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DAVID BLUNKETT, the home secretary, lied through his teeth to get a refugee family deported at top speed from Britain. That scandal was revealed last week in a Home Office letter about the Ahmadi family, who fled from Afghanistan to Britain last year. The letter was a key piece of evidence used in a court hearing on Tuesday of last week.

How Britain created Iraq Britain set up Iraq in 1922. The area had been three separate provinces-Basra, Baghdad and Mosul-which were part of the Ottoman Empire run from Turkey. Britain's rulers wanted the territory after oil reserves were discovered there in the late 19th century. The Anglo-Persian oil company had drilling rights across 500,000 square miles in the region.

ROBERT BROWN has spent 25 years in a British jail for a crime he insists he did not commit. The 45 year old Scot is Britain's longest serving prisoner who is now known to be a victim of a miscarriage of justice. His case was finally referred to the court of appeal this summer, but he was denied bail by Judge Roderick-Evans and it could be a year before his new hearing.

SOME PEOPLE who are horrified by the prospect of an attack on Iraq are looking to the United Nations (UN) to stop the slaughter. So one of several parliamentary motions critical of British foreign policy says military action against Iraq "can only be morally justified if it carries a new and specific mandate from the United National Security Council".

A NATIONAL strike ballot involving all 180,000 postal staff in Britain begins next Tuesday. It has been called by the CWU union in opposition to management plans to launch a joint venture with one of Britain's nastiest multinationals. Bosses want to transfer 4,000 CWU members in the Romec cleaning and maintenance section to a new company 49 percent owned by construction group Balfour Beatty.

ANTI-NAZIS scored a victory last weekend in the battle against the British National Party (BNP) and its Red, White and Blue "festival" outside Burnley in Lancashire. The Nazis hoped the police's five-kilometre exclusion zone around the event would prevent them from facing any opposition. But anti-Nazis broke the police ban and gathered opposite the entrance to the Nazis' "festival".

A nurse, a mechanic, a four year old and a six year old. They fled to Britain from the horror of Afghanistan. Blunkett tells them to get out.

Richard, A 20 year old Afro-Caribbean man, has become the latest victim of a series of serious racist attacks in the area where black teenager Stephen Lawrence was murdered nine years ago. There have been four attacks in the last three months in Eltham, south east London, where the British National Party had its headquarters.

ANOTHER OPINION poll in Britain last week showed the shock and anger many people feel at George Bush's rush to start a war on Iraq. Some 91 percent of Daily Mirror readers said in a phone poll that they were against the war. The paper has run several articles critical of an attack on Iraq and the war on Afghanistan. "Mr Blair will next month face one of the biggest anti-war protests in Britain for years," said the Mirror last week. Protesters will mass in London on 28 September. A string of Stop the War Coalition events will be held over the next few weeks."

THE US and Britain are trying to present themselves as the champions of freedom and democracy as they threaten war on Iraq. But both countries are locking people up indefinitely without charge and denying them any right to protest.

THE KEY myths about refugees in Britain have been trashed in a recent report that was commissioned by the Home Office. Vaughan Robinson and Jeremy Segrott from the University of Wales produced the report that investigates why asylum seekers end up in Britain. The report takes on the arguments poured out by press and politicians that refugees flock to Britain because it is a "soft touch".

THE BATTLE of Lewisham, which took place 25 years ago this month, was a decisive turning point in the fight against the Nazis in Britain. On 13 August 1977 over 10,000 people-black and white, old and young, women and men-joined together to physically confront the Nazis and stop them from marching. The battle showed how the Nazis could be driven off the streets and it marked the beginning of a mass campaign to smash the Nazis.