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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The barren garden of Edenred
Try as they might, this neoliberal Tory administration has failed to use Covid-19 to foist privatised provision onto hungry Welsh schoolkids, reports SOLOMON HUGHES
School lunches packed for delivery
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
FOOTBALLER Marcus Rashford won a major victory when his campaign pushed the government into extending free school meal vouchers over the summer holidays. But I’d like to speak up a bit for Labour’s contribution — especially Welsh Labour.
The free school meals issue gets to the heart of the government’s response to coronavirus. When schools were closed by the “lockdown” in March, the government agreed they should give something to kids who normally get free school meals – otherwise poor kids would go hungry because of the pandemic.
The government’s solution was to give a £234 million contract to French corporation Edenred to supply supermarket vouchers to free school meals families. The system did not work well. Parents found it hard to get vouchers. The central online system crashed.
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