Britain Follow

On 18 January the body of Ramin Khaleghi, a 27 year old Iranian, was discovered in the International Hotel, a hostel housing asylum seekers in Leicester. Ramin had been a political prisoner in Iran for a number of years before managing to flee to Britain.

US President George Bush ushered in the start of the Gulf War ten years ago. As the bombs pounded down on Iraq he made a speech about the dawn of a "New World Order". We have been living with that New World Order ever since. Bush's war lasted 42 days. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were dead by the end of it. Iraqi society was devastated. The war was backed up by British Tory prime minister John Major and Labour leader Neil Kinnock every inch of the way. We were told that it was necessary and just, because Saddam Hussein, the ruler of Iraq, was an evil tyrant. We were told he was a new Hitler who must be destroyed at all costs.

Saturday 27 January will be the first official Holocaust Memorial Day to be held in Britain. That date is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the most notorious Nazi death camp. Events are taking place in schools, colleges, workplaces and town centres across Britain.

"I've come to realise that those at the top in British society merely got rich and profited from my family, and other people who have not received justice." Those were the bitter words of Darshan Singh Chhokar, speaking at a 130-strong rally last Saturday for justice for his son who was killed in 1998. The family demanded at the Glasgow meeting that a public inquiry is held into the investigation of Surjit Singh Chhokar's death.

The trial of 12 Afghans charged in connection with a hijacked plane that flew into Britain last year was due to begin on Thursday. But New Labour should be put in the dock over its treatment of the remaining 88 Afghan passengers who have asked for asylum in Britain.

"The pledge of John Prescott to cut the number of car journeys in the first five years of Labour rule has been abandoned. There has in fact been a remorseless increase in traffic growth."

Just two weeks after the Christmas holiday period we can already see the coming together of the issues that will dominate British politics for the next four months. The main parties are shadow boxing in expectation of an election in May. But on the ground there is growing opposition to the policies they agree with each other on.

Steel workers feel betrayed The steel maker Corus has issued 150 compulsory redundancies in Scunthorpe as part of this year's job cuts. Workers who have spent their whole working lives in steel are now being sacked because they don't fit management's criteria. These workers feel betrayed. For the last 20 years steel workers in Scunthorpe have faced annual job losses. British Steel told its workers that they could only make their future secure by becoming "leaner and fitter". Each year steel workers delivered better productivity.

William Hague's Tory rabble playing the race card or Tony Blair's New Labour government privatising everything in sight. That is the choice presented to us in this year's general election. But there will be an alternative. Across Britain over 120 socialist candidates are preparing to stand in the election.

The television drama Rebel Heart by Irish writer Ronan Bennett has provoked an outburst from Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble and right wing papers like the Daily Telegraph.

Any day now I'm expecting someone in the culture business to tell us that history is the new rock & roll. It's everywhere. One moment it's Simon Schama in his History of Britain series, standing on the battlements, the next it's Tony Robinson and the Time Team in a ditch.

The government is in disarray over its plans to privatise council housing, and the chance is there to pile on the pressure to force a complete retreat. A marvellous opportunity to intensify the campaign comes in just over a week, when tenants and council workers join forces for a major lobby of parliament. Already coaches are booked from across Britain to bring people to London for the mass lobby on Wednesday 24 January.