The recent heatwaves revealed how ill-prepared Britain remains for a hotter future – and how unequal the ability to cope with it has become, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
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Telling it how it was
A century since the publication of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, conditions have improved for some but the system of exploitation Robert Tressell described is as entrenched as ever. TREVOR HOPPER on the man and his work
Extreme heat is now one of the defining public health challenges of a warming world, explains Prof IAN WILLIAMS
The US-Israeli conflict with Iran has had far-reaching consequences, including a boost to Pakistan’s regional standing, argues ROGER McKENZIE
19.01.1930-23.04.2026
Kate Clark pays tribute to Ricardo, whose life spanned the hopes of Allende’s Chile, the horrors of military dictatorship and decades of campaigning for justice in exile
Keir Starmer's early political life suggests a very different future from the one he ultimately embraced, says KEITH FLETT
After the dismissal of union representatives and years of precarious working conditions, Kimpton Clocktower workers are drawing a line, writes THOMAS BELL
"The Golden light that will be diffused throughout all the happy world from the rays of the risen sun of Socialism."
Well, Robert Tressell (real name Noonan), we are still waiting. The final sentence of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is not the only line from the socialist polemic that can seem at best ironic 100 years after its publication.
The penultimate paragraph refers to "the Nemesis which was overtaking the capitalist system... was now fast crumbling into ruin... its memory universally excoriated and abhored."
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