ALEX HALL recommends an exhaustive investigation of the means by which the Starmer faction assassinated the left
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Dr Strangelove and the Seven Dwarves of Armageddon
MATTHEW ALFORD questions the establishment-pleasing politics that underlie so-called ‘political satire’
SATIRE DE-FANGED: (L) Peter Sellars in Stanley Kubrick's Dr Strangelove (1964); (R) Steve Coogan in Sean Foley and Armando Ianucci's Dr Strangelove (2024)
[Manuel Harlan] 
DAVID MORGAN recommends a refreshingly inspiring novel that features encounters with some tremendous women
BOB NEWLAND recommends a political thriller from former anti-apartheid activist Peter Hain
JAMES WALSH speaks to Chris Thorpe-Tracey - among many things, a one-time Morning Star columnist — about songs, cities, politics and prophecy
New releases from Max Richter, Julius Asal, and Jean-Michel Jarre
RON JACOBS applauds a reading of black history in the US that plots the path from autonomy to self-governance and then liberation
IS ARMANDO IANNUCCI a national treasure? He should be. But for entertainment — not political satire.
In a West End stage adaptation of Armando Iannucci and Sean Foley’s Dr Strangelove, an insane US commander orders a nuclear strike on Russia. Both sides flounder to prevent apocalypse.
The original film was Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece, skewering Cold War archetypes from subservient RAF pilot to drunk Russian premier. Iannucci’s adaptation, also set in the ‘60s, has the Russian dictator modelled on Vladimir Putin, labelled in a punchline as “cold-blooded, neurotic — and short!”
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MATTHEW ALFORD considers the principal four reasons there wasn’t a nuclear exchange this year, despite the Ukraine war, the carnage in the Middle East, the provocations over Taiwan — and his best predictions
No matter how black our satire, the government goes blacker – as shown in the WikiLeaks founders’ case, says MATTHEW ALFORD
MATTHEW ALFORD asks how innocent the arts and the celebrities who front them up really are
As a civilisation we are in thrall to and infantilised by our own righteousness, while ignoring the corporate interests that make war miserably predictable, writes MATTHEW ALFORD
