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 prospect of a Labour-SNP coalition is not to be feared
There is something sinister about Boris Johnson's whipping up fear of Scottish involvement in Westminster, writes CHRIS STEPHENS
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
ONE of the trials of being a candidate in an election is not being able to see how the various messages of each political party are playing in the media, only seeing how they are impacting on the doorstep and often having to respond to events which the poor candidate hasn’t seen.
However, one of the more ironic features of the campaign so far has been Boris Johnson trying to whip up hysteria at the prospect of, in his words, “a Corbyn/Sturgeon deal,” with the public being asked to believe that.
How can two level-headed politicians be such a threat to the voters that the prospect of a Prime Minister who behaves as a man-child is the safer option? Any rational elector will realise this is just plain nonsense.
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Falling short of what was promised: many of the new rights in the Employment Rights Bill have defects or escape loopholes that all need addressing, writes LORD JOHN HENDY KC
