Opinion
Hate mail, blackmail and a week spent disrupting the right wing narrative
When Tommy Robinson was sentenced to 13 months in prison earlier this week the reaction from the far right was unanimous; the former EDL leader was punished for reporting on a child grooming trial because the British government was covering it up. He was arrested for exercising his right to free speech and sent to prison because Britain has become a police state on the way to imposing Sharia law. Victimhood has become a key part of the right-wing narrative...
The London Bridge attack: Creating a positive legacy from a faceless statistic
The London Bridge attack on June 3 2017 was an atrocity all too familiar, in which three British Islamists, high on steroids and wearing fake explosive vests, brought terror to our streets. They drove a van into innocent pedestrians on London Bridge and then used knives to murder eight people. 48 people were injured. The Westminster Bridge attack, in which four people were killed and 22 injured, is also still fresh in our minds. Yet, as we look back now one year...
Where Oxbridge has failed, people power is providing a route to higher education for the less well-off
David Lammy's critique of the UK's top universities has become a national talking point this week as calls for Oxford and Cambridge to "put their vast wealth to better use by funding sophisticated access and outreach programmes" surface. The debate raised by the Labour MP is almost identical to that made by RH Tawney in 1906, when he argued that the ancient universities were wasting their wealth on scholarships for the wealthy. They should, he said, spread their "roots into the...
The Daily Mail has weaponized nostalgia to fuel fear and resentment
British people are united around the view that immigration has harmed communities and left towns and cities more divided, according to a new "poll" run in today's Daily Mail. The study, dubbed "how change is dividing us", revealed that 63 per cent of respondents believe life in Britain was better in the past and that many believe the nation's culture is being neglected because "very few are sticking up for traditions". The reporter in question must have missed the royal...
50 years after Martin Luther King’s march against poverty, the Poor People’s Campaign once again takes to the streets
During his trip to London in 2005 to support the newly launched high-profile campaign #MakePovertyHistory, the late, great and hugely missed Nelson Mandela said, “Poverty is man-made and can, therefore, be unmade.” Today, 50 years after another great black civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, established the Poor People’s Campaign, in which tens of thousands from all faiths and all cultures took to the streets, the campaign has been re-established. This is something of which you may not be aware, due...
The government is bluffing, but it is time we fold on Brexit
There is an art to persevering against the odds. In poker, perfecting an impassive expression that hides a bad deal can deliver a win even in the most impossible scenarios, but no amount of steely glares can compensate for an empty hand come the flop. The UK is holding a near empty hand in its Brexit negotiations, and it is a gamble that has already cost ordinary people dearly as we progress the negotiations. Earlier this week Bank of England Governor...
After being duped on Iraq, the media has still not learnt any lessons
By Mohammad Zaheer I had just begun my O levels when the first bombs dropped on Iraq- the opening salvo of a brutal and unnecessary military campaign that would forever change the world we live in, and not for the better. News coverage and water cooler conversation mainly focused on the chaos and carnage that was being wrought at the time, as everyone slowly became desensitised to news of civilians losing their lives to one atrocity after another. I was...
Rees Mogg says MPs should respect their constituents’ vote on Brexit
Jacob Rees Mogg has told his fellow MPs to respect their constituents' vote on Brexit, despite his area of Bath and North East Somerset voting overwhelmingly to remain in the European Union. The outspoken MP says the Conservative Central Office has launched "an effective campaign to hold to account MPs whose constituents voted leave but seek to stop Brexit". But he made no account of any action against MPs whose constituents voted remain but are pushing for a hard split...
Only love wins – Manchester was full of love yesterday and it will always be so
As I wandered through the streets of the Northern Quarter towards the station on a beautiful and sunny May morning, I have to say my thoughts were of what the families of the 22 lost souls and all the injured from last years horrific act of malice in our City were going through this time last year. What pain and sorrow they must have been through then and also be experiencing today. I cannot even begin to imagine. As I...