EDITORIAL

by Peter Jukes

Eventful Times

As Byline Times enters its eighth year of publication, the need for independent, reader-funded journalism has never been more stark. While both the established press and social media become more concentrated in the hands of a billionaire class, the morbid symptoms of their malfunction mount.

In recent weeks, we’ve seen non-stop coverage of the Labour Party’s inner turmoil.

Keir Starmer’s troubles were partly provoked by the resignation of Peter Mandelson as US Ambassador and his subsequent arrest over his dealings with the billionaire sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Mandelson once famously said he was “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich”, and though Mandelson may be gone, his legacy – a gravitation towards the oligarch class and its various lobbyists – is still a problem for Labour.

However, its purported sleaze pales into insignificance compared with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.