Opinion

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...

Even Abraham Maslow missed the most important human point. When that renowned American psychologist, studied by virtually every social sciences student ever since he published his 1943 paper ‘A Theory of Human Motivation’, listed his pyramid of human needs he stated that at its base the edifice was founded upon the physiological. Every single one of us requires air, food, water, sleep, clothing and shelter. All the other attributes or desires that we seek to collect in order to fulfil...

Amid the furore that is the Royal Wedding of 2018 this is undoubtedly an article that will get drowned out. As the country gears up to watch Windsor Castle host the event of the year the subjects dominating today’s press revolve around wedding details that would be considered banal in most instances, but not quite so here. What colour hat will the bride groom’s grandmother wear to his nuptials? Has become a theme of daily contention between papers such as...

Calls for the East Coast Main Line to be re-nationalised have finally been met by the government after it announced the route is to be stripped from Virgin and Stagecoach. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling told Parliament that temporary state ownership would provide the smoothest transition to a new operator. The new service is being renamed London and North Eastern Railway (LNER), in a nod to the railway company created by the Railways Act 1921 that brought about passenger services operated by...

As a criminologist who specialises in the study of organised crime, gangs and homicide, the ongoing atrocities in Gaza go beyond my areas of expertise. However, after yesterday’s tensions, I feel compelled to share my thoughts based on some observations. This piece should be viewed a critical thought piece – one that aims to chart the different types of ‘denial’ that emerge when conflict is officially addressed. Over 50 years of (illegal) occupation and a decade of blockades have made...