Opinion

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

The Kurds in the Middle East are continually betrayed by the politics of aggressive states, and their plight has been largely ignored by the media.

What is a terrorist? Someone who uses violence or intimidation for political ends? Noam Chomsky's remark ”It's only terrorism if they do it to us" points to the reason the UN have never been able to agree a definition – western governments and their allies routinely use violence and intimidation to coerce and demoralise civilians. The Israeli government's answer to this linguistic quandary is to invert the meaning of the word. According to Minister of Strategic Affairs, Gilad Erdan, the...