Has politics ever been so untruthful? MPs on all sides applaud to a man and woman the diversion of Treasury funds for rearmament, as if World War 3 was approaching, in the guise of Vladimir Putin.

    With the latest Trump-initiated Ukraine crisis, and Vance's latest insult, suddenly they're all standing to attention, glorifying war and recalling the dead - whether in Afghanistan or lrag. Yes, both wars which were carried out on the basis of lies: the lie that the Afghan Taliban supported Al Qaeda's attack on the US in 2001, and the lie that Irag's Saddam Hussein had hidden weapons of mass destruction, in order to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

    Today are the politicians any less dishonest? The Ukraine war and their across-the-board support for Zelensky against "monster aggressor", Putin, is accompanied by the lie that Putin is threatening Britain, democracy as we know it, and the rest of "free" Europe. First Ukraine, then the rest of the world? When did Putin ever say anything of the sort?

    True, Russia has nuclear weapons. But so has India, Pakistan, China, etc... The only country which has ever used them, let us remind ourselves, is the US of A.

    Anyway in reality the support for Ukraine from the NATO alliance (which isn't offering it NATO membership anytime soon) has been a slow drip-feed, which would never have allowed Ukraine to win. But it has allowed Ukraine - at great human cost, to weaken the Russian side significantly.

    Behind the lies of western politicians, is the real and utterly cynical motive: get proxy Ukraine to undermine Russia enough so that its leaders are obliged to open Russia's resources to extensive exploitation by western capitalists, once and for all.

    The fact that a deal on rare earth minerals has been at the centre of Trump's current "peace" intervention says it all. He's done everyone a favour - by exposing the capitalist system as the nakedly self-interested brute it always was; voracious for "profits first" (not "America" First!) and with no concern for human life.

    That was evident in Gaza - where the self-same political suspects lined up to support the systematic killing of civilians and destruction of a whole ancient landscape, by their own rabid dog, Netanyahu - who is no better than Putin. And all because the Netanyahu- dog represents the interests of the US/West in the region.

    In the end Trump may get his Ukraine deal. But it will be at the expense of the working class of Ukraine, of Russia, of the US - and all the rest of us.

    This should serve as a reminder that our class needs to first arm itself politically, not against a foreign "enemy", but in order to fight the enemy at home - the capitalist class and its oppressive "nation state"!

Workers' "war" against the cost of living crisis isn't over by any means. While the "official" Consumer Price Index (CPI), is apparently back down to 3%, prices remain 25% higher now than they were 4 years ago!

    Energy costs continue to skyrocket, with the price cap rising by 6.4% next month, meaning an average increase of £9/month. Council tax is going up by the maximum - 4.99%. In fact, struggling councils will increase it by even more - like Newham by 9% or Bradford by 10%. Tube and rail fares just went up by 4.6%, and bus fares outside London by 50%! And all these increases hit the poorest the hardest.

    We're told that wages have risen by an average of 6%, so we should be OK... But where and for whom? Transport workers had a 2-year-long pay freeze, so the recent 4.5% pay increase doesn't even catch up. Postal workers got only 2%; a multi-billion giant like BMW is offering a "0% pay deal", while Ford offered 1%! And these are cuts in real pay and they're even more obscene when compared with the record profits some of these companies made last year.

    The Living Wage Foundation says that "2024 saw the largest annual rise in the number and proportion of jobs paid below the real Living Wage ever recorded". 4.5 million! So nearly 16% of the workforce doesn't even earn enough to live on.

    But guess what? With Starmer now re-arming "the nation" and claiming he and the EU's leaders must "save" Ukraine, they think they have a perfect excuse to cut public services, jobs, wages, you name it. In fact these political leaders all sit in the same sinking capitalist boat. They're all making huge public spending cuts, in the name of increasing military budgets.

    So workers everywhere must tighten their belts in the "national interest" and apparently feel proud because they're "standing up to Putin"! Rachel Reeves will now announce a Spring Budget, which will cut essential welfare, after having cut the International Aid budget to fund Britain's rise in warfare-spending. Of course we all know she intended to make the welfare cuts anyway, but never mind that!

    Targeting the most vulnerable, like pensioners and the poorest is Labour's new play-book: ministers even boast about it. At least this most right-wing of governments will shatter any remaining illusions that "Labour" represents labourers, let alone peace!