Mike Haynes

Twice last summer robbers made off with the cash boxes containing a few tens of thousands each from local banks. But who were the bigger thieves - the robbers or the branches of the banks whose cash was stolen? I have no romantic illusions about people who rob banks. But thinking about how the banks themselves have robbed us at a branch level is an interesting exercise.

When dodgy dealing and debt shook the global financial system in 2008 most attention was focused on what is called investment banking. Investment banks have two jobs.

If you have a mobile phone or a computer then there is a good chance that it has been made in China. This is where top Apple products come from - the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. These embody some of the cleverest ideas of modern technology and judged this way a lot of people think that China's growth is something completely unusual. Whereas a generation ago China was one of the world's poorest economies, today it is jumping stages to become one of the richest. This idea is causing consternation both among those who support global capitalism and those who oppose it.

The announcement of the stitch-up that would allow Putin to become president again in 2012 - and probably to stay on to 2024 - was greeted with huge cynicism. But only a few hundred went to a token demonstration in Moscow in September. No one really expected that by December tens of thousands would be protesting against electoral fraud in elections to the Duma (the Russian parliament) that were supposed to be a dry run for the presidential ones next spring.

The global price of food has risen again to a new high, breaking the records set in 2008. In Britain this matters, especially if you are on a low income or benefits. In the poorer parts of the world where nearly a billion people are hungry it becomes a matter of life and death. The reason is simple - we must have food to live. This is why food prices are politically explosive, including in the upheavals in the Middle East. The lower your income, the more you must spend to buy food to survive.

If you have not heard of it then take note - it's called Southern Cross. It runs 600 care homes under its own brand and operates a further 70 as Ashbourne Senior Living and 47 as Active Care Partnerships. Together they have 38,000 beds and 40,000 staff.

Simon Pirani has written a terrific book. His careful dissection of modern Russia moves from those at the top to the fate of the masses of Russian people in the last two decades. Few can equal Pirani's expertise gained as a political activist, a semi-academic, and a jobbing journalist whose interviews stretch from striking car workers to oil oligarchs.

British tourists are commonplace in the former Soviet bloc today. Cheap flights take you to Prague or Budapest. You can spend a weekend in the Baltic states or even make it to Moscow and St Petersburg. The beer is cheap. For stag nights and last minute flings the prostitutes are numerous and cheap. It is easy to combine a visit to some of the finest sights with some of the worst. And many do. Out of sight, out of mind.

In Western Europe migrants from these countries are common. We meet them every day working in bars and hotels, on the farms and in the factories. Supermarkets in

The reason for this is not some grand theory. It is pragmatic. The crisis is showing that states not only need to set the rules for capitalism to work but must also be major players. For socialists this creates a dilemma. If the choice is between bankruptcy and state support we obviously call for state support and nationalisation. No firm should go under, no job be lost because of the lunacy of the system. But we need more than this. And we should be under no illusion that the state is a socialist force.

For socialists the most exciting year of the last century was probably 1919. While the 1917 Russian Revolution had shaken the world, its full implications only became apparent when the First World War ended in November 1918. The next two years saw the world in turmoil. "We are running a race with Bolshevism and the world is on fire," said US president Woodrow Wilson at the time of the Versailles Peace Conference.

'Mr President. I have good news and bad news. The good news is that you have been re-elected. The bad news is that nobody voted for you.' Andrew Wilson says such jokes reflect the cynicism of life in Russia and the former USSR. A fake democracy has been created in a world of 'virtual politics'.