With the death of Pope Francis, the world loses not only a church leader but also a moral compass
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Prison barges are part of Britain’s imperial history
In 1848 black Chartist prisoners were kept on prison hulks — in 2023 asylum-seekers are to be kept on barges. Little changes for those the state wants to want to keep out of the way, writes KEITH FLETT
FLOATING PRISON: Around 500 migrants are to be kept on the Bibby Stockholm accommodation barge
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Keir Starmer’s £120 million to Sudan cannot cover the government’s complicity in the RSF genocide or atone for the long shadow of British colonialism and imperialism, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE
Join the traditional march from Clerkenwell Green, which will bring together countless international workers’ organisations in a statement against the far right
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We face austerity, privatisation, and toxic influence. But we are growing, and cannot be beaten
THE Daily Mail among other hard-right media outlets recently headlined government plans to move asylum-seekers from hotels to military bases — and possibly a very large barge. This story turned out to be true.
The government plans to house 500 asylum-seekers on a barge in Portland, Dorset. Now Rishi Sunak has announced plans for at least two more barges. The London Mayor Sadiq Khan has already rejected the idea of mooring a barge in the Royal Docks in east London.
The main reason why asylum-seekers are in hotels is because the government has slowed down the application process to a crawl. Most who apply are genuine and eventually accepted.
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
