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
Is Britain really a democracy?
If we truly have our preferences realised best by voting, why is Parliament at odds with the public on nationalisation, rent caps, climate change and everything else which may eat into corporate profit margins, asks IAN SINCLAIR
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
The long-term effects of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange mean that the impact of war lasts well beyond a ceasefire
APPEARING on BBC Radio 4’s the Moral Maze in January, Jeremy Black, professor emeritus of history at Exeter University, strongly opposed the toppling of the statue of slave trader Edward Colston in June 2020.
“Since 1928 we have had a full, equal parliamentary democracy … We do have democratic processes in Britain, both in local government and in national government, to change the law or to give effect to the law,” he argued.
“I’m not happy with the way of using force and violence in order to effect change when there are democratic processes there.”
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