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
RECENT ONS crime data statistics are an indictment of this Conservative government’s policies when it comes to keeping our communities safe and secure, showing that police recorded crime is up 14 per cent — the highest annual rise since 1992, with knife crime up by 21 per cent and gun crime by 20 per cent.
These figures are truly shocking and show that that the Tories are failing in a basic duty to protect the public – with the types of crimes that concern the public the most all soaring.
Since 2010 the Tories have again and again broken their pledge to protect police funding, and these recent figures should have put an end to government complacency on crime.
Every Starmer boast about removing asylum-seekers probably wins Reform another seat while Labour loses more voters to Lib Dems, Greens and nationalists than to the far right — the disaster facing Labour is the leadership’s fault, writes DIANE ABBOTT MP
The BBC and OBR claim that failing to cut disability benefits could ‘destabilise the economy’ while ignoring the spendthrift approach to tens of billions on military spending that really spirals out of control, argues DIANE ABBOTT MP



