British Politics
Labour Live epitomised everything wrong with today’s Labour Party
The endless ‘JezFest’ which has become the singular face of a once diverse party was on full display at this trivial one-day festival which took place on June 16th. Corbyn’s…
When it comes to immigration, low skilled labour is high value
At an event focusing on Brexit and immigration this week, I was sat across from a woman from the Scottish Government’s immigration office. Arms crossed and smirking, she flicked her…
Does Britain need a new centrist party?
There’s no doubt that centrists in the UK have become the political vagrants of the island. As the Labour party promises the nationalisation of major industries, while the Conservatives continue…
Immigrants and refugees shouldn’t have to prove their worth
A couple of weeks ago, the name Mamoudou Gassama meant nothing. The Malian migrant, living undocumented in France, had survived the treacherous journey via boat to Europe and was struggling…
Should we be investigating the Tory Party for Islamophobia?
Following complaints from the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has recently called for closer investigation of potential Islamophobia within the Conservative party. This has come following…
Scotland’s period of reflection on menstrual poverty is admirable
SInce devolution was formalised, Scotland has consistently put Westminster to shame with their political maneuvers. Their innovative response to attempt to tackle period poverty is no exception to this. Whereas…
Scotland deserves a voice in Brexit negotiations
As 29 March 2019 grows ever-closer, and the UK’s exit from the EU looms like a dark cloud over British politics, it seems politicians have gone pretty silent on the…
The NHS doesn’t need more money – it needs competition
Doublethink in the UK is nowhere as present as it is with the NHS. Simultaneously, it is both underfunded, understaffed, and overcrowded, yet is also the pride of Britain and…
Women are to be heard, not just seen
Illustration by Francesca Taiganides On 26 May, Ireland overwhelmingly voted to repeal the 8th amendment, allowing women to have abortions up to 12 weeks into pregnancy and up to 24 weeks…
If parliament isn’t equal, how can society be?
I can only speak for myself, but when I look at government, and see that cronie-circle of old school associates and Etonians, it feels like a gentleman’s club. Yes, members…
The royal wedding was beautiful, and that’s enough
For weeks now it has seemed as if the country was holding its breath in anticipation for the moment when Meghan Markle would step out onto the steps of St….
Is a Royal Wedding the moral equivalent of war?
All through May, British media has unloaded an unstoppable barrage of coverage on the Royal Wedding. The dress! The ceremony! The flowers! No aspect of an otherwise conventional Western practice…
Britain takes a hit of Royal gossip at any cost
Imagine undergoing open heart surgery and, as a result missing your own daughter’s wedding. A horrible thought. Then imagine undergoing open heart surgery, missing your own daughter’s wedding while being…
Grammar schools are not the way forward
On May 11 the government announced its plans to provide £50m for an expansion of the number of places in grammar schools, after their plans to open new grammar schools…
The Butch, The Bitch and The Mummy: the women in Westminster
Let’s go back to the tripartite I suggested in the first article; the Butch, the Bitch, and the Mummy. If you’re a woman working in politics, expect to see your…
It’s time for a change in Labour’s leader
The local election results indicate more than ever that the antisemitism scandals under Corbyn are forcing Jews away from the Labour Party. Sadiq Khan conveyed a clearly misplaced confidence regarding…
Row, row, row your boat back to Blighty or stick your left oar in
Think about the word, ‘change’. Chew over it for a moment. Is the unknown, the scary, and the weird, to be avoided? Or is it a break from a tired…
Amber Rudd: the women in Westminster
‘Where would you like to sit?’ Her office was hardly short of options. ‘Shall we go soft?’ and pointed to the corner sofas before we became confused. As a staunch…
Why did the state have ultimate control over Alfie Evans’ life?
The tragic story of Alfie Evans, a 23-month-old infant who passed away this morning, has touched the hearts of many across the globe. Suffering from a rare neurodegenerative disorder, the…
The government is high on anti-immigration, but this is its final hit
Stories of the Windrush generation living ‘illegally’ in the U.K have dizzied the media this week. These people have lost jobs, been denied access to the NHS and benefits, and…
The Duchess of Cambridge’s pregnancy is not your property
Pictured above: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge after the birth of their first child, Prince George Have you heard? There is a new royal baby. Not a single detail has…
Deported Windrush victims are the only ones not to blame
What was Amber Rudd thinking? This question has been on the minds of most over the past fortnight. It does indeed seem bizarre that many Windrush settlers – people whose…
Media ignoring the next big refugee crisis
It is well known that the media is ill-equipped to handle several international crises simultaneously. And thus it is inherently not well known which international crises are left out of…
An encounter with Andrea Leadsom: women in Westminster
I knew very little about Andrea Leadsom before I met her. Like many, I had watched Leadsom’s 2016 Conservative Leadership campaign go up in flames after suggesting in an interview…
Negative press ignores the necessity of the Syrian airstrikes
Commentary on the airstrikes which targeted the Assad regime early morning on April 14 has been, from right-wing to left-leaning British news outlets, overwhelmingly negative. The arguments against the strike…
Well said Ealing Council, let’s hope others follow
Despite being a difficult topic to discuss, it seems abortion has been on everyone’s minds. In light of the Irish referendum, the recent action of Ealing council bears more significance…
Stop treating Calais like it’s a world away
Pictured above: Alice Bletsoe, Jemima Erith, Beth Boff, Lucy Browne-Swinburne, Laura Berg, Sophie Merrick (from left to right, photo credited to Laura Berg) I spent a week in Calais as a…
