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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Looking back on New Labour
With the release of Gordon Brown’s new memoirs, SOLOMON HUGHES reflects on the limitations of Blairite politics
Tony Blair and Gordon Brown
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
OVER 20 years on from Labour’s 1997, there is another round of looking back on New Labour, most recently in Gordon Brown’s memoir My Life, Our Times.
A lot of reflection is around when and how “things can only get better” turned into “things can only get bitter.”
When did the promise of 1997, the bright morning that saw the end of Michael Portillo, get tarnished? The Iraq war? The privatisations? The treatment of the disabled? Or were the flaws really uncovered by the financial crisis of 2008?
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