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
Even the centre laments the state of the Commons
Westminster is crumbling, along with its legitimacy in the eyes of the populace. A new book from the 'technocratic centre' looks at why this is — but SOLOMON HUGHES argues, it's mainly because MPs would rather perform rituals than deliver progress
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
BRITISH parliamentary democracy is in such a poor state that Dr Hannah White — a very mainstream figure, a former Commons clerk, one-time secretary to the committee on standards in public life, and current head of super-respectable think tank the Institute for Government — thinks Parliament burning to the ground is probably the best hope for reform.
White’s recent book, Held in Contempt: What’s Wrong with the House of Commons, published this year, looks at what’s wrong with the processes of government.
Her think tank takes what you might think of as a technocratic rather than a “political” approach — although of course technocracy is itself a kind of “sensible centrist” politics. It’s not the political approach I favour, but she and it are on the ball, even if I don’t always agree with the game they play.
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