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
Latest editorial
The Tories are far worse than simply incompetent
Of course the government is badly organised, but its response to the pandemic is deliberate — it is ideological cronyism on an industrial scale and the left needs to call that out, writes JON TRICKETT MP
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
SOME people in senior positions in the labour movement are arguing that our central attack on the Tories should be to show that they are incompetent and that Labour would be much more capable of handling the multiple crises facing the country.
The charge is incompetence — and the verdict is that they are guilty. However, it is far from clear that this ought to be the central point of Labour’s critique.
Let’s start with the charge. This bunch is perhaps the most incompetent shower ever to be elected into office in our country since universal suffrage was introduced.
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ALAN SIMPSON warns that Starmer’s triangulation strategy will fail just as New Labour’s did, with each rightward move by Labour pushing Tories further right
