FRAN HEATHCOTE believes that while the the Chancellor outlined some positive steps, the government does not appreciate the scale of the cost-of-living crisis affecting working-class people, whose lives are blighted by endemic low pay
Now it's 'clap for veterans' — good
We should still celebrate the achievements of those who helped defeat fascism in 1945, despite the jingoism of the VE day celebrations, writes TOM KING
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is pouring €11.5bn into the Kiev swamp, blocking Trump’s peace plan, and pushing Nato right up to Russia’s borders – no matter if it costs hundreds of thousands of lives, warns SEVIM DAGDELEN
The 2025 Budget shores up the PM’s political position with headline-grabbing welfare U-turns, but with no improvements on offer to declining public services or living standards, writes MICHAEL BURKE
The unifying victory of Irish progressive forces in the presidential campaign should be a salutary lesson to the left in this country, argues MARY GRIFFITHS CLARKE
Martin Taylor, the hedge-fund multimillionaire who has poured millions into pushing Labour rightwards, helped finance Lucy Powell’s supposedly dissenting campaign — suggesting her victory was not the ‘soft-left’ rebellion some have claimed, says SOLOMON HUGHES
A November 15 protest in Mexico – driven by a right-wing social-media operation – has been miscast as a mass uprising against President Sheinbaum. In reality, the march was small, elite-backed and part of a wider attempt to sow unrest, argues DAVID RABY
THE 75th anniversary of VE Day was supposed to be a grand affair. Alongside the usual bells and whistles of national celebration — cathedral services, flypasts, the Buckingham Palace balcony — we could look forward to street parties, dancing and a bank holiday to boot.
Then Covid-19 set the pandemic cat among the patriotic pigeons, and Hitler’s downfall must instead be celebrated at a distance: in the home, online and from eerily quiet television studios. Village halls throughout the land will be empty, no crowds shall fill the Mall.
However, as many have been keen to point out, the current crisis lends itself very well to the mythology of the second world war. No better time, surely, to “Keep Calm and (sort of) Carry On,” invoke the “Blitz Spirit” and join a nationwide chorus of “We’ll Meet Again.”
Similar stories
WILL DRY speaks to three former members of the armed forces about the political hypocrisy surrounding Armistice Day, how war is a function of class society, and the far right’s use of militarism and nationalism to divide working people
A crucial part of the war effort, the Home Guard, was launched partly due to the influence of Tom Wintringham, a revolutionary communist with a passion for DIY grenades and guerilla warfare, writes MAT COWARD