From Chartists and Suffragettes to Irish republicans and today’s Palestine activists, the treatment of hunger strikers exposes a consistent pattern in how the British state represses those it deems political prisoners, says KEITH FLETT
THERE may be one good thing to be said about Britain’s latest Tory Prime Minister: Liz Truss doesn’t hide that she’s an enemy of the working class.
Her predecessors Boris Johnson, Theresa May and David Cameron did — to an extent. Johnson hid it behind the jovial clown image, May behind a benign blandness and Cameron behind his “big society” One Nation Conservatism nonsense.
All of them liked to claim they were the torchbearers of Margaret Thatcher’s legacy — but Truss is the one who has truly been channelling Thatcher’s dogged resolve to crush the unions and disempower the working class.
The Tory conference was a pseudo-sacred affair, with devotees paying homage in front of Thatcher’s old shrouds — and your reporter, initially barred, only need mention he’d once met her to gain access. But would she consider what was on offer a worthy legacy, asks ANDREW MURRAY
The Tories’ trouble is rooted in the British capitalist Establishment now being more disoriented and uncertain of its social mission than before, argues ANDREW MURRAY



