Labour prospects in May elections may be irrevocably damaged by Birmingham Council’s costly refusal to settle the year-long dispute, warns STEVE WRIGHT
TOM NAIRN died recently aged 90. He was an important figure on the left from the early 1960s when he authored, with Perry Anderson, Origins of the Present Crisis (New Left Review 1964).
He was also notable for writing the Break-Up of Britain (1977) primarily on Scottish independence, and The Enchanted Glass (1988) on the monarchy.
While I certainly didn’t concur with his specific analysis on many occasions, his persistence as an opponent of the current British state was — and is — important.
It’s not just the Starmer regime: the workers of Britain have always faced legal affronts on their right to assemble and dissent, and the Labour Party especially has meddled with our freedoms from its earliest days, writes KEITH FLETT
Research shows Farage mainly gets rebel voters from the Tory base and Labour loses voters to the Greens and Lib Dems — but this doesn’t mean the danger from the right isn’t real, explains historian KEITH FLETT
KEITH FLETT traces how the ‘world’s most successful political party’ has imploded since Thatcher’s fall, from nine leaders in 30 years to losing all 16 English councils, with Reform UK symbolically capturing Peel’s birthplace, Tamworth — but the beast is not dead yet



