Wes Streeting and the history of ‘the middle class’ Socialist historian KEITH FLETT unpacks the term currently being flung about by the Labour right as an insult and finds its popular association with ‘being a lefty’ is anything but assured in reality
Features | Monday 18th Mar 2024 British governments have a long history of repressing protest, but protests continue
Wednesday 20th Sep 2023 Wilko: we once came close to preventing these crises The 12,500 jobs lost at Wilko echo the industrial vandalism of Tories in the 1980s. New Labour had plans to put in place a safety net — but will Keir Starmer resurrect these, asks KEITH FLETT
Wednesday 06th Sep 2023 Don’t bank on the Tory Party quietly dying off The party of the landed gentry which became the party of the manufacturing capitalist class — and then became the party of the free-market stocks-and-shares men? Never count it out, warns KEITH FLETT
Tuesday 22nd Aug 2023 Could Peterloo happen again? After the massacre of peaceful protesters two centuries ago, the state has been wary of provoking a reaction by using deadly force on dissident assemblies – but this is not a guarantee, explains KEITH FLETT
Tuesday 08th Aug 2023 The great Marx-Engels rift – where to go on holiday? KEITH FLETT explores the seaside divide afflicting the founding fathers of communism
Friday 28th Jul 2023 University for proles: the Tories weren’t always against it There was a time in the 20th century when even the Conservatives recognised the value of higher education for anyone capable of it – a far cry from today, writes KEITH FLETT
Tuesday 11th Jul 2023 Boycotts have a long history — and the Tories never like them Boycotts are one of the oldest forms of working-class collective pressure on employers, hitting their profits in sales rather than the workplace. No wonder the party of business hates them, writes KEITH FLETT
Monday 26th Jun 2023 Does the left benefit from crises in the ruling class? From the corn laws to the Irish question, from universal suffrage to Brexit, huge splits inevitably emerge in the Establishment — but these don’t automatically benefit the masses, explains KEITH FLETT
Monday 12th Jun 2023 Prison barges are part of Britain’s imperial history In 1848 black Chartist prisoners were kept on prison hulks — in 2023 asylum-seekers are to be kept on barges. Little changes for those the state wants to want to keep out of the way, writes KEITH FLETT
Tuesday 16th May 2023 The Coronation: a profit and loss balance sheet KEITH FLETT wonders, if the royal circus didn’t swell the public coffers with a wedge of fat tourist bucks as hoped, did it at least send our spirits soaring in a surge of national pride? Also no.
Monday 01st May 2023 Their May Day bank holidays and ours KEITH FLETT looks back on some working-class and ruling-class traditions