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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Tory Northamptonshire owes over a billion but that didn’t stop it spending
PETER FROST updates the financial reports from his own local Tory council
Northamptonshire County Council HQ
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
Early this year I brought you the news that all seven of Northamptonshire’s Tory MPs had attacked the Tory administration of Northampton County Council (NCC). They had lost faith in their political bedfellows on the council
In response, then council leader Heather Smith told BBC Look East that it had warned the government as early as 2013-14 that the level of funding was unsustainable.
The MPs included several high-ranking government ministers who said the local Tory administration was to blame, not the government. It became a real Tory versus Tory catfight.
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Years of underfunding are eroding Scotland’s local services and deepening inequality in communities, says VINCE MILLS
LOTTE COLLETT welcomes the arrival of a new party for the left, a vehicle for councils to finally fight for progressive policies on housing, green spaces and public facilities, rather than administering cuts and misery from central government
Holding office in local government is a poisoned chalice for a party that bases its electoral appeal around issues where it has no power whatsoever, argues NICK WRIGHT
