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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Against the grain
SOLOMON HUGHES reveals a single man in Crewe led to a national story on Labour’s association with quinoa
Quinoa grains
[Pom/Creative Commons]
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
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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
Is Labour quinoa? This pointless question covered a Guardian column, as well as taking up a few bytes of space on other news websites. They claimed that “research” proved “swing voters” now associated Labour with quinoa, which the Guardian helpfully explained is a “fancy grain,” presumably because they don’t believe their readers ever look at the Guardian’s many quinoa-friendly food supplements.
“Political analysts,” the Guardian explained, discovered the quinoa-Labour link, proving Labour was in danger of becoming a middle-class party and losing its “traditional base.”
So how bad is Labour’s quinoa-danger? The threat was actually uncovered by a focus group of seven swing voters in Crewe “moderated” by Britain Thinks, an “insight and strategy consultancy” led by Deborah Mattinson.
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