Secret consultation documents finally released after the Morning Star’s two-year freedom of information battle show the Home Office misrepresented public opinion, claiming support for policies that most respondents actually strongly criticised as dangerous and unfair, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
Latest editorial
Asparagus: a prized perennial
From seed to sumptuous spears, MAT COWARD offers advice to gardeners with less-than-ideal conditions
Simon Hibbs (left) and Paul McGuffie at New Farm Produce Ltd in Lichfield, Staffordshire
Our groundbreaking report reveals how private rail companies are bleeding millions from public coffers through exploitative leasing practices — but we have the solutions, writes Aslef Scottish organiser KEVIN LINDSAY
With Reform UK surging and Labour determined not to offer anything different from the status quo, a clear opportunity opens for the left, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE
Reform’s rise speaks to a deep crisis in Establishment parties – but relies on appealing to social and economic grievances the left should make its own, argues NICK WRIGHT
This year’s Bristol Radical History Festival focused on the persistent threats of racism, xenophobia and, of course, our radical collective resistance to it across Ireland and Britain, reports LYNNE WALSH
A maverick’s self-inflicted snake bites could unlock breakthrough treatments – but they also reveal deeper tensions between noble scientific curiosity and cold corporate callousness, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
The FBU is demanding 52 weeks of full pay for women firefighters, highlighting the unique health risks they face — and the continuing need to recruit and retain more women if policies like this are still not in place, writes SEONA HART
THE best time to plant an asparagus bed is three years ago, the old saying has it, because the wait is about that long before you get a full crop. The good news is that once it starts cropping it should keep going at full strength for at least a decade, and can still be productive 20 years on.
In Britain it is traditional to stop cutting asparagus around June 21, giving the plants the rest of the year to recover their strength ready for next season. You get around six to eight weeks of harvest annually, starting in April, at a time when the garden isn’t producing much else except puddles. I think it’s that, as much as the supermarket price, which makes asparagus seem so luxurious, more so perhaps than anything else on the vegetable patch.
I’ve planted a few asparagus beds over the years, and some have been great successes while others have been equally impressive failures. Unfortunately, the rules don’t always help.
More from this author
Edinburgh can take great pride in an episode of its history where a murderous captain of the city guard was brought to justice by a righteous crowd — and nobody snitched to Westminster in the aftermath, writes MAT COWARD
Well, MAT COWARD did, and here’s his introduction to it
MAT COWARD introduces the creator of the Good Food Guide, communist and crime fiction writer – Raymond Postgate
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