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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The NHS is a crucial part of a civilised society
Bernadette Hyland talks to veteran communist and healthcare campaigner FRANCES HOOK
Frances Hook
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
FRANCES HOOK, veteran communist and campaigner, will be 80 this year but she is still out campaigning: last week, for instance, she was out leafleting about the proposed GP contracts which will break the link between patients and family doctors.
She was born Frances Clarke into a political family — her mother was Annie was daughter of Scottish Communist Party founder, Malcolm McFarlane.
Clarke, alongside her four siblings, was brought up in a family that had at its heart a democratic ethos.
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