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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An opportunity for left advance?
ANDREW MURRAY wonders whether recent opinion polling and a fresh local authority by-election result in Ilford are an indication that the time is ripe for the left to make inroads
Clothing showing an image of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer worn by a Reform UK party supporter during the Reform UK local election launch rally at Birmingham Arena, in Birmingham, March 28, 2025
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
ARE WE near a tipping point? Elected not nine months ago with a huge parliamentary majority the Labour government already has the air of the sepulchre about it.
The planned savage cuts in disability benefits, driven solely by the desire to save money and thus propitiate the bond market whatever moral posturing about work accompanied Liz Kendall’s announcement, have alarmed parts of the Labour benches other outrages did not reach.
So far at least 25 Labour MPs — plus the three who remain suspended from the whip — have indicated that they will vote against the move when it comes up in the Commons. Not enough to stop them going through, but enough to provoke a crisis.
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