Solidarity 385, 20 November 2015

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne will set out the Government's tax and spending plans when he delivers the annual Autumn Statement to the House of Commons on 25 November. As well as outlining how the Government intends to meet its target of cutting an extra £20 billion from public spending by 2019-20, the equivalent of Departmental budgets falling by between twenty-five and forty per cent over the next five years, Osborne is also expected to list ways in which the Treasury will look to minimise the impact of the £4.4 billion in cuts to tax credits paid to low-paid and part-time...

On 31 October, the Islamist group Daesh claimed the destruction of a Russian passenger aircraft flight 7K9268, over Sinai, Egypt, on 31 October, killing 224 people. On 12 November it claimed 43 civilians killed by bombings in Beirut. And now it has claimed 129 people killed in Paris on the evening of 13 November. In Paris, gunmen opened fire in many crowded cafes, dance halls, and stadiums. The latest count is 352 injured, 99 critically. The suspected ringleader, a Belgian national, has been killed in a police raid. Daesh conquered Iraq’s second city, Mosul, in June 2014, and since then has...