The Tories introduced the 50% strike ballot threshold to make industrial action harder. MATT WRACK argues that a Labour government has no justification for leaving it on the statute book
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‘Peterloo for the EU’? Really?
Socialist historian KEITH FLETT is unconvinced by film maker Mike Leigh’s assertion that the Perterloo marchers would have been anti-Brexit
In the wake of Ann Widdecombe’s murder, JOHN GREEN wonders whether the government will really get to grips with the root cause of these attacks on our MPs
The new PM’s opening addresses offered hope, council homes and reform — but little detail on how any of it will be delivered, warns CLAUDIA WEBBE
Despite the screeching from the right-wing media, Burnham’s speech chimed with the public mood - and socialists should take advantage, says Morning Star editor BEN CHACKO
Scotland's Labour leader cannot continue to evade responsibility for the party's decline, argues LAUREN HARPER
Nature as well as society works dialectically, asserts the Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School
MIKE LEIGH has made an excellent film about Peterloo — but linking the sentiments of the crowd on that August day 200 years ago with views on Brexit needs to be done with care, if, that is, it can be done at all.
This is what Leigh tried to do in a recent Guardian article however. He wrote that “Brexit is the epitome of democracy under threat” — to which some might reasonably respond that this equally applies to Remainiacs who wont accept the democratic result of the EU referendum under any circumstances.
It does suggest perhaps that Leigh’s grasp of how to make a great film is rather greater than his knowledge of history and particularly how historical events might weigh on the present.
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