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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Academy school: Big salaries for the bosses, mediocre results for the kids
SOLOMON HUGHES takes apart the privatised education system swept in by New Labour and expanded by the Tories
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
OUR schools shows how far things that were in the public realm have been handed over to private interests. And how those private interests have treated themselves very well indeed.
Take the case of the Academies Enterprise Trust, where people who shouldn’t really be in charge of state schools have been handed enormous power. The results for pupils are mediocre, but for the top managers, they are pretty comfortable.
Under New Labour’s Academy programme, schools were handed to private — although not-for-profit — trusts. The Labour version just took selected schools out of local education authorities.
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