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

The Tories may be cutting services and jobs to the bone in the biggest social engineering programme since the Big Bang, but that won’t stop councillors in Harlow going ahead with their annual civil shindig. The Tory authority in the poverty-struck Essex town is in the middle of implementing cuts across the board. So how best to mark their achievements but with a black tie ball in the council chamber. “Chains of office may be worn”, according to the invitation to the event, eight days after Chancellor George Osborne’s slash and burn speech. A meal will be provided for chauffeurs if requested. Redundant staff will not be invited.

Rhys Ifans, who shot to fame as Spike, Hugh Grant’s grubby flatmate in Notting Hill – who didn’t enjoy the scene-stealing moment when, caught outside that famous front door, the paparazzi hoping for a picture of Julia Roberts get a shot of him posing in his underpants instead – has not forgotten his political roots in south Wales. Rhys, who stars as drug dealer Howard Marks in Mr Nice, has opened fire on David Cameron’s Conservative Government. “Every time the Tories get a bit of power, they rip off all the things I love.” Such as? “The mining industry. Milk.”