2020: The year of fragility and endurance
Illustrations by Hannah Robinson If 2020 has shown us anything, it has shown two things: the fragility and the endurance of the world we have created. At the end of 2019,…
COVID-19: the great leveller myth
Illustrations by Hannah Robinson When Boris Johnson tested positive for Covid-19 in late March, Michael Gove reminded us that “the virus does not discriminate”. The UK government spread the myth of…
Female genital mutilation: not just a foreign practice
Illustrations by Hannah Robinson Having been told that it was just ‘something that girls do’, Nazia Mirza, aged 8, was taken by her mother to have her genitals cut. Being held…
More than ever, foreign travel is a rich person’s game
Illustrations by Hannah Robinson Lockdown restrictions have eased, albeit in an ambiguous and haphazard manner