TOM PIERSCIONEK recommends a remarkable series of interviews with those few and brave Israeli citizens who refuse to do military service
Rethinking Labour’s Past: nationalist-flavoured phrasemongering
The book praises David Miliband's promotion of ‘community ethics’
The bard rests on his laurels, and swipes left and right
MARIA DUARTE cherishes the flashes of absurd humour and theme of community healing in a documentary set in a Soviet-era Black Sea sanatorium
ANGUS REID and MARIA DUARTE review The Courageous, The Cut, Christy, and On Swift Horses
TOM STONE sings the praises of one of the oldest open-air festivals in Britain
Chris Searle speaks to accordionist KAREN STREET
Rethinking Labour’s Past
Ed. Nathan Yeowell
IB Tauris (2022) £17.99
“Firm principles and policies are open to objections
And the streamlined party image is the way to win elections.”
The editor and most contributors to this collection of essays appear to have taken the words of Leon Rosselson’s 1960s satire on the Labour Party as sound advice. The writers are drawn from a small group of institutions, who generally hail Starmer’s election as a reprieve and an opportunity.
Its success, we are told, will depend on “craft(ing) a new narrative capable of defining a new future for country and party alike.”
They come to bury Corbynite “historical narratives” such as Ken Loach’s Spirit of ’45 or the 1983 Labour manifesto. They seek to revive “narratives” and “insights” of Wilson, Kinnock and “the early Blair.”
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For Britain, direct military aid is just the tip of the iceberg compared to the spiralling energy crisis that has fueled inflation, driven millions into fuel poverty and inflated corporate profits, reveals HELEN MERCER
HELEN MERCER welcomes an account of how US labour leadership collaborated with the state and betrayed their membership
A look at the writing of war correspondent James Aldridge 40 years ago reminds us of the eastern perspective when a second front was finally opened on D-Day, 1944, says HELEN MERCER
HELEN MERCER casts an experienced eye over an ambitious exhibition that nevertheless contains painful gaps
