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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Labour's 2019 loss: hard truths for the right wing
NICK WRIGHT argues that the new centrist analysis of the party's last election disaster raises more problems than it solves — and the answers to those questions are anything but a rush back towards administering neoliberlaism
Labour leader 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
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
Labour Together’s analysis of why and how Labour lost the 2019 election — labourtogether.uk/review — contains much useful information but is a polite fiction designed to allow Labour politics to stumble along untroubled by a clear-eyed view of the principal cause of that defeat
It presents some awkward truths. The main conclusions are that the Tories were more successful in turning out non-voters; that only in London did Labour’s vote hold up, and that the main turn-offs for voters were the leadership, Labour’s Brexit positioning and a manifesto perceived as undeliverable.
Each of these conclusions contains a kernel of truth and corresponds with doorstep experiences.
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