At Prime Minister’s questions this week I asked David Cameron if he’d congratulated new Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on the election results and if he thought there were any lessons to be learned from the Greek people’s clear rejection of austerity politics.

As ever, the Prime Minister waffled on, claiming that Britain was going through a period of great economic success.

The imposition of austerity and privatisation in Greece have led to unemployment rates of more than 25 per cent, the destruction of public services and the privatisation of many pubic assets — largely being snapped up by foreign-owned finance institutions.

Just ahead of Sunday’s dramatic election there was a huge flight of capital by the very rich who feared the new government would start collecting the taxes they have routinely avoided for many years.

Negotiations with the European Central Bank and the European Union are going to be very tough so it’s essential that the left across Europe supports the democratic wishes of the Greek people which point to a very different political path than the one of austerity that has been so devastating there and across Europe.

It’s worth remembering that austerity politics enriches the already wealthy and restructures society into something more resembling pre-war Britain, rolling back the gains made since the introduction of the welfare state.

While Britain is not a member of the euro, it is clear that the austerity strategy promoted by new Labour and later by the coalition — capping welfare spending and slashing local government and most central government departments — has resulted in public-sector job losses and their replacement with low-paid and often zero-hours contract positions.

As Dennis Skinner pointed out to the Prime Minister, the biggest queues in Britain are at foodbanks, and this has to change.

Last week a number of Labour MPs signed a three-point public policy statement calling for the Labour Party to rethink its economic strategy.

Wages have fallen 8 per cent in real terms since 2010. Unemployment is still two million and household debt is over £2 trillion and rising.

The Tory answer is further cuts and reducing the benefit cap still further.

If the Tories are re-elected there is every expectation that poverty will get worse and the foodbanks will become a way of existence for hundreds of thousands more people.

Our statement calls for a £30 billion investment package, through the publicly owned banks, to help investment and therefore job creation.

A touchstone for the failure of privatisation is the railways.

Since their privatisation, the public subsidy for the rail network has gone up by 300 per cent to £1.2bn a year. Since 2010 rail fares have increased by 25 per cent.

Investment in the rail infrastructure is made by Network Rail, which borrows heavily to do so — and that is a public debt.

Network Rail is wholly government owned and therefore its profitability or otherwise is a matter of public concern.

However the big money on railways is made through the train operating companies, the sub contracts and the leasing companies.

Only last week Everholt Leasing, which owns a large proportion of the trains, was sold to a number of overseas banks.

East Coast Main Line was created by Direct Rail, a publicly owned arm of Network Rail after the previous franchise collapsed.

The coalition in its death throes is about to hand a long-term franchise to a consortium, including Virgin Trains, to take over this lucrative route.

The public fully understands that their investment in the railway network has made a lot of the private sector extremely wealthy on the back of public investment and rip-off fares.

The case for public ownership is absolutely overwhelming and should be seized with both hands by the Labour Party.

On February 4 CND will be presenting a letter to Downing Street on the opening day of the meeting of the permanent five members of the UN security council in preparation for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference in New York in May.

It’s not complicated. When the existing nuclear weapons states signed up to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, there were two fundamental requirements — that non-nuclear states would not acquire nuclear weapons and that the existing holders would not export weapons technology and would take steps toward their own disarmament.

The evidence is overwhelming that any nuclear explosion anywhere in the world would set off a chain reaction of environmental and food supply disasters that would affect the whole planet.

The demand is that the permanent five take a lead and that Britain in particular rejects the replacement of Trident.

The other issue that must be addressed is the lack of progress on establishing a WMD-free zone in the Middle East, which would require Israel to negotiate with neighbouring states.

The danger is obvious. If these negotiations and this conference do not take place it could set off a terrifying arms race in the most unstable part of the world.

This Saturday, there is to be a housing march starting in Southwark and concluding at City Hall.

This march is a cri de coeur from many who have seen council estates demolished to make way for “regeneration” schemes which only enrich developers while moving working-class people out, turning London into a playground of the few who can afford to buy property at increasingly extortionate prices.

Meanwhile those in the private rented sector all over London who are in low-paid jobs, and thus eligible for housing benefit, are being forced out either to distant suburbs or in many cases out of London altogether.

Before our very eyes London is changing as the working class are driven away from the city they’ve always lived in.

The solutions are twofold — first, end the scandal of right to buy in areas of high housing stress and second to invest in council housing.

The other crucial policy change has to be proper regulation of the private rented sector, including rent controls, to ensure stability for tenants.

Rent regulation was abolished by the government in 1980 and surely it’s time to turn the page on this appalling aspect of Thatcherism.

Jeremy Corbyn is Labour MP for Islington North.