Tribune – Comment, news and reviews from Britain's democratic left

With this summer’s festival season in full swing, Stefan Simanowitz reflects on the changing politics of rock

Richard Westwood recalls a wartime falling out between two major figures of the left and how George Orwell’s views have been misrepresented

The collapse of Southern Cross shows the pitfalls of involving profit-driven firms in looking after the vulnerable, says Terry Philpot

The phone hacking crisis reveals problems of an increasingly devalued trade, argues Paul Donovan

New Labour’s record on trade union rights is not a glowing one, argues Keith Ewing

Rupert Murdoch’s unsavoury closeness to governments is nothing new for press barons, writes Ivor Gaber

This weekend thousands of people will descend on a small village in Dorset to pay tribute to the Tolpuddle Martyrs.

In 1834 – the year that the six Dorset farm labourers were sentenced to seven years transportation to Australia for carrying out trade union activities – Britain was a country ruled by aristocratic elite. In power was a posh Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, heading a Whig government (the forerunners of the Liberal Democrats) hostile to working people and their aspirations . So far, so familiar?

The cancer of corruption could yet destabilise the world’s largest democracy