BEN CHACKO reports on fears at TUC Congress that the provisions in the legislation are liable to be watered down even further

IT IS A cliche, or perhaps a truism, of British parliamentary politics that in the “first-past-the-post” parliamentary electoral system, the odds are stacked against independent candidates and even against the smaller political parties.
The Greens, despite having a solid voter base and receiving more than a million votes in 2015, have only had Caroline Lucas in the House of Commons.
That view was borne out for decades. From the abolition of university constituencies in 1950 to the end of the 20th century, the only MP elected as an independent was former war correspondent Martin Bell, who became MP for Tatton after declaring his candidacy only 24 days before the 1997 general election.

The Met Police arrested a staggering 890 people, many elderly, disabled, and even blind in a single demonstration — all to back up the government’s unhinged campaign against non-violent civil disobedience at the behest of Israel, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE

CLAUDIA WEBBE says a UN agency’s finding that Gaza’s famine, killing up to 400 people a day, is entirely man-made must prompt a renewed revolt against our government’s complicity in this horror

Starmer’s decision to suspend Diane Abbott yet again demonstrates a determination to maintain and propagate a hierarchy of racism, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE

The New York mayoral candidate has electrified the US public with policies of social justice and his refusal to be cowed. We can follow his example here, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE