As the Stop the War Coalition holds its annual conference, ANDREW MURRAY warns that Britain’s alignment with US foreign policy is fuelling global instability and diverting billions from welfare, wages and public services
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Where have all the flowers gone?
Where have all the flowers gone, sang Peter, Paul and Mary back in 1962. It became an anthem for the peace movement. PETER FROST is singing the same tune today
ANSELM ELDERGILL examines the tension between treating children as vulnerable dependants and recognising them as citizens with rights
The tightening of protest rights reflects a broader shift toward repression in Britain’s strained liberal democracy. Socialists and trade unionists must be ready to resist further attacks on our freedoms, warns JOHN McINALLY
Until ministers stop deferring to the market and start drawing hard lines, the public will remain at the mercy of private power, says MATT KERR
As the US intensifies its economic and political pressure it is now vitally important to demand the British government intervene to end US aggression, writes GEOFF BOTTOMS
SEVIM DAGDELEN argues that a legal framework exists for a closure of US and Nato military base in Ramstein
WILDFLOWERS, from wild strawberry to ragged robin, are in decline as a result of widespread loss of meadows and grasslands with no less than 97 per cent of Britain’s traditional wildflower meadows experiencing a steady, quiet and under-reported decline since the 1930s, says the wildlife and conservation charity Plantlife.
A number of traditional meadow and other grassland flowers including harebell, common rockrose, quaking grass and ragged robin that were once widespread are now classed as near threatened in England,
Steep and steady declines of wild strawberry, field scabious and devil’s-bit scabious are particularly worrying. Wild strawberries are the food plant for 51 species of bugs and butterflies, field scabious provides food for 26, and devil’s-bit scabious sustains 25 species, including the marsh fritillary butterfly, which relies almost exclusively on the plant.
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