From London’s holly-sellers to Engels’s flaming Christmas centrepiece, the plum pudding was more than festive fare in Victorian Britain, says KEITH FLETT
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NHS staff deserve much better
The government’s shoddy treatment of heroic health workers is disgraceful – and trade unionists will be fighting hard to ensure their vital work is fairly rewarded, says HELEN O’CONNOR
NHS workers from hospitals across the capital during a socially distanced protest outside Downing Street, London, in January 2021
Once the bustling heart of Christian pilgrimage, Bethlehem now faces shuttered hotels, empty streets and a shrinking Christian community, while Israel’s assault on Gaza and the tightening grip of occupation destroy hopes of peace at the birthplace of Christ, writes Father GEOFF BOTTOMS
From a lockdown digital project to a vital tool for class solidarity, ROBERT POOLE and HENRY FOWLER reflect on half-a-decade of struggle
After years hidden away, Oldham’s memorial to six local volunteers who died fighting fascism in the Spanish civil war has been restored to public view, marking both a victory for campaigners and a renewed tribute to the town’s proud International Brigade heritage, says ROB HARGREAVES
The June 2025 attacks on Iran have heightened the risk of a wider war, exposed the fiction of a rules-based international order and left ordinary Iranians trapped between external aggression and internal repression, says the Committee for Defence of Iranian People’s Rights
While pretending to seek peace, Europe is heading toward a collision course with Russia – using security guarantees, troop deployments, expropriation and censorship as tools, writes SEVIM DAGDELEN
A WWI hero, renowned ornithologist, medical doctor, trade union organiser and founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain all rolled in one. MAT COWARD tells the story of a life so improbable it was once dismissed as fiction
NHS workers have been failed at all levels since the outset of this pandemic.
One year on and NHS staff are still struggling to get the high-quality PPE that will prevent them getting very sick or even dying from this virus.
The stop-start lockdown strategy has led to NHS staff working around the clock to treat a massive influx of seriously ill patients as they patch up an NHS service that is breaking apart at the seams due to a chronic and persistent recruitment crisis and unprecedented levels of staff sickness.
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Labour warned that workers expect better as anger mounts over welfare cuts and public-sector pay
