Peter Murrell’s weakness for the allure of prestige goods is symptomatic of modern consumer culture, says MATT KERR

Including races at Epsom and Doncaster

CHRIS SEARLE recommends a work of love and deep admiration for a great musician

A remarkable excavation in the Netherlands has raised hopes of locating the grave of Louis XIV’s famed captain of the King’s Musketeers. JOHN CALLOW introduces the real figure behind the hero of Dumas’s novels

KENNY MacASKILL looks at the depth of the corruption tolerated within the Scottish National Party and the efforts to keep it from public scrutiny

The growing argument that welfare must be sacrificed for ‘security’ is built on nothing but myth, argues MICHAEL BURKE

NADIA JOSEPH welcomes a survey of the role that TV played in the debate over apartheid and race relations in Britain

The real ‘humanitarian threat’ isn’t Cuba but the United States, where poverty, lack of healthcare and illiteracy abound, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER

ROGER McKENZIE draws attention to the much-neglected oral traditions of the global South that define the identity – and therefore the liberation – of its custodians

Established as a landmark victory for the climate movement, the CCC promised to hold governments to account. Today, it is understating the danger of climate chaos and impeding the radical action needed, says IAN SINCLAIR

Labour movement history in Britain shows workers secured reforms through collective pressure and political representation, rather than being gifted from above, writes KEITH FLETT

MARJ MAYO recommends a well illustrated and very positive account of an extraordinary period in local government history

RITA DI SANTO takes us through the prize winners, and takes the temperature of a festival that prioritised narratives of exile, state violence and class division

CLAUDIA WEBBE looks at how Britain’s Nato ally has upped the stakes in its effort to silence domestic dissenting voices