Opinion

In April 2000, I read the extraordinary story of hungry American, Kenneth Payne, who was given a 16 year jail term for stealing a one dollar Snickers bar. The American legal system saw him as a serial food thief. The American District Attorney tried Payne as a habitual offender, increasing the severity of a shoplifting charge, which should, in the usual process of law, been seen as a misdemeanour, to felony theft, making him eligible for up to 20 years in jail. Shockingly, at no point were his...

Last August writer David Wilson wrote movingly when the Disability Living Allowance his son Ben had always relied on to live independently was stripped and he was left having to fight a cruel Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment by the Department of Work and Pensions that left him struggling to cope. Ben's income was cut drastically.  This is what happened next:  My son lives in Cornwall and, aged 45, has been disabled since he was six months old after a vaccination precipitated Salaam...

By Anicée Van Engeland, Senior Lecturer, Center for International Security & Resilience When he came to address the public at Chatham House in February 2018, HE Abbas Araghchi, the Deputy for Political Affairs of the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs who served as chief nuclear negotiator, was quite clear about the Iranian position on the agreement: Iranian authorities consider they have signed a contract and expect each party to abide by the contractual terms. He lamented the lack of respect...

The President chose cheers over tears by stepping into the warm embrace of the NRA rather than tackling gun crime - a decision he should be made to rue  Donald Trump’s address to the National Rifle Association convention on Friday was a thoughtless move from a President who has routinely failed to address the rise of violent crime in America, and should come as a call to arms for young people in the country. The President was met by cheers in Dallas by...

When we think of local charities, the image that springs to mind is often that of the village pump preservation society and their creaky wooden tombola. However, the reality is that local charities now provide the last, and often the only, line of support to many of our most marginalised people and communities. Over the last decade grassroots charities and community groups have increasingly taken on responsibility for addressing society’s basic needs, soaking up the pressure created by cuts in...

Comments by Lord Roberts that likened Theresa May's approach to Brexit to the Nazi takeover of Germany in 1933 have been met with disdain by several of his counterparts in the House of Lords, but the Llandudno peer is well within his rights to flag historical warning signs as we enter a perilous period for politics. The Liberal Democrat politician claimed the Prime Minister was trying to undermine the role of Parliament as Adolf Hitler did when he seized power with his Enabling Bill....

It was with a splash that the classic Tory power pose made a return to newspaper front pages this morning. Standing outside the Home Office Sajid Javid followed George Osborne, David Cameron and Theresa May in striking the awkward stance that is supposed to strike notes of confidence, determination and strength. The underlying message was also made clear. Javid is here to end the hostile era for illegal immigrants, with promises of a policy overhaul on the back of the...

Today we are demonstrating against the Home Office’s planned secretive mass charter flight deportations to Jamaica and Nigeria. A full amnesty to those who have been criminalised by racist immigration laws is the only way to right a historic wrong. By Karen Doyle, Movement for Justice This weekend we celebrated  the release of Yvonne Williams - a 59 year old grandmother of seven children who has spent the past EIGHT months locked up. Her crime? Coming a cropper of a racist...

If you're looking for a demonstration of how Western society has decayed into an internet-fuelled rot then look no further than the viral social media trend that is paedophile hunting. With a warped sense of social responsibility that harks back to Medieval lynchings Britain's streets are now home to vigilantes who are taking the law into their own hands in order to bring sex criminals to justice. They lay out a trap, play the role of the bait and with...