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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There’s no money for universal credit — but there is for more nuclear weapons?
At this point where the Tories are claiming funds are low, we must highlight the ridiculous £200 billion they plan to waste on renewing and expanding our sick missile programme, writes KEN LIVINGSTONE
A soldier walking on the deck of a Trident nuclear submarine
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
AS the government ploughs on with yet another dangerous and reckless misstep in its haphazard and callous approach to the pandemic, one trend is becoming crystal clear: that working people and those already hit hard by a decade of austerity will be expected to pay the price.
With the furlough scheme being wound down, universal credit set to be cut by £20 and Chancellor Rishi Sunak refusing to rule out scrapping the pension triple lock, it seems the Tories’ supposed shift in economic policy predictably doesn’t extend to being prepared to put the interests of the majority of people over those of the class who bankroll their party (and who, in many cases, have by no means done badly out of the last 16 months).
But while rhetoric about “tough decisions” and “fiscal responsibility” is returning, one spending commitment seems to be in no danger of being reviewed by the government, or questioned by right-wing commentators: the enormous sum put towards nuclear weapons.
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JEREMY CORBYN reports from Hiroshima where he represented CND at the 80th anniversary of the bombing of the city by the US
Ageing survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings are increasingly frustrated by growing nuclear threats by global leaders