You would have to be well over 80 to directly remember anything about the 1930s. The nearest thing to real experience of that time, for those in the succeeding generation, was listening to our parents who preferred to forget about them. Tales of the Means Test, of going hungry, lacking shoes, not being able to afford a doctor and the shadow of unemployment and war are not the stuff of bedtime...

The post-war boom melted away decades ago. It produced a mass consumer society unheard of in history. This society was based on the colossal destruction and devaluation of capital in the Second World War. · Post-war Boom · Today’s waste society, where most people are immune to the dire environmental consequences of simply throwing away, or using up irreplaceable natural raw materials, is a direct...

Despite only getting 17% of the votes compared to about 30% for their coalition partners in the Five Star Movement, Matteo Salvini leader of La Lega (The League) has seized the opportunity as deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior to become the most dominant force in the new coalition of “populist parties”.

A generation ago teachers in West Virginia, Oklahoma and Kentucky walked off the job. In Kentucky teachers shut down half the districts in the state in 1988 to demand more school funding. Teachers in West Virginia and Oklahoma both went on strike in 1990 with the same aim. This was their response to cuts in pay and conditions brought about by the global economic crisis.