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
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Britain at Christmas: From Scrooge to universal credit
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
Alba party leader KENNY MacASKILL makes some suggestions on how to save our pubs and reduce irresponsible drinking
The catastrophe unfolding in Gaza – where Palestinians are freezing to death in tents – is not a natural disaster but a calculated outcome of Israel’s ongoing blockade, aid restrictions and continued violence, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE
Opinion polls point to electoral collapse, parliamentary rebellion and a looming leadership challenge as Starmer’s Labour haemorrhages working-class support and the far right exploits the vacuum left by a hollowed-out party, says NICK WRIGHT
The long-term effects of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange mean that the impact of war lasts well beyond a ceasefire
WHILE the mainstream media chunter and engage in magical thinking about Brexit, for many in the other Britain, far away from the concerns of Westminster — except when Jeremy Corbyn occasionally forces Tory MPs to face the impact of their own policies — it is set to be a miserable Christmas.
The workhouse has long since been abolished, but rough sleeping on the streets continues to rise. Meanwhile the impact of universal credit means that even those in work find themselves having to use foodbanks to live.
This situation has arisen as a direct result of Tory and Liberal Democrat policies since 2010, and from 2015 just the Tory Party of David Cameron and Theresa May. Yet they did not think up the ideas about how to make life miserable for the poor themselves. Rather they have been implemented at times of economic crisis since the 19th century.
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The shameful passage of the assisted dying Bill where safeguards have been all but jettisoned is symptomatic of a hyper-liberalised society where the cult of individualism reigns supreme, argues KEVIN OVENDEN
Starmer’s slash-and-burn approach to disability benefits represents a fundamental break with Labour’s founding mission to challenge the idle rich rather than punish the vulnerable poor, argues KEITH FLETT
Charles Dickens was facing a return to the destitution that had blighted his childhood, and it was this which drove him to write the remarkable best-seller which changed the politics of Christmas forever, writes MAT COWARD
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys, with minor reservations, the Northern Ballet’s revival of its 1992 classic