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
THE ugly ducklings of the polling world are the “don’t knows” — often overlooked despite their huge potential to change the course of tight elections.
The more people who can’t make up their minds how to vote, the more likely it is that even subtle shifts in public opinion will alter the final result.
In the final days of last year’s general election, Labour and the Tories were neck and neck in the polls, but many people couldn’t decide who to vote for, or even whether to vote.
Morning Star Wales reporter DAVID NICHOLSON analyses polling for the Senedd election — and it’s bad news for Welsh Labour
Who you ask and how you ask matter, as does why you are asking — the history of opinion polls shows they are as much about creating opinions as they are about recording them, writes socialist historian KEITH FLETT
From Gaza complicity to welfare cuts chaos, Starmer’s baggage accumulates, and voters will indeed find ‘somewhere else’ to go — to the Greens, nationalists, Lib Dems, Reform UK or a new, working-class left party, writes NICK WRIGHT
There is no doubt that Trump’s regime is a right-wing one, but the clash between the state apparatus and the national and local government is a good example of what any future left-wing formation will face here in Britain, writes NICK WRIGHT


