The perverse principles of the 1970s that powered the tech titans have left us with a world where the richest 1% own nearly two-thirds of its wealth In the early 1980s hand-written chalk signs started appearing on the sidewalks of my grungy Manhattan neighbourhood: Whoever has the most toys when he dies, wins. At that time New York City was still recovering from near bankruptcy and those who could were leaving in record numbers. Crime and homelessness were rife, crack cocaine was offered on every corner. The sidewalk message was clear: consumerism is a con, resist it, stuff won’t matter when y ..read more

Last night’s membership vote is a step in the right direction, but this remains a closed, elite institution Britain’s “old boys’ club” suffered a blow last night. The Garrick Club – an exclusive gentlemen’s club in central London and relic of some 19th-century fantasy of male dominance – voted to allow women to become members for the first time in almost 200 years. About 60% of the votes were in favour. In the 21st century, there is simply no legitimate justification for the exclusion of women. There actually never was. That the Garrick Club’s exclusionary policy has been so robustly defended ..read more

People of colour are disproportionately affected by the crisis, even as far-right parties seek to scapegoat them, campaigners warn The 40 sq metre apartment had everything that Hamado Dipama was looking for: one bedroom, a bath and a good location in the southern German city of Augsburg. When he called to set up a viewing, however, the landlord kept asking him where he was from. “It was really bizarre,” said Dipama. “I told him that I didn’t know what that had to do with his rental. And he hung up on me ..read more

Issue was not existence of men-only clubs but uniqueness of Garrick’s powerful membership list casting unflattering spotlight on British establishment Garrick Club votes to accept female members for first time Who cares that an elite organisation full of mostly elderly white men has decided to allow women to join them in a small central London private members’ club? Such was the reaction of many of the club’s members who had responded with extreme ill-temper to the Guardian’s recent decision to publish the names of about 60 of the Garrick Club’s most influential members. There has been an or ..read more

Meeting on Tuesday evening will debate the issue after new legal analysis of 193-year-old rulebook ‘Where actors and men of refinement might meet’: history of the Garrick Club The men-only Garrick Club will vote on Tuesday evening on whether female members should be allowed to join, after decades of controversy over the London club’s refusal to admit women. Members will meet at a Covent Garden venue at 5pm to debate the issue. They will then vote on a resolution inviting them to confirm that a new legal analysis of the Garrick’s 193-year-old rulebook suggests there is actually nothing in it ..read more

The PM danced to their tune and the dreadful election results were the outcome. The solution can’t be more of the same Justine Greening was Conservative MP for Putney from 2005-19 Last week’s local election results may finally have sunk Rishi Sunak’s Conservative party. It lost all but one of the 11 mayoralty contests, and while Ben Houchen held on in Tees Valley, it was with a diminished majority. Labour were out of sight in winning the Blackpool South byelection with a 26% swing, and more broadly in local elections across England the Tories lost nearly half the council seats they were defe ..read more

Report calls for reintroduction of jury unanimity to safeguard against wrongful criminal convictions At least 56 miscarriages of justice have occurred in cases in England and Wales where the jury was split, according to a charity, which says jury unanimity should be reintroduced to safeguard against wrongful criminal convictions. The research by Appeal, the miscarriage of justice charity, says majority verdicts “arguably dilute the principle of reasonable doubt” and have facilitated miscarriages in cases including those of Andrew Malkinson, who spent 17 years in prison for a rape he did not co ..read more

Peter Taylor points to a neglected but important feature of elective democracy According to Polly Toynbee (It’s Sunak’s doom loop: the more desperate and cruel the Tories become, the more voters reject them, 30 April), “younger generations are refusing to turn Tory as they age, the way previous cohorts reliably did”. The problem with this statement is that cohorts don’t vote, people do. And the people who have voted Labour tend to be from lower socioeconomic groups whose members die younger. For instance, my father, a socialist who spent much of his working life down the pit, died in 1980 ..read more

Isobel Yeung documentaryNo Mow MayBaked potatoesDefining wealthBlocked bogs As a former provincial journalist, the worst discomforts I endured were irate councillors, bureaucrats and business bosses. World Press Freedom Day, which took place on 3 May, made me want to express my admiration for the courage and professionalism shown by Isobel Yeung in the making of The Other War on BBC Three. Her work to expose the horrors of trying to survive in the West Bank was beyond the call of duty. Ted Raine Skelton, North Yorkshire • My husband supported me in my quest for more sustain ..read more

Poverty, discrimination, and cultural stigma around mental health are among reasons, experts say Black mothers twice as likely as white mothers to be hospitalised with perinatal mental illness Perinatal mental illness affects more than a quarter (27%) of new and expectant mothers across England and covers a range of conditions including postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis. A Guardian analysis of NHS figures has shown that for instances of perinatal mental illness that result in hospital admissions, black patients are more than twice as likely to be admitted than their white counte ..read more