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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Prisons: ‘Failing’ Grayling's lesser-known major cock up
A report by the National Audit Office suggests the bumbling minister did not understand what he was doing when he privatised prison services, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
WHAT’S HE DONE NOW? Tory disaster Chris Grayling
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
Special report by PEOPLE’S WORLD
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
PRIVATISATION is bad. Chris Grayling is bad. Now-defunct Carillion was bad, but still-trading privatisation corporation Amey is also bad.
That’s the lesson of the highly critical National Audit Office report into Grayling’s prison privatisation, published this February.
The Audit Office is the government’s official spending watchdog. Its report, entitled “Improving the Prison Estate,” shows how Grayling, Carillion and Amey didn’t improve the state of prisons at all.
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