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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Britain is the Dirty Man of Europe
China has decided that it will no longer act as the dumping ground for other countries’ rubbish. So where will Britain send its waste now, asks ALAN SIMPSON
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
YOU have to admire the hypocrisy we live by. We love to hate foreigners for stealing our jobs, diluting our culture, possessing skills we long since ceased to offer our own young people.
Thank goodness we can still buy the goods they produce at knock-down prices in labour markets dependent on poverty pay. It provides, at least, a comfort zone for our contempt.
Rarely has Britain used what we instinctively know about exploitative markets to build alliances between “us” and “them.”
We have mainly consumed their goods and then used today’s globalised networks to justify and communicate our festering resentments.
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