With the death of Pope Francis, the world loses not only a church leader but also a moral compass
Don’t bank on the Tory Party quietly dying off
The party of the landed gentry which became the party of the manufacturing capitalist class — and then became the party of the free-market stocks-and-shares men? Never count it out, warns KEITH FLETT

DURING the summer recess, the Tories have run a series of weekly campaigns on issues like asylum-seekers and crime — all have ended up causing at least as many problems for the Tories as they have for the opposition.
The Tories remain around 20 per cent behind Labour in the polls and are badly split.
Nadine Dorries’s resignation letter to Rishi Sunak was partly farcical, but partly sharp in pointing to numerous Tory policy failures.
More from this author
KEITH FLETT revisits the 1978 origins of Britain’s May Day bank holiday — from Michael Foot’s triumph to Thatcher’s reluctant acceptance — as Starmer’s government dodges calls to expand our working-class celebrations

From bemoaning London’s ‘cockneys’ invading seaside towns to negotiating holiday rents, the founders of scientific socialism maintained a wry detachment from Victorian Easter customs while using the break for health and politics, writes KEITH FLETT

Facing economic turmoil, Jim Callaghan’s government rejected Tony Benn’s alternative economic strategy in favour of cuts that paved the way for Thatcherism — and the cuts-loving Labour of the present era, writes KEITH FLETT

Starmer’s slash-and-burn approach to disability benefits represents a fundamental break with Labour’s founding mission to challenge the idle rich rather than punish the vulnerable poor, argues KEITH FLETT