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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Somewhere under the rainbow
The rainbow has a long association with good causes before thanking NHS workers for their epic efforts against the coronavirus. PETER FROST charts a multicoloured history
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
WITHOUT doubt one of the things that has most cheered me in these generally dark days of the coronavirus has been the thousands of children who have made pictures and posters to thank the heroes of our amazing National Health Service.
Virtually every one of them has used that most inspiring of symbols — the rainbow.
One or two families have gone over the top a wee bit with the rainbow. Some have chalked the entire front of their house in rainbow colours and at least one has enshrined his rainbow thanks by painting the house front with long-lasting rainbow stripes in exterior paint.
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Millions of ordinary English people of all backgrounds consider the cross their own — abandoning it, and its left-wing history that includes the peasants’ revolt, concedes vital ground to the right, argues SIMON BRIGNELL
