Tribune – Comment, news and reviews from Britain's democratic left

THE newly-selected Labour candidate for Erith and Thamesmead has called for MPs to be jailed for expenses fraud.

A UNITED NATIONS committee has called on Basildon district council to abandon plans to bulldoze Britain’s largest traveller site. About 90 families could lose their homes at Dale Farm in Essex if the threat of eviction, which has been hanging over the community for almost five years, goes ahead. A meeting chaired by Lord Avebury was held in the House of Commons to lobby support for those facing homelessness.

PUBLIC sector union Unison have warned that an arms company’s bid to run emergency services vehicles, which could see it buying up ambulances, fire engines and police cars across the country, will “all go wrong”.

IN THE midst of the current parliamentary turmoil we can forget we are still learning the lessons of the financial crisis. Many believe that the bonus schemes run by banks and poor corporate governance contributed to the near-collapse of the financial system. The House of Commons Treasury Committee has been examining the issue and its latest report, published last week, concludes that “bonus-driven remuneration structures encouraged reckless and excessive risk-taking.”

THE magistrate investigating the case of three foreign mercenaries shot dead as they were apparently planning to assassinate President Evo Morales in Bolivia last month has released witness statements implicating key figures in the Comité Pro-Santa Cruz.

THE 26-year-long civil war in Sri Lanka is over after government troops flushed out and killed the remaining Tamil Tiger rebels trapped in a small strip of jungle in the north of the country.

INDIA’S election took five weeks, cost hundreds of millions of pounds and involved 700 million eligible voters from the snow-capped Himalayas to the beaches in the south. But the wait was worth it for the ruling Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance which won 260 seats – just short of the 272 needed for a simple majority. Political analysts and exit pollsters were left red-faced after predicting a tight race between Congress and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.