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
Latest editorial
Defining the kilogram: a massive question
The International Prototpe of a Kilogram is getting old and fat, 130 years and 50 micrograms overweight to be precise. But how to replace it? SCIENCE AND SOCIETY explain
If the government really wanted to address public finances, improve living standards and begin economic recovery, it would increase its borrowing for investment, argues MICHAEL BURKE
MATT KERR takes a winter journey through poetry, labour and memory, from Glasgow to Newcastle, arguing that our radical past isn’t something to revere from a distance, but a tool still meant to be used
One of Canada’s most revered politicians is a native of Falkirk but is relatively unknown in his original homeland. KENNY MacASKILL tells his story
Labour prospects in May elections may be irrevocably damaged by Birmingham Council’s costly refusal to settle the year-long dispute, warns STEVE WRIGHT
HENRY FOWLER and ROB POOLE explain the significance of today’s Megapicket
HOW much is one kilogram? The answer, it turns out, is “about one kilogram…but not quite.” In just a few months, the definition of 1kg will be fundamentally changed, thanks to an international conference of scientists in Paris last November.
The International Prototype of a Kilogram
Defining 1kg might seem like an abstract philosophical question, but it’s also a practical one. When Marx wrote Das Kapital, he explained “A sugar-loaf being a body, is heavy, and therefore has weight: but we can neither see nor touch this weight” (Chapter 1). To weigh anything requires a system of standards for measurement.
Similar stories
Ben Cowles speaks with IAN ‘TREE’ ROBINSON and ANDY DAVIES, two of the string pullers behind the Manchester Punk Festival, ahead of its 10th year show later this month
JOHN GREEN surveys the remarkable career of screenwriter Malcolm Hulke and the essential part played by his membership of the Communist Party
ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes two exhibitions that blur the boundaries between art and community engagement
CAROLINE FOWLER explains how the slave trade helped establish the ‘golden age’ of Dutch painting and where to find its hidden traces