Politics

By Andy Irwin Andy Irwin argues that social change isn’t going to come from Westminster, we (the people) have to drive it. He talks to an activist in Staffordshire about a new environmentally responsible social enterprise designed to alleviate fuel poverty and reliance of fossil fuels in the area. The steamroller of unrest ignited by austerity and widening social inequality that some predicted would come chugging through the streets of England in the midst of the London riots in 2011...

With just over a week until one of the most hyped referendums in British history, newspapers across the country today lead with the headline: 'Ten days to save the UK'. According to a weekend poll the "Yes" to independence campaign is two percentage points ahead of their Better Together adversaries sending ripples across Fleet Street as the notion of a Scottish split takes a step closer to reality. Alistair Darling says he's still confident the NO vote will win, but Alex Salmond says the latest...

By Gregory Taylor For most university students the next few years will be the best years of their lives, but although the university experience is life changing, I feel it does not prepare a student for the outside world of work. Far too often you hear employers moaning about university graduates not having the right skills for the work place and graduates not having good work ethics. So how do you solve a problem like this? Well, we should look no...

By Stephen Angus Peter Junor The independence referendum takes place on the 18th of September and as the debate has evolved and engaged the population, it is becoming clear that politics in Scotland and perhaps even the UK has fundamentally changed. It has politically awakened the entire nation. UK election turnout in 2010 was around 65 per cent while the turnout for the Scottish Parliament elections in 2011 was only 50 per cent, but there is reason to believe that...

 By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor As Pressure grows on South Yorkshire's police commissioner Shaun Wright to resign in the wake of a damning report into child abuse in Rotherham, a leading academic claims denial too easily became part of the culture. Many of the figures - including Wright , who was the Labour councillor in charge of children's services at Rotherham Council from 2005 to 2010 - during the 16 years of abuse (involving at least 1,400 victims) ignored the warning...

By Bismah Ali James Foley and the need for consistent international approaches to hostage situations. Before his brutal murder, James Foley’s masked executioner explained that his death was in direct response to recent United States airstrikes in Iraq against ISIS. However, after his kidnap from Syria in 2012 and until recently, ISIS had different criteria for the release of Foley, as well as other kidnapped American and British citizens, including Steven Sotloff, a Time magazine journalist and the second hostage...

By Vladimir Remmer The world financial equilibrium was devastated in 2006 when the US housing market bubble finally burst. Real Estate prices plummeted, wiping out securities tied to housing and striking financial institutions globally. The human toll was staggering and manifested in mass evictions, bankruptcies and foreclosures, combined with catastrophic job market contraction and prolonged unemployment. The consumer wealth adjustment, estimated to be trillions of US dollars, inhibited economic activity throughout most of the world and led to the 2008...

By Guy Dorrell, Defence Correspondent @GuyDorrellEsq Operation Protective Edge, Israel’s conflict and subsequent incursion into Palestine, has brought out many distressing images; destruction of buildings, infrastructure, hospital patients, the elderly and in particular, images of injured or killed children have featured heavily. Sharing of these images may have been the definitive use of social media within a conflict so far. Some of the images have become iconic – the harrowing picture of Ismail Mahmoud Bakir, Ahed Atef Bakir, Zakariya Ahed Bakir...

By J T Coombes www.globalmagnacarta.com @GMagnaCarta I have just arranged a holiday abroad. To help with my decision making I went on a virtual trip to look around the place, courtesy of Google, investigating the towns, restaurants (plus their menus!) and places of interest that are 1,700 miles and four hours flying time away. I also had a video call to the owner of the place where we are staying to fine tune transfers and other ‘hygiene’ details. The internet...