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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How Public First saw our health come last
The Tories’ Covid communications were run by a true-blue Conservative ‘consultancy firm’ appointed without any bidding or competition. SOLOMON HUGHES exposes their world of ‘nods and winks’
Public First, which won the contract to run key Covid-19 communications without any competition, is a PR firm and political consultancy founded by former Cameron and Johnson adviser Rachel Wolf, with her husband James Frayne, also a former Tory adviser
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
TORY-LED consultancy Public First won an £840,000 contract to run key Covid-19 communications because Boris Johnson was “cautious about who to trust” and needed to be soothed with a firm that was “in line with the Prime Minister’s agenda,” according to court documents.
“A nod and a wink” — that’s how people describe giving a contract to a friend, while not making it too obvious that friendship helped the decision.
But it looks like the government has invented a whole new set of facial expressions, tics and grimaces to make sure top Tory firms get key public contracts, while pretending it isn’t cronyism.
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