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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Starmer’s missing opposition
Labour needs to show it believes in real change based on the economic needs of working people — and half-hearted noises about ‘fixing sick pay’ don’t go nearly far enough, says SOLOMON HUGHES
Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer
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
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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
LABOUR’S leadership is clearly trying to do some “message discipline” on the need to, as shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth told new Health Secretary Sajid Javid, “fix sick pay” to slow the pandemic.
Ashworth has been pressing on this key issue in Parliament and TV studios.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is trying to enforce the message by highlighting “the broken system of statutory sick pay,” as has Labour chair Anneliese Dodds.
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