ART, literature, film and theatre have the power to stimulate our minds, to motivate us to engage and be active. Here’s three from this year that have particularly impacted on me. 

First the book, Act Now (Common Sense Policy Group, Manchester University Press, £9.99), written by a collective of leading figures from academia, politics and industry, who are utterly convincing in their argument that the time has come in the UK for real change. We need to rebuild from the ground up, not just reignite the economy but reform the whole structure of society. 

As well as exposing the huge catalogue of failures that have put many lives at the point of collapse such as healthcare, housing and child poverty, every chapter in this book provides recommendations — a series of sensible, pragmatic ideas based on an achievable vision, and practical actions for change, such as bringing privatised services back into public ownership and community control. Act Now should be a compulsory read for all MPs, in particular our newly elected prime minister. 

The word “change” was much flouted in the recent election campaign, but the journey has barely started. 

A second book, Collapse Feminism by Alice Cappelle (Repeater Books, £10.99), opened my eyes to the “manosphere,” a wide variety of internet-based men’s groups who frequently assert the old misconception that men are naturally dominant, promoting nonsensical narratives about women together with objectionable arguments against feminism including claims that women have no role in society outside reproduction, and that women should be denied the right to vote. 

Misogyny, racism and homophobia are all part of a right-wing fundamentalism which is on the rise, partly due to extremist groups legally purchasing internet space to target young audiences — and men in particular — and social media algorithms that decide what content appears on an individual feed and for how long. Amnesty International has warned of a dramatic deterioration worldwide of women’s rights.

One of the major events of the year in Liverpool, a city that has one of Britain’s oldest Arab communities, is the Arab Arts Festival. A highlight for me was Oranges And Stones, performed at Unity Theatre, a theatre founded in the 1930s and originally known as Merseyside Left Theatre. 
 

Its aim was to promote left-wing theatre focusing on working-class theatre goers, presenting work that challenged accepted norms, crossed boundaries, posed questions. It toured factories and attended political rallies of all kinds such as the Daily Worker Bazaar and the Merseyside Peace Council before moving in 1980 to a permanent base in Liverpool’s Hope Place. 

The bold and visionary Palestinian Ashtar Theatre’s production of Oranges And Stones, a play without words where actions, story, emotions are acted out dramatically through music and movement, unravelled the legacy of the Balfour Declaration of 1917. In 1919, Britain was entrusted with the temporary administration of Palestine, which meant acting on behalf of both Jewish and Arab inhabitants, which it repeatedly failed to do. 

Oranges and Stones conveyed deeply moving images of occupation and settlement, made even more significant in the wake of the present conflict in Gaza. 

At the end of the performance, the two Palestinian actors, Tamasha and Shubbak, left the stage floor and invited us to ask questions. In this face-to-face session, I got a real insight into the reality of their lives. 

“Can we really understand where we are going?” they said. “What is the future? They ban us from having a parliament and they accuse us of not being democratic.” Being a Palestinian means being a refugee by default. Worldwide, over 70 per cent of Palestinians live in refugee camps. 

Symbolising deep issues, it’s a long time since I have seen live theatre as powerful and deeply moving as Oranges And Stones produced by a dynamic Palestinian theatre with a truly progressive global perspective. 

My highlight of the year.