As tens of thousands return to the streets for the first national Palestine march of 2026, this movement refuses to be sidelined or silenced, says PETER LEARY
THE columnist David Aaronovitch — who misses no opportunity to remind us of his apostasy — flaunts his (now rather remote) communist student past as a signifier of his authority as an anti-communist. This is a rewarding occupation in the lucrative milieu of Times journalism.
Thus we find him this week discussing the paradox that, although many of the Labour Party’s newer members don’t share Jeremy Corbyn’s long history of antipathy to the European Union, he retains their loyalty, affection and their confidence in his leadership.
Perhaps it hasn’t dawned on Aaronovitch that, although they wouldn’t habitually look for it in a Murdoch journalist, the maintenance for decades of a set of unshakeable principles is precisely what people find admirable in a politician.
Starmer sabotaged Labour with his second referendum campaign, mobilising a liberal backlash that sincerely felt progressive ideals were at stake — but the EU was then and is now an entity Britain should have nothing to do with, explains NICK WRIGHT



