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
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The Farage threat: how the ex-stockbroker outmanoeuvres the Establishment parties
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
Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage speaking during a campaign event at Stafford Showground, Stafford, whilst campaigning for this week's local elections, April 30, 2025
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
Israel continues to operate with impunity in what seems to be a brutal and protracted experiment, while much of the world looks on, says RAMZY BAROUD
A new report by Amnesty International pulls no punches in highlighting the Labour government’s human rights violations of those on benefits, says Dr DYLAN MURPHY
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
A recent Immigration Summit heard from Lord Alf Dubs, who fled the Nazis to Britain as a child. JAYDEE SEAFORTH reports on his message that we need to increase public empathy with desperate people seeking asylum
IT LOOKS like Nigel Farage is getting better at politics than any of the Establishment parties.
Last week’s round of local elections sampled the mood of English voters in some counties and towns. Reform UK harvested a good crop of Tory seats hung over from the big boost Boris Johnson’s party got for Getting Brexit Done. And what remained of Labour in these parts was humiliated.
In every one of the more prosperous shires — where even the middle class is beginning to feel the pinch — there are many thousands of workers, many on low pay and in insecure or seasonal jobs. Labour has abandoned any vestige of being a party for workers and its presence in these areas is now equally vestigial.
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As a partial successor to the post-war Marshall Plan, USAid is not simply a humanitarian aid programme, but is involved in projecting US power as an instrument of foreign policy, argues NICK WRIGHT
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The left must avoid shouting ‘racist’ and explain that the socialist alternative would benefit all
NICK WRIGHT examines how Farage’s party has attracted five distinct voter tribes with incompatible views on economics, immigration and state intervention — presenting both a challenge and opportunity for left organising
NICK WRIGHT dissects the contradictory views of Reform UK voters, finding significant opportunities for the left to challenge far-right narratives by addressing its voters’ legitimate economic concerns
In the first of two pieces, NICK WRIGHT examines the rise of Reform UK and its parallels with France’s National Rally, warning of the dangers that lie ahead for a left without convincing answers to rising anti-immigration sentiment