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 government’s educational omnishambles is stealing all the headlines at the moment. It pushes political incompetence to new limits. But behind the debacle lies a bigger crime. Boris Johnson is killing parliamentary democracy faster than the pandemic is killing people.
And though Labour is immeasurably more virtuous, the party struggles to lay a glove on him.
Keir Starmer’s forensic integrity initially came as a welcome relief. But Johnson merely shrugs his shoulders and buffoons along relentlessly. The sanitised nature of today’s Parliament allowed him do so. Safe separation distances have depleted parliamentary scrutiny faster than they have emptied the green benches.
When privatisation is already so deeply embedded in the NHS, we can’t just blindly argue for ‘more funding’ to solve its problems, explain ESTHER GILES, NICO CSERGO, BRIAN GIBBONS and RATHI GUHADASAN



