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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You were never my Chief Rabbi, bruv
DAVID ROSENBERG takes issue with Jonathan Sacks’s attack on Jeremy Corbyn and the former’s position on human rights
Former chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks
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
THERE is a queue of people waiting patiently in line: long-forgotten Labour and Conservative figures, one-time respected journalists who have gone sour, barely repentant former racists and warmongers.
On Tuesday, former chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks reached the front. It was his turn to put the boot in to Jeremy Corbyn, as the crude attempt to weaken and isolate Labour’s leader continues, and Theresa May is surely pondering a snap election.
In a New Statesman interview — well, platform, really: interviewers are supposed to probe and challenge — Rabbi Sacks thundered: “The recently disclosed remarks by Corbyn are the most offensive statement made by a senior British politician since Enoch Powell’s 1968 Rivers of Blood speech.”
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