Opinion

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....

Here we are again, no matter how much I scream to the educated LGBT organisations continue to commission misleading research which serves no real benefit to people of the LGBT community. This week Stonewall and YouGov research found that more than one in five LGBT people have experienced a hate crime or incident due to their sexual orientation or gender identity in the last 12 months, compared with 16 per cent in 2013. Cue the outcry in the national press, but...

“FGM is violence, child abuse and sexual assault  …and of course we handed out Vulva cupcakes” is not a phrase you hear every day. But of course, it isn’t every day you speak to Leyla Hussein. Leyla has been at the forefront of the fight against female genital mutilation (FGM) for over a decade. Her willingness to talk candidly – and at times even humerously– about her experiences has played a key role in challenging the culture of silence around...

For all the hype Moggmania has garnered over the past few weeks it is perhaps surprising, given the political climate, how little of it revolved around his political stance. For most people Jacob Rees-Mogg did the thing that few other politicians dare do – he gave an honest account of himself and openly spoke his mind. Forget all the spin and the censored views that have become a key part of the Westminster machine over the years. Rees-Mogg was happy...

The hunger crises in Ethiopia and drought-stricken Somalia will escalate unless we invest more in addressing root causes, United Nations food agency chiefs say, Speaking at the conclusion of a four-day visit to Ethiopia the heads of the United Nations food agencies made a joint call for greater investment in long-term activities that strengthen people’s resilience to drought and the impacts of climate shocks. Back-to-back droughts have left at least 8.5 million people in Ethiopia in need of food aid. In...