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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Help to buy scheme turns out to mean ‘help the rich’
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
THE National Audit Office (NAO) inspection of the Conservatives’ help to buy scheme this month found more than half of people using the government’s loan scheme could have bought a house without state support.
Help to buy, launched by then Tory chancellor George Osborne in 2013, offers buyers zero-interest loans worth up to 20 per cent of the cost of new-build houses.
The NAO report means that the government’s most expensive scheme to increase house supply, with over 200,000 loans worth £11.7 billion, is not helping those most in need.
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