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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Restoring the right to a safe workplace
Professors PHIL JAMES, STEVE TOMBS, DAVID WALTERS and DAVID WHYTE single out five broader features of present deregulatory policy they argue need to be abandoned because of their damaging consequences for social protection
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
A common theme of policy under Labour, Conservative and Coalition governments since the mid-1980s has been the drive to remove large swathes of laws there to guarantee social protection.
Based on a right-wing ideology that claims regulatory “red tape” hinders business success, this drive has continued regardless of the evidence that it puts more people in danger and doesn’t even help business.
The “bonfire of red tape” has even endured in the face of evidence showing that an absence of regulatory controls in the financial sector encouraged new forms of investment and unsustainable financial products that ultimately created the conditions leading to the 2008 crash.
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YVETTE WILLIAMS and JOE DELANEY dissect the institutional dawdling that rubbed salt into the Grenfell open wounds prolonging the agony of survivors
Politicians who continue to welcome contracts with US companies without considering the risks and consequences of total dependency in the years to come are undermining the raison d’etre of the NHS, argues Dr JOHN PUNTIS
ANSELM ELDERGILL examines the government’s proposals to further limit the right of citizens to trial by jury
