From London’s holly-sellers to Engels’s flaming Christmas centrepiece, the plum pudding was more than festive fare in Victorian Britain, says KEITH FLETT
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The Grenfell Tower fire – political or unfortunate?
Kensington and Chelsea Council has turned a traumatised community into ‘beggars,’ divided and compelled to compete with each other for its dubious ‘help’ – all while congratulating itself on its own beneficence, writes EMMA DENT COAD
A piece of green ribbon hangs from a railing in Silchester Road which bears placards of all of the names of the victims of the fire.
Once the bustling heart of Christian pilgrimage, Bethlehem now faces shuttered hotels, empty streets and a shrinking Christian community, while Israel’s assault on Gaza and the tightening grip of occupation destroy hopes of peace at the birthplace of Christ, writes Father GEOFF BOTTOMS
From a lockdown digital project to a vital tool for class solidarity, ROBERT POOLE and HENRY FOWLER reflect on half-a-decade of struggle
After years hidden away, Oldham’s memorial to six local volunteers who died fighting fascism in the Spanish civil war has been restored to public view, marking both a victory for campaigners and a renewed tribute to the town’s proud International Brigade heritage, says ROB HARGREAVES
The June 2025 attacks on Iran have heightened the risk of a wider war, exposed the fiction of a rules-based international order and left ordinary Iranians trapped between external aggression and internal repression, says the Committee for Defence of Iranian People’s Rights
While pretending to seek peace, Europe is heading toward a collision course with Russia – using security guarantees, troop deployments, expropriation and censorship as tools, writes SEVIM DAGDELEN
A WWI hero, renowned ornithologist, medical doctor, trade union organiser and founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain all rolled in one. MAT COWARD tells the story of a life so improbable it was once dismissed as fiction
IN THE early days after the Grenfell Tower fire, after I had been interviewed as the very new MP for Kensington numerous times and had written about it for various publications, I was accused by senior Tories in Kensington and Chelsea Council of “politicising” the fire.
The idea that this terrifying and multifatal catastrophe at the end of my road was somehow a politically neutral event, some kind of misfortune or natural disaster, not man-made, was circulated vigorously.
They said “tragedy” (sad face). The community said “atrocity” (angry face).
Similar stories
As we approach the half-anniversary of the Grenfell tragedy, the community gathers to remember loved ones while grappling with mixed emotions surrounding the ongoing deconstruction of the tower and the hopeful plans for a memorial, writes EMMA DENT COAD
Rather than hoping for the emergence of some new ‘party of the left,’ EMMA DENT COAD sees a broad alliance of local parties and community groups as a way of reviving democratic progressive politics
While the US president dreams of a grotesque, neocolonial ‘Riviera of the Middle East,’ Architects for Gaza are working to restore services and rebuild communities on the exact sites of homes destroyed by Israel, writes EMMA DENT COAD
