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 Tory government has left behind all pretence that public health policy matters, or even that the health and wellbeing of the population matters. They have made it clear that they expect their policies will lead to a huge increase in new Covid-19 cases, that hospitalisations and deaths will also rise. But they will press ahead with reopening regardless.
This policy is based on a completely reactionary ideology combined with a conception of the economy that is riddled with errors.
The ideology is a false Darwinian concept of the survival of the fittest. Of course, it has nothing in common with the great scientist who actually demonstrated the survivability of the most adaptable species, and was at pains to show how that adaptability was frequently performed through the species, the group, flock or herd, not by individualism.
DIANE ABBOTT exposes the misconceptions, rumours and downright lies perpetrated around immigration issues
DIANE ABBOTT MP argues that Labour’s proposals contained in the recent white paper won’t actually bring down immigration numbers or win support from Reform voters — but they will succeed in making politics more nasty and poisonous
A maverick’s self-inflicted snake bites could unlock breakthrough treatments – but they also reveal deeper tensions between noble scientific curiosity and cold corporate callousness, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT



