Nearly two decades after leaving office, the former PM is still trumpeting the same futile militarism and failed free market dogmas. The question naturally arises: why does anyone still listen to him, says ANDREW MURRAY
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A working-class Christmas 175 years ago
Modern Christmas as we know it, with its trees, dinner menu, cards and time off from work, only dates back to the early days of modern socialism as we know it, writes KEITH FLETT, checking in on Marx, Engels and the Chartists in the 1800s
A Marx and Engles statue covered in snow
[Ingo Steinbach / Creative Commons]
Very modest growth in membership serves to underline the need for a change of recruiting strategies, posits NIGEL FLANAGAN
DIANE ABBOTT debunks claims made politicians drumming up support for an enhanced militarisation of the British economy
The Morning Star’s AGM tour comes at a critical moment for both the British left and the newspaper itself, as it battles political fragmentation and media industry upheaval. Editor BEN CHACKO issues a clarion call to readers to play their part in the coming period
The growing argument that welfare must be sacrificed for ‘security’ is built on nothing but myth, argues MICHAEL BURKE
Esmond Romilly horrified Britain’s Establishment by turning from privileged schoolboy to anti-fascist fighter, writes MAT COWARD
IN 2024, the Christmas period is marked by eating and drinking for those who can afford it and a lot of hard work by those who need to earn money for even the most modest celebration.
Looking back 175 years to 1849, when market capitalism was still a relatively new system, we find much the same pattern.
Until the 1871 Bank Holidays Act, there was no official time off at Christmas, hence Scrooge reluctantly allowing his clerk the day off on December 25 in Dickens’s Christmas Carol.
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