Interviewing Ruth Davidson: the women in Westminster
There seems to be an ‘all-eyes on Ruth’ effect in the media. Everyone is listening out for what she will say next, or anticipating which armoured vehicle she’ll jump into…
Corbyn’s just as bad as the rest of them
It’s clear that Jeremy Corbyn has achieved cult status among both students and wider sections of the population. He has an army of loyal fans on social media who dominate…
Government pay gap report ‘effectively comparing chief executives with secretaries’
Britain has one of the largest gender pay gaps in Europe. Women earn a mere 80p for every pound a man makes, and this inequality has increased slightly over the…
Another one bites the dust: sugar’s ill-fate
In 1795, the Duty on Hair Powder Act saw the taxation of hair powder and consequently marked the decline in fashion of the powdered wigs that were very much en…
May plans Syrian intervention whatever the cost
The chemical attacks that occured in Douma, Syria on Saturday were barbaric and deserve a response. But rushing into world war three on the heels of a deranged despot armed…
A knee-jerk ‘humanitarian intervention’ in Syria would be ignorant
On April 7th, 2018 a number of sources reported an alleged chemical attack on the rebel-held city of Douma in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta. Exact numbers of casualties are hard to…
Just a spoonful of sugar from the nanny state
Obesity is something we are all familiar with. Having more than trebled in the last three decades, and affecting almost a quarter of the UK population, it is a serious…
Power plays: the women in Westminster
The ‘visibility issue’ of women in politics is not just how many are sitting in Parliament. It’s also an issue of who they’re allowed to be once they’re there. If…
The Tories are trying, but they need to do better
Worryingly, this is the second time this year that I’ve agreed with a Tory policy. Although it may be throwing my political identity into chaos, the recent government-sponsored report into…
Anti-racist, anti-facist, anti-Semite? Millennials have forgotten the Holocaust
In one of the most disgusting cases of antisemitism we have seen in recent years, Mireille Knoll, an 85-year old French Holocaust survivor, was stabbed 11 times, then burned to…
Government can’t change the censorious attitude on campus
The joint committee on human rights (JCHR), a select committee of the Commons and the Lords chaired by Harriet Harman, have recently been considering the issue of free speech at…
Tory response to Skripal poisoning is an own goal
The UK’s news on the poisoning of Sergei Skripal has been rife with inflammatory and miscalculated political statements. Deftly written and well argued, yes, but my fellow Broad columnist Emil…
We could all do with a Politics class (or twenty)
Politics is a subject that causes social divide, mass-speculation and outright uncertainty. As we navigate through a muddy political path in the UK – queue Brexit – it seems necessary…
Corbyn’s silence on Russia shows why he’s unfit for No. 10
The ‘unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom’ is what Theresa May called the attempted murder of former Russian agent Sergei Skripal. That’s about as…
Opt-out organ donations
You know a policy is a corker if you agree with Jeremy Hunt on it. After all, the man has continuously ran the NHS into the ground since he was…
Vince Cable’s speech has revealed his anti-democratic bigotry
The Liberal Democrats are currently polling at 7%. They have been languishing around this level for some time and, despite rebranding themselves as some sort of Remain resistance, have yet…
Borders underpin international order
Last week my fellow columnist Lucy Hodgeon wrote a piece on whether borders have been made redundant by globalisation. It was original, thought-provoking and brilliantly written. I categorically disagree with it….
Borders suffocate international progress
Trump and Mexico. Britain and Brexit. Whilst states across the world seem to be reaffirming their borders, there exists a counter movement asking: do we even need borders? The World…
How I stopped worrying and learned to love Corbyn
British politics has seen better days. Take one look at Theresa May’s cabinet, and you’ll see a crew arguing which way to sail a beached ship. Then feast your eyes…
Brexit, the worst mistake made by the UK since the First World War?
If the UK leaves the European Union, politicians can run the country how they want; Corbyn can try out his Stalinist policies or Mogg can take us back to the…
The real threat to democracy? Millennials
The Baby Boomers will be remembered as the luckiest generation in history. But the millennials will be remembered as the most spoiled. Previous generations perceived democracy as the moral antithesis…
The UK’s political future should be decided by educated voters
In modern day society it is almost unanimously believed that democracy is the best way to govern a country. Democracy seems to be synonymous with fairness, creating a government which…
Saying ‘three cheers for a century of female suffrage’ is not enough
True irony: the fact that the female suffrage centenary is currently sharing column space with the revelation that Tesco, one of UK’s largest supermarkets and employers, could be sued up…
Project FUN Not FEAR
On 23rd June 2016, 26% of the UK population or 37% of the UK electorate voted to leave the European Union. Around 3 million people, including; EU nationals living in…
The Conservative deceit that is Brexit
In early October Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourgish Head of the European Commission, compared Britain to a friend who orders a round of drinks at the bar and then leaves without…
Cable is destroying whatever hopes his party has left
You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. For many, this is not far from an accurate analysis of the current state of Britain’s ‘third’ party,…
Any believer in free trade will embrace leaving the European Union
No matter which side you supported during the EU referendum, there is one aspect of the upcoming Brexit that should strike optimism into every Brit – leaving the archaic customs…
Supporting Corbyn is a trade-off with a soft Brexit
Corbyn’s appeal is understandable. We live in a country plagued by inequality, and unlike many politicians, he has made it his priority to address it. In the UK, the top…