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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What has Alan Duncan been up to in Oman?
SOLOMON HUGHES on Foreign Office Minister mysterious trip to the notoriously repressive Gulf state
Minister of State for Europe and the Americas Alan Duncan
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
BRITAIN’S relationship with the repressive Gulf state of Oman is so strong that when one Foreign Office minister was invited to a private, secretive £3,000 trip by Oman’s ruler, the rest of the Foreign Office begged him to use the time to suck up to the sultan even further.
Alan Duncan is currently a Foreign Office minister for Europe and the Americas.
But the former oil trader has strong Middle East links: in 2014 Duncan was David Cameron’s special envoy to Oman.
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