RAMZY BAROUD on how Israel’s narrative collides with military failure
Latest editorial
Supermarket workers: the unsung heroes caught in the battle for pasta and toilet roll
As customers panic-buy and melt down in the aisles, the Morning Star's BETHANY RIELLY spoke to the shop workers facing an angry and often irrational public without any significant new protections from the bosses or the government
Queues in a supermarket as people buy food in preparation for self-isolation
ROGER McKENZIE explains how Ibrahim Traore has sparked the flames of hope across Africa, while the Western powers seek to extinguish all attempts to build true sovereignty in the long-exploited continent
DANIEL GOVER considers the procedural complexities awaiting a Private Member’s Bill in its passage through Commons and Lords
JAMIE TUCKNUTT reports on an initiative that brings together two epochs of the city’s anti-fascist struggles
Just as German Social Democrats joined the Nazis in singing Deutschland Uber Alles, ANDREW MURRAY observes how Starmer tries to out-Farage Farage with anti-migrant policies — but evidence shows Reform voters come from Tories, not Labour, making this ploy morally bankrupt and politically pointless
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
With turnout plummeting and faith in Parliament collapsing, BERT SCHOUWENBURG explains how radical local government reform — including devolved taxation and removal of party politics from town halls — could restore power to communities currently ignored by profit-obsessed MPs
WHILE many people have set up office in the comfort of their homes, shop workers are bearing the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic. Exposed to hundreds if not thousands of frantic people every day, retail workers are particularly at risk of falling victim to the virus.
But despite this, there’s currently a severe lack of protections in place to keep them safe. British stores have yet to fully implement measures already rolled out in Ireland such as limiting capacity, drawing out social distancing markers on the floor, putting up perspex shields on check outs or giving out protective wear to workers.
“There’s no masks, no shields, no mapping out of the floor to make sure people stand far enough away from you, no crowd control,” Sally Smith,* a supermarket worker and Usdaw rep from Hertfordshire, tells me. “Customers have been queuing out the store from half five in the morning and going all the way back and it’s just carnage because they’re in the store at the same time.”
Smith has since called in sick, fearing she has contracted coronavirus after waking up with a dry cough and chest pains. She blamed the lack of protective measures in stores for falling ill, adding that she is also in the “at risk category” having had part of her lung removed in an operation some years ago. The Hertfordshire worker says it’s up to the government to put these protections in place.
More from this author
In an exclusive investigation, BETHANY RIELLY looks at how the state targeted leading politicians and campaigning groups — labelling many well-known figures 'extremists' and 'subversives' for attempting to hold the police to account
On September 4, 16 Eritrean asylum-seekers were arrested at a protest against their country’s dictatorship and its supporters here. Since then, questions have been raised about whether the British authorities are doing enough to protect activists and asylum-seekers from the ‘long arm’ of the regime in Asmara
