will be back on German soil, amid fears that recent Russian incursions into EU airspace herald a new and ominous phase of the war in Ukraine. As Donald Trump’s US continues to carry the status of an unreliable ally, European unity, cohesion and solidarity are of critical importance. But little of substance emerged from the Copenhagen talks. Disagreement persists , for example, over the advisability of leveraging €140bn of frozen Russian assets to assist Kyiv. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here . Continue reading...