MIKE COWLEY welcomes half a century of remarkable work, that begins before the Greens and invites a connection to — and not a division from — nature

ATTEMPTING to neutralise dissidents by accusing them of serious crimes is a trick governments never get tired of.
Older readers will remember (though they may wonder if they dreamed such a bizarre episode) the time that Peter Hain was tried at the Old Bailey for robbing a bank. Now a respectable Labour peer, but then a radical Young Liberal and leading anti-apartheid campaigner, Hain was framed in 1976 by agents working for the South African government with the approval of the British secret police. He was only acquitted on a majority verdict. Even during a period of strange political trials, that one was sufficiently farcical to stand out.
At least the crime Hain was falsely accused of actually occurred. Unlike The Pop-Gun Plot...

As apple trees blossom to excess it remains to be seen if an abundance of fruit will follow. MAT COWARD has a few tips to see you through a nervy time

While an as-yet-unnamed new left party struggles to be born, MAT COWARD looks at some of the wild and wonderful names of workers’ organisations past that have been lost to time

Timeloop murder, trad family MomBomb, Sicilian crime pages and Craven praise

MAT COWARD presents a peculiar cabbage that will only do its bodybuilding once the summer dies down