Opinion

By Max Bluer Catalan President Carles Puigdemont has this evening announced that his government will declare independence “in a matter of days”. Puigdemont made the announcement as part of an interview given to the BBC on Tuesday evening, just minutes before King Felipe VI went on national TV to denounce the Catalan regional leadership as “disloyal”, accused them of fracturing Catalan society and threatening the Catalan economy, and denounced the referendum as illegal. The crisis of Catalan secession from Spain deepened...

There’s been a lot of news reports recently about plans by President Trump’s administration to put a stop to the so-called ‘Dreamers Law’. Officially known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme, the immigration policy championed by Barack Obama has protected nearly 800,000 young adults without documentation to work legally in America since 2012. It recognises that if they have grown up in America, they should have the chance to build a life – regardless of if they...

A patronising tour of working class culture or a helping hand for community businesses? That is the debate following a recent "safari tour" of London chicken shops organised by the union at Goldsmiths University in Lewisham. According to the Evening Standard around 50 Goldsmiths students attended the Chicken Run event on Monday, visiting fast food outlets in New Cross including PFC, Morleys, Gateway and Chick Chicken. Although organisers say the event was created as a response to gentrification in the local area...

A story of resilience and hope…Liz’s story It was a vicious crime, attracting international condemnation and media outrage across the world. One night in 2013, a 16-year-old girl was gang raped as she returned home from her grandfather’s funeral in Western Kenya. After being brutally assaulted and beaten by six young men that she knew, her attackers threw her into a 12ft-deep pit latrine, leaving her for dead. The victim, referred to as “Liz” in order to protect her identity,...

This World Mental Health Day, Spurgeons Children’s Charity is calling on commissioners in England and Wales to look at alternative solutions to the adolescent mental health crisis in this budget-cut environment. Charity CEO Ross Hendry looks at a new family-based solution being piloted in Birmingham. The facts are harrowing. In secondary schools across the country, at least four young people in every class are self-harmers. Children and young people who have self-harmed once are at high risk of recurrence. And...

Xi's behaviour suggests he might buck the trend set by predecessor Hu Jintao. Tracking the rise and fall of political stars has been a major occupation of China watchers for decades. In a one party system where the selection of leaders is a closely guarded state secret, this job is necessarily a difficult one, and speculation ahead of major political events runs rampant. The National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is held twice a decade to decide the...

The Guardian has set its sights on breaking even next year but can its membership schemes and pleas for cash work, or will it be forced to forego its commitment to quality journalism? Despite increased revenues from its digital advertising and membership schemes, which rose 15 per cent to £94.1 million in the year to April 2017, the newspaper publisher is reported to be considering a paywall plan B. At this point in its three-year turnaround plan, this could be...

Since winning a first general election majority for 23 years in May 2015, the Conservative Party has been little short of dire having been left to its own devices in government. U-turns, party splits and a never-ending NHS crisis were the aperitifs for the dog’s dinners that were the 2016 Brexit referendum and Theresa May surrendering a slim majority in an election that snatched relative defeat and sheer embarrassment from the jaws of victory. All the above makes dismal reading,...

Leading UK genocide charities Remembering Srebrenica, the Aegis Trust, the National Holocaust Centre and the Holocaust Survivors' Friendship Association have come together to collectively condemn the violence being carried out against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. The tragic and shameful treatment of Rohingya Muslims, often described as the most persecuted minority in the world, has now escalated into a humanitarian crisis. The Rohingya people are facing severe discrimination, escalating violence, forced statelessness, and, as reported by the United Nations, ethnic cleansing....