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
“JEREMY CORBYN’S anti‑semite army,” read the Times headline in April. “Labour is riddled with anti-semites,” announced the Sun last year. A Corbyn-led Labour government would pose an “existential threat to Jewish life in this country,” argued the Jewish Chronicle, Jewish News and Jewish Telegraph in a joint editorial.
With the press having waged an intense campaign against Corbyn and the Labour Party since 2015 over anti-semitism, it was only natural their political opponents were going to use it as a stick to beat the Labour leader with during the general election campaign.
First up was cabinet minister Michael Gove, who earlier this month started trolling leftist figures on Twitter, including Novara Media’s Aaron Bastani and Ash Sarkar, asking them to denounce anti-semitic tweets sent by a Labour Party and Momentum member (the person was neither a member of the Labour Party nor Momentum).
GAVIN O’TOOLE recommends a methodical unmasking of the US media’s complicity in the Israeli genocide, that should be a template for what’s needed to bring Britain’s corporate media to book
In search of political understanding, MATTHEW HAWKINS welcomes a critique of anti-semitism as codified by the Israeli state
Your Party can become an antidote to Reform UK – but only by rooting itself in communities up and down the country, says CLAUDIA WEBBE
At the very moment Britain faces poverty, housing and climate crises requiring radical solutions, the liberal press promotes ideologically narrow books while marginalising authors who offer the most accurate understanding of change, writes IAN SINCLAIR


