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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Five myths about the EU
#LEXIT: the Left Leave Campaign chair ROBERT GRIFFITHS challenges the case for Britain’s membership
of the European Union
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
1. Three million jobs in Britain depend on membership of the EU and would be lost if we leave.
More jobs in Britain now depend on exports to the rest of the world. The share of Britain’s exports going to EU states has dropped steadily from over half (55 per cent) in 2007 to less than half (44 per cent) in 2015. Britain’s trade deficit with the EU has trebled, while that with the rest of the world has been cut by two-thirds.
Britain’s non-EU exports are growing by 5 per cent a year — while exports to the EU decline. By far the biggest growth markets are China, Switzerland and the Middle East. We don’t need to become part of the USA or China to have trading and other relations with them — why should the EU be different?
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