From Brexit to a new EU enlargement
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Less than a week after Brexit, the EU Commission released a paper on the new enlargement strategy for the Western Balkans. Since 2013 and the accession of…
Oldest profession or oldest oppression: what is the future of prostitution?
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Oldest profession or oldest oppression: what is the future of prostitution? This week I stumbled across an unusual article; “19-year-old Ukranian Sells Her Virginity For $1.3M to…
The rise of male eating disorders
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Why we need emancipation from rigid codes of beauty and gender. The always-hungry beast: the rise of male eating disorders and why we need emancipation from rigid…
Single Use Men; Re-use or throw away?
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Does traditional masculinity block ethically responsible behaviour?
China continues to use Xinjiang and Tibet as pawns in its global growth
Illustration by Hannah Robinson The author of this piece has asked to remain anonymous so to protect their freedom travelling to and from China. A BBC exposé in October 2018 reported…
Universities still have a lot of work to do on sexual harassment on campus
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Five years have passed since Brock Turner sexually assaulted Chanel Miller on Stanford University’s campus in California. This case caught worldwide attention and garnered vast support for…
Even in Black History Month black voices are marginalised
Scott Allen, Republican state senator for Wisconsin, ushered in the new year with a revised list for celebrating this Black History Month in America. The catch is that it consists,…
Have we got Brexit done now? Not just yet.
Illustration by Hannah Robinson The 31st of January marked “Brexit day”. For years now, Leave supporting politicians and large factions of the media have said that academics, industry and trade experts,…
Her Romeo review
Her Romeo centres around the peripheral characters in Romeo and Juliet, particularly a female recreation of Benvolio, Benvolia, who is driven to guilt and anxiety through her unrequited love for…
The North needs trains, not Lords
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Last Sunday, as I performed my weekly ritual of tuning into Andrew Marr, cafetière at the ready, I was met with an unexpected proposal. The government has…
What can we learn from ‘Megxit’?
Illustration by Hannah Robinson For the past week or so, British media discourse has been dominated by the announcement from @sussexroyal on Instagram that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle would be…
Scottish Independence is not an escape route from a “No Deal” Brexit.
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Election results in Scotland remain in stark contrast to that of England. The 2019 election turned England blue and Scotland yellow, with the Conservatives losing 7 of…
The British public are torturing their Royal Family
Illustration by Hannah Robinson In Britain, both monarchist and republican attitudes to the Royal Family are beginning to align. Whenever there is breaking news from the Windsors, it is greeted by…
Toppling the hierarchy : What we should learn from Greta
Illustration by Hannah Robinson 2019 can be easily called a year of youth activism. Young people all over the world have been grabbing news headlines. From the Zimbabwe’s democracy activist Vimbaishe…
Labour and the Democrats face similar challenges ahead
Illustration by Hannah Robinson This Monday (the 20th of January) will mark the last day to join the Labour party in order to be able to vote in the upcoming Labour…
Brexit continues to leave students out in the cold
Illustration by Hannah Robinson It has been over three years since the results of the Brexit referendum were announced. The initial deadline was March 29th 2019, and although this date has…
Chinese repression of the Uighurs must be reported, and reported accurately
Illustration by Hannah Robinson After the New York Times article of November 16 2019 concerning ethnic minority detention camps in the north-west region of China, the spotlight was once again turned…
Iran vows “severe revenge”; but who will actually suffer?
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Following the death of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani the world has, quite frankly, gone into a spin. Three days into the new year and Trump is tweeting…
Populism around the world
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Populism is on the rise globally, so we need to understand it. Populists seldom have economic plans or concrete programmes to offer – they win and remain…
The political perils of clickbait culture
Illustration by Hannah Robinson History appears to have repeated itself. A catchy slogan, a targeted social media campaign and Boris Johnson – evidently a recipe for success. Hearts across the country…
Social Media: where the election wasn’t won
Illustration by Hannah Robinson It is standard procedure for losers to suggest that they had always been destined to lose, long before voting began. The fact remains that until that exit…
The changes we need to see before the next general election
Illustration by Hannah Robinson The past three years have been some of the most divisive times of recent decades. Polarising rhetoric, advertising built on lies, and empty election promises with snappy…
Embracing Sexual Freedoms from Belarus
Illustration by Hannah Robinson As a woman raised in a world entrenched with patriarchal values, in Belarus, no wonder my self-worth has always been connected to male approval. While traveling the…
British Politics is not broken, it just isn’t accessible
Illustration by Hannah Robinson During this election campaign, a number of figures across the board have uttered the same, over-worn and quite frankly unhelpful phrase, “politics is broken”. We’ve heard it…
Can’t we concentrate on climate change?
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Collins Dictionary recently announced that ‘Climate Strike’ was their word of the year for 2019. Ignoring Piers Morgan’s helpful interjection that this is in fact two words,…
Truth and trust must be the most important themes of this election
Illustration by Hannah Robinson This general election is taking place at crunch time for some of the most important issues of this century. It is fitting that it falls in the…
Why don’t you care about Jeremy Corbyn’s anti-semitism?
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Being a Jew on a British campus is not a universal experience. Ask ten different Jews what it is like and they will give you ten…
Striking is a last resort: here’s why it’s happening
I wrote a column a few weeks ago, reflecting upon society’s current penchant for productivity and the way in which it has infiltrated the mindset of today’s university students. Such…
The Iranian authorities are murdering Iranian people
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Iranians have been peacefully protesting an unprecedented hike in fuel prices since November 15. Since then, protests have spiralled into desperate calls for regime overhaul, as…
I’m a monarchist and Prince Andrew needs investigating
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Last night Prince Andrew gave a disturbing Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis, and the inconsistencies as well as the facts are of serious concern. Andrew began…
Sturgeon’s secret tactics: how the SNP are manipulating Scots in pursuit of independence
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Last week on BBC News a Scottish Conservative gloated that every time Nicola Sturgeon discusses Indyref2 the Conservatives gain votes. Independence is however almost all Nicola…
Hurdle Race: the meeting between Zuckerberg and AOC
Illustration by Hannah Robinson On October 23 2019, the U.S. Congress’s Financial Affairs Committee convened with Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, to discuss the new challenge of the social network, the…
Hibernating Hamsters – the key to long-distance space travel?
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Humble, fossil-free, ageless and resistant to radiation; these are no superpowers, but merely perks of a good old-fashioned winter slumber, also known as hibernation. Dr. Rob Henning…
This election I will vote for the SNP… But I don’t want to!
Illustration by Hannah Robinson This election will be the first time I vote in a general election. However, I am simply unable to vote for the party I want to…
A ‘Remain Alliance’ should learn from Spain
Illustration by Hannah Robinson There is a land, somewhere, that had a minority government. Its Parliament was plagued by indecision and a frustrating lack of consensus. The people, electorally fatigued…
A December election wants to deny students the vote – don’t let it
Illustration by Hannah Robinson The Prime Minister could not have picked a better time for a general election. Slap bang in the middle of exam season, just as every stressed student…
Economic uncertainty because of Brexit continues to harm private equity investments
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Deal or No Deal, new elections and Brexit’s delay; this seems to describe the current daily routines of the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Michael Barnier,…
The reality of recycling in the UK
Illustration by Hannah Robinson At the end of September, Biffa, the UK’s second largest waste management company, was fined a record-breaking £350,000 when a shipment of “mixed paper”, on its way…
Why is France vetoing North Macedonia’s accession to the EU?
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Macedonia became a candidate for accession to the EU in 2005 but one of the main barriers to its accession to the EU lay in its…