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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The wheels of the Establishment now turn to preserve the monarchy
Pro-royal sentiment has been in decline for decades — now every available outlet of influence in service of the system is successfully turning public opinion around. NICK WRIGHT considers why the crown remains so important to the powers that be
MANUFACTURED MOMENT: Fawning blanket coverage of the carefully constructed ceremonies has turned the Queen’s death into a national event — and has already undoubtedly changed public opinion on the monarchy itself
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
NINETY per cent of the people living on these islands have known no other monarch than Elizabeth II.
When she ascended the throne the railways had been recently nationalised and unified — when she died they were lost to public ownership, save some were in the possession of the state-owned railway of Germany from where much of her family originated.
Elizabeth II became queen because her father was king. He became king only because his brother Edward had been forced to abdicate supposedly because the Establishment found his divorcee mistress Wallis Simpson unacceptable as royal consort.
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JAMIE BRITTON reaches for the sick bucket as he is forced to engorge detail after detail of the Royal Family’s wealth
STEPHEN ARNELL wonders at the family resemblance between former prince Andrew and his great-uncle ‘Dickie’
Xenophobic hysteria over the statistically insignificant number of small-boat crossings deliberately conceals how capitalism manipulates population flows for profit — if we can explain that, we’ll beat the right, argues NICK WRIGHT