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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Taylor Wimpey on Tory ‘help to grift’ scheme
Don’t believe the government’s hot air about ‘creating housing’ has anything to do with solving homelessness — it’s all to boost the profits of the housebuilding corporations that offer them donations and jobs, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
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
TOP housebuilding firm Taylor Wimpey increased its Conservative links, doubling the number of Tories on its board just as the government announced a new scheme that will pump up housebuilders’ profits.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak wants the government to support mortgages on properties worth up to £600,000 in a new version of a Tory scheme that has pushed up house prices, enriched building firms, but done nothing to help homelessness.
Sunak’s Mortgage Guarantee is a new version of Help to Buy, the mortgage support scheme introduced by George Osborne in 2013.
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CAROL WILCOX argues for the proper implementation of the land value tax, which could see unused plots sold off and landlords priced out of landlordism, potentially resolving the housing and planning crises
It is rather strange that Labour continues to give prestigious roles to inappropriate, controversy-mired businessmen who are also major Tory donors. What could Labour possibly be hoping to get out of it, asks SOLOMON HUGHES
Our housing crisis isn’t an accident – it’s class war, trapping millions in poverty while landlords and billionaires profit. To solve it, we need comprehensive transformation, not mere tokenistic reform, writes BECK ROBERTSON