SOLOMON HUGHES highlights a 1995 Sunday Times story about the disappearance of ‘defecting Iraqi nuclear scientist.’ Even though the story was debunked, it was widely repeated across the mainstream press, creating the false – and deadly – narrative of Iraqi WMD that eventually led to war
Latest editorial
The Tories stick their middle fingers to the education system
Teacher ROBERT POOLE reflects on a week so turbulent in Westminster it's provided a brief respite from unwanted interference in the education system — now if only Ofsted would go on an indefinite strike too...
There have been eight education secretaries since 2014 (from left to right) Michael Gove, Nicky Morgan, Justine Greening, Damian Hinds, Gavin Williamson, Nadhim Zahawi, Michelle Donelan and James Cleverly
RUBY ALDEN GIBSON believes Scottish parliament has enough powers to curtail Westminster Labour’s savage attack on welfare
KEVIN DONNELLY reports from Monte Faudo and its annual remembrance of the region’s WWII partisan anti-fascist battles
The Trump government is seizing overseas students from their homes and campuses and even off the streets, with no legal grounds and no due process, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
As global fascism grows, ROGER McKENZIE urges the left to reclaim May Day’s revolutionary roots — not as an act of nostalgia, but as fuel for building a ‘community of resistance’ against exploitation and the rise of fascism
Our unions need to make a firm stand against so-called ‘defence spending’: the boss class say there’s no magic money tree — and there should be no magic mushroom cloud either, argues NATHAN HENNEBRY
KEITH FLETT revisits the 1978 origins of Britain’s May Day bank holiday — from Michael Foot’s triumph to Thatcher’s reluctant acceptance — as Starmer’s government dodges calls to expand our working-class celebrations
AT time of writing, though this may change by the time this is printed, we have had three education secretaries in three days — that makes eight since 2014. In fact, when I started writing this we were on education secretary number seven, Michelle Donelan, but such is the speed at which politics happens these days my original article was defunct before the metaphorical ink was dry.
Alas, you will not get to hear many of my thoughts on the two-day minister, a former marketing executive for World Wrestling Entertainment — her qualification being that she was used to working with overpaid fakes mired in scandal and so would fit in well with Johnson and his band of bootlickers and toadies.
After being in the job for less than two days Donelan clearly saw which way the wind was turning and jumped ship. I’m looking for a wrestling pun here but feel like I’d be grasping.
More from this author
The NEU’s annual conference promises heated debate, with motions on international politics, curriculum reform and union amalgamation likely to provoke strong reactions and challenge the status quo, writes Education for Tomorrow editor ROBERT POOLE
The series unveils uncomfortable truths about youth alienation and online radicalisation — but the real crisis lies in austerity and the absence of class consciousness in addressing young people’s disillusionment, says teacher ROBERT POOLE
From colonialism to the Troubles, the story of England’s first colony is one of exploitation, resistance, and solidarity — and one we should fight to ensure is told, writes teacher ROBERT POOLE
As the government moves to rein in academy freedoms, former darling of conservative education reform Katharine Birbalsingh cries ‘Marxism.’ Education columnist ROBERT POOLE examines how academisation has failed our children while enriching executives and empowering ideologues at the expense of democratic accountability
