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
The phoney ‘war on motorists’ is a painful farce
Rishi Sunak’s propaganda glamorising car culture aims to whip up anti-green backlash from a fantasy world of tweed caps and open-top Morgans in a cynical vote-grabbing ploy, writes SALLY WILTON
A man driving a car in traffic at night
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
PRIME MINISTER RISHI SUNAK took some clever advice from his spin doctors when in 2023 he decided to rename certain gullible folk who sit behind the wheel of a vehicle “motorists.” Using this rather old-fashioned word he triggered one of the most blatant uses of propaganda in recent years in Britain, clearly spun for one purpose only — to win votes.
Sunak went on to portray “motorists” as some sort of persecuted group, a minority who are discriminated against, when in fact many of us travel in cars from time to time without feeling we are treated unfairly and would not want to include ourselves in his gang.
This irritating trope hasn’t yet faded away; it has grown into an anti-ULEZ monster that is set to be perhaps the only populist Conservative policy that is garnering support for the forthcoming general election.
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