Israel continues to operate with impunity in what seems to be a brutal and protracted experiment, while much of the world looks on, says RAMZY BAROUD
The Tories: Is the party over? A history of the present
The left might fear Boris Johnson, but he heads a party that looks to be in terminal decline, argues KEITH FLETT

THE coronation of hard-right Tory Boris Johnson as party leader and hence prime minister will no doubt be hailed as a great victory by the Murdoch press and the Mail.
Elements of the Corbynphobic Labour right won’t lose too much sleep either perhaps, reckoning that of the no-hopers and losers the Tories have available Johnson has the best chance, even if a small one, of beating Labour in a general election.
Yet the reality suggests a sharply different story for the Tories and privately many of them know it.
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