MIKE COWLEY welcomes half a century of remarkable work, that begins before the Greens and invites a connection to — and not a division from — nature

IT WAS not only the hammy stage performance by Tony Blair and Keir Starmer this week that summoned up comparisons between now and the run-up to the 1997 general election.
Thursday’s elections did the same, with swings against the Tories reminiscent of the 1993-97 period. That included Uxbridge, despite confounding local factors.
As it was three decades ago, a chunk of voters consolidated of their own accord behind the best placed anti-Tory candidate. Elaborate schemes for tactical voting are redundant.

A lot of discussion about how the left should currently organise – including debate on whether the Green Party is a useful vehicle for advance – runs the risk of refusing to engage with or learn from the reasons the left was defeated previously, argues KEVIN OVENDEN

As Starmer flies to Albania seeking deportation camps while praising Giorgia Meloni, KEVIN OVENDEN warns that without massive campaigns rejecting this new overt government xenophobia, Britain faces a soaring hard right and emboldened fascist thugs on the streets

