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
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Diary: June 15, 2019
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
COULD the orangutan be Jeremy Corbyn’s new secret weapon? Earlier this week I reported that transport union TSSA had resolved to “adopt” an orang in Malaysia or Indonesia, as it joins a campaign against palm oil. The union will now push Labour to ban government incentives to companies which use palm oil products. With anti-fox hunting and animal welfare memes being credited with shoring up Labour’s vote in 2017, if Corbyn takes up the cause, he might be onto a winner.
MY WEEK was vastly improved by a surprise visit (thanks, Kirsty) to the Loch Lomond Bird of Prey centre at Balloch. There I met Birkita, a 13-year-old Great Grey Owl, among other feathered friends. The description on her plaque read: “Very curious, wants to look at everything.” I may have found the journalist hero of my first novel.
AMONG my niche collections in my Glasgow flat are several newspaper headline posters, including my favourite, from the Teignmouth Post: “Widow’s shock at ruined internet bouquet”. Now joining them is one from the Courier, which I picked up when on the road for EIS conference: “PERTH DEALER’S FRYING PAN OF COCAINE”. The Courier is a sister paper of the Press and Journal, where Michael Gove was a trainee reporter. So I did wonder if the Tory leadership contender had realised that his confession to snorting the Colombian marching powder would never match Housing Minister James Brokenshire’s four ovens – and decided to reveal more of the story.
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