Please, don’t make airports even worse
I’ve something of a love-hate relationship with airports. Having spent the past three years of my life living abroad, I’ve become used to the whole process of waking up unreasonably…
The concept of a ‘green city’ is too rigid
Palermo crept into conversation on three separate occasions this week. First, a conversation with a Sicilian over the delights of arancini, second to recommend Palermo for a romantic escape, then…
We must act now to help refugees
When Europe began to back out of its open-door policy in 2015, the world was forced to watch the refugee crisis develop into the biggest humanitarian catastrophe of the 21stcentury….
Travels around the Arab world: debunking myths
I often get asked why I decided to study Arabic at university and to this day I give the same ridiculous but truthful answer: I had been obsessed with the…
City of Stars: Skid Row is the dark, Dickensian underbelly of Los Angeles
Coming back down to earth from Hollywood’s glittering Hills, we land in Skid Row, one of the largest stable populations of homeless people in America. These days it is only…
China’s concentration camp you’ve never heard of
Everyone knows about the Holocaust, we all consider it part of the somewhat distant past that we’ve learnt from and will never repeat. Thankfully, for the most part, that’s true….
Since when did Angry Birds get you hired?
I’m taking a break from International Relations and realpolitik this week to address something that’s on all our minds – not being unemployed. As we chase those spring weeks, internships…
City of Stars: the religious icons of Hollywood
Los Angeles, in our mind’s eye, is a montage of the city’s most iconic sights. But this flickering reel has been stitched together by Hollywood itself. Scattered across the sprawling…
Conservative no more: Texas and Bavaria?
In the twenty-two years that I have lived on this planet, change has not been difficult to come across, bar a few notable exceptions. Yet in 2018, two everlasting political…
City of Stars: the road from Skid Row to Bel Air… and back again
I was lucky enough to spend last year living in the sunny and sophisticated city of Santa Barbara. California’s very own American Riviera. Just two hours north of Los Angeles’…
Capitalism: A better society of coffee and cooperation
‘Nice guy? I don’t give a s***. Good father? F*** you! Go home and play with your kids. You wanna work here – close!’ This is what Alec Baldwin’s character…
#Time4Change: A case for systemic economic reform
We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to redefine our economy and our generation must not let this slip. None of us needs reminding that we live in politically turbulent times. But…
Our response to mental health can, and must, improve
Among the latest news, one topic that has particularly stood out recently is that of mental illness and drug addiction. In the last few years, there have been outcries on…
Debt threatens to derail the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is often cited as being the brainchild of the current Chinese premier Xi Jinping, who first announced the project in Kazakhstan during 2013, where…
Sex work in the ‘Nordic Model’ isn’t all it’s cracked up to be
Supposedly, it’s the oldest profession in the world. Since we first moved out of the caves and into tiny little villages made of mud and stone, there have been people…
Rethinking Privilege: A Stoic Approach
‘Privilege’ is a word that gets thrown around a fair bit these days, though seldom correctly. Social structures are increasingly being put under the lens of privilege, which has become…
In defence of the ‘individual’
Back in the early 1960’s, when psychologists could get away with a whole load of weird stuff, a now-infamous experiment took place at Yale University. Subjects were sat down by…
3D guns aren’t bulletproof yet and nor is gun law
After I first read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, I first played Deus Ex, and the first time I watched Robocop (the original one, obviously), I wondered just how…
AI and tech advancements are exciting, but are they ethical?
Imagine swiping open your phone to receive a new message. It’s from Yeshi, a young Ethiopian girl who is going to take you on a journey to collect water. It…
When it comes to sex education, it’s high time for a recoupling
There’s a lot uniting English people at the moment. The World Cup, Danny Dyer speaking the mind of the nation and standing up to Piers Morgan, our collective lobster sunburns….
The Modern BRICS: Is Russia geographically predisposed to aggression?
I tried, I tried and I tried. Believe me, my best efforts were exerted in attempting to write an article on Russian geopolitics without mentioning the World Cup yet it…
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…
Human rights: have our prisons become pointless?
When we take an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ approach to the U.K’s prison system, we all lose. 46% of all prisoners reoffend within a year of their release,…
The Modern BRICS: How Latin America is learning from Brazil’s mistakes
In 2001, the British economist Jim O’Neill coined the term BRIC nations to describe the rapidly developing global economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China, with South Africa being added…
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…
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…
Marina Nemat and political prisoners
In the lead up to interviewing Marina Nemat, I found myself recounting her story to anyone who would listen. For it really is, an unbelievable story. Imagine, you’re forced to…
Our kind hearts stop us from accepting Murray’s scientific truths
Scientists are fortunate to be working at a time where the reach of ideological dogma does not result in criminal convictions. From Socrates’ conviction of ‘impiety’ in 399 BC, to…
Modern slavery: 54 slaves work for me
Which business profits annually more than Google, Microsoft, Nike, and Starbucks combined? According to the U.N’s International Labour Organisation, it’s a business that had over 40 million ‘employees’ in 2016…
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…
If you’re saying ‘not all men’, it’s probably you
I wanted to start this article by talking about how much I actually really like men. I felt like I needed to preface my argument with saying that I have…
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…
We are all stranded in a no-man’s land of expectation
I think I’ve probably spent a solid quarter of my time as me, as a sentient young adult, worrying about men. Worrying if I’ve texted them back too quickly, not…
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…
Let’s bin our ‘single-use’ habit for the last time
On May 3rd, supermarket giant Sainsbury’s will launch its new ‘touch-free’ meat packaging. This comes after a Mintel survey reported that 37% of respondents under 35 indicated that they would…
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…
Zuckerberg’s interrogation was too bad to be true
I sent an email yesterday to James Patterson (best selling crime and thriller writer) with a great new idea for a novel that I think he could work wonders with….
The UK was wrong to join in the Syrian airstrikes
With the debate surrounding Theresa May’s decision to join France and the US in bombing a series of chemical warehouses and key targets, there has been arguably more fire and…
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…