SOLOMON HUGHES asks whether Labour ‘engaging with decision-makers’ with scandalous records of fleecing the public is really in our interests

IT MAY surprise readers, but the workhouse, the grim symbol of Dickensian misery, was only finally abolished in 1930, with some locally controlled establishments still receiving “clients” until 1948.
There’s a fair few of these buildings still surviving (obviously for other usage); so, at this merry time of year, let’s have a look at the history of the workhouse — and those Tories who have unsurprisingly expressed a keen desire to see them return.
“And the Union workhouses,” demanded Scrooge. "Are they still in operation?"
“Both very busy, sir…”
“Those who are badly off must go there.”
“Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.”
“If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (1843)

While Spode quit politics after inheriting an earldom, Farage combines MP duties with selling columns, gin, and even video messages — proving reality produces more shameless characters than PG Wodehouse imagined, writes STEPHEN ARNELL

The fallout from the Kneecap and Bob Vylan performances at Glastonbury raises questions about the suitability of senior BBC management for their roles, says STEPHEN ARNELL

With the news of massive pay rises for senior management while content spend dives STEPHEN ARNELL wonders when will someone call out the greed of these ‘public service’ executives

As Trump targets universities while Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem redefines habeas corpus as presidential deportation power, STEPHEN ARNELL traces how John Scopes’s optimism about academic freedom’s triumph now seems tragically premature