Fownhope’s Heart of Oak Society traces its roots to the age of friendly societies, when communities provided their own safety net. Its anniversary celebrations reveal a tradition still very much alive, says MARK SEDDON
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Meditation on a fateful slaughter at Culloden
The sound of history comes to life through Bobby Wellins's saxophone, says Chris Searle
ANGUS REID explains the significance of Cuba’s egalitarian in letter and spirit Family Code and the pertinent lessons it holds for democracies anywhere in the world
Special report by PEOPLE’S WORLD
NICK WRIGHT considers how the isolation of Israel and a new film on the controversial Italian communist leader are creating new reference points for Italy’s left
CARLOS MARTINEZ says Cuba’s achievements in the face of a criminal blockade are startling, but the island’s future if the United States succeeds in crushing it looks bleak
AMNON BROWNFIELD STEIN reports that far-right MPs who mobbed the event organised by Hadash may have helped raise awareness of the brutality of the Israeli right
Culloden Moor Suite, by Bobby Wellins and the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra (Spartacus Records)
From Drogheda in Ireland to Morant Bay in Jamaica, from the Kitchener-led bloodshed in the Sudan to the massacre at Amritsar, what cruelties and ferocity have British armies wrought on the people they sought to colonise and oppress?
None so close as the Scots at Culloden Moor in 1746. "One Englishman is better than three of them!" declared the "Butcher" Duke of Cumberland, commanding the British forces, and up to 2,000 Scots supporting the restoration of the Stuart monarchy were killed or maimed during the battle, with the Scottish wounded given no quarter on the battlefield.
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