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
Guzzling at the trough
SOLOMON HUGHES takes a look at the corporate-sponsored events frequented by Tory-turned-Labour-MP Christian Wakeford
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer with Bury South MP Christian Wakeford, who has defected from the Conservatives to Labour, in his office in the Houses of Parliament
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
CHRISTIAN WAKEFORD, the Tory MP who crossed the floor to become a Labour MP, got a long profile in the Guardian which managed to expose not just what is wrong with Wakeford, but the corrupted state of Westminster itself, drawing a picture of shallow, unprincipled careerists grabbing what they can from corporate lobbyists.
It’s all the more surprising because the Guardian profile is very sympathetic to Wakeford.
Wakeford was a newly elected Tory MP in 2019, with a very slim 402-vote majority in a typically Labour seat. A small shift to Labour would see his MP’s career stopped.
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They’re the problem it’s them: SOLOMON HUGHES on the freeloading flunkies of the Labour Party hoovering up VIP tickets to musical and sporting events