Founded in 1843, the Sunday tabloid the News of the World will run its last ever edition this Sunday - on July 10th.

The decision is the result of the continuing revelations of the phone hacking scandal, which have shown the tabloid to have, over a sustained period of time, pursued illicit means in order to generate numerous exclusives. Such behaviour will come as little surprise to those already familiar with the paper: the "News of the Screws" and the "Screws of the...

For the first time on Saturday I watched The Da Vinci Code, with all its focus on the symbolism of the sacred feminine and the male counterpoint - the pyramid. (Alongside, of course, its many historic inaccuracies.) Then, a day later, I witnessed Beyoncé Knowles and an almost wholly black and female backing band deliver a powerful performance headlining the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury (or Glaston-berry, if you're from the US). These women really did represent the rich splendour and power of the...

In my last entry on the public sector pensions dispute in Britain, which was, incidentally, also my first entry, I argued that the most fundamental question of the class movement is whether it has organised itself into a distinct political party for its own interests. This means that a working class party must be capable of advancing working class demands, which although something of a tautology, is also a point which should not be forgot. For too many on the radical left the simple cry of 'revolution'...

This is written as plans for mass strikes on June 30th reach the national news, and as the general secretary of Unison, Dave Prentis, tells Polly Curtis of The Guardian (18th June, 2011) that unless the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government drops its...