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CLAIMS THAT British Asian communities "won't mix" have been rubbished by one of the biggest ever surveys into ethnic minority housing. Researchers in Leeds and Bradford studied Asian housing patterns. The findings showed that politicians' and media claims that Asian and Muslim people did not want to mix were "myth making".

WORRIED ABOUT paying the credit card bill off after Christmas? You are not alone. There are now record levels of debt in Britain. The government and so called economic "experts" may tell us we are enjoying a consumer boom.

WORKERS AT Britain's major airports have voted to reject their bosses' pay offer for a second time. The low paid workers are employed by the British Airport Authority (BAA). They are fuming that while the airport operator's profits have soared in the last year it is still playing Scrooge with their pay.

A BOGUS group posing as an authority on immigration in Britain has become the toast of the right wing press and Tories. Migrationwatch UK is constantly quoted in the Times, Sun and Daily Mail. These are the papers that relish attacking workers on strike as much as they enjoy bashing refugees. The group's name is supposed to make you think it is a respected think-tank, like Human Rights Watch.

NEARLY 200 people took part in a debate at Edinburgh University last week on the prospects for peace in the Middle East. It was organised by the student society People & Planet. John Chalcraft, an Edinburgh politics lecturer, and Chris Doyle, from CAABU (Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding), explained why Palestinians had rejected the "peace offers".

"THE BIGGEST ever pay deal in NHS history." That was a typical headline after the government announced a new pay package last week for NHS staff. The reality of the package, called "Agenda for Change", is very different. GILL GEORGE, a health worker in Hackney, one of the poorest boroughs in Britain, gives ten reasons why health workers should oppose it.

THE FIREFIGHTERS' strike has lifted the lid on the operations of a tightly knit group of intensely political men. They are the unelected bankers, media barons and industry chiefs who control the crucial levers of power. Without having to formally make an agreement they know that at key moments like this they have to set aside their rivalries and line up against a common enemy - workers in struggle.

IT SEEMS as if we live in a democracy. After all, every five years we elect the government. That's certainly better than not electing it. But then there are some questions. Most people in Britain support the firefighters, are against war on Iraq and oppose student fees. How does New Labour respond? It attacks the firefighters, threatening thousands of jobs as the price of a half-decent pay rise.

A NEW generation of activists is discovering the power of socialist ideas. Here trade unionists and socialists from across Britain recommend books that changed how they see the world. All of the books that feature would make great presents. They are all available from Bookmarks bookshop.

MISS WORLD has come to Britain, bringing with it a torrent of garbage about women and their role in society. Miss World is a symbol of how society reduces women to objects judged on the way they look.

TRADE UNIONISTS and campaigners met in Burnley last Saturday to discuss how to campaign against the Nazi threat across the north west of England. The mood at the conference, sponsored by the Anti Nazi League, was serious and determined after the election of three British National Party (BNP) councillors in Burnley and one in Blackburn.

"A COLD and calculated manipulation of the work of human rights activists." That was the damning verdict of Amnesty International on home secretary Jack Straw's dossier on human rights abuses in Iraq published this week. Amnesty is absolutely right to question Straw's motives. New Labour has launched a propaganda war to back a US attack on Iraq. It wants us to believe it is so concerned about human rights there that it will join the US in blasting the country and its people. George Bush has been piling troops and weapons into the Gulf region ready for the mass destruction of the country. US and British planes have kept up their regular bombing raids on Iraq, which have been continuing