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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1649: the forgotten part of Our Island Story
KEITH FLETT shines a light on the moment when parliamentary democracy laid down its first roots
A statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the Place of Westminster, in central London, September 3, 2008
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
VARIOUS members of the royal family have been in the news at the start of 2024 due to a range of health problems. Not for them, of course, the NHS but rather a private clinic in central London. Media coverage has been extensive but I can find no mention of another royal event.
January 30 in 2024 marked the 375th anniversary of the regicide that saw King Charles I executed in Whitehall for treason. Given that there is a powerful lobby on the Tory right that Our Island Story should be told in full and never added to or changed — a point made by Tory leadership contender Kemi Badenoch — this seems surprising.
Surprising that is until you start to look for historical reminders of the period between 1649 and 1660 when the country was run without the assistance of a monarch.
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![Exhumation of a mass grave of 26 Spanish Republicans killed by the fascists at Estépar, near Burgos. They were among an estimated 2,500 executions carried out in the area [Pic: Mario Modesto Mata /Creative Commons]](https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/sites/default/files/styles/desktop/public/2026-07/1280px-Spanish_Civil_War_-_Mass_grave_-_Este%CC%81par%2C_Burgos.jpg.webp?itok=CRZDhTXK)
Historical shame prevents the International Brigades and those Spaniards who supported the Republic from being properly recognised and honoured, writes NOELIA SANCHEZ
The selection, analysis and interpretation of historical ‘facts’ always takes place within a paradigm, a model of how the world works. That’s why history is always a battleground, declares the Marx Memorial Library
It’s not just the Starmer regime: the workers of Britain have always faced legal affronts on their right to assemble and dissent, and the Labour Party especially has meddled with our freedoms from its earliest days, writes KEITH FLETT
STEPHEN ARNELL casts a critical eye over the sudden rash of challenges to the two-party system on both sides of the Atlantic, noting that today’s performative populist politics sadly lacks Roosevelt’s progressive ‘Bull Moose’ vision of the early 20th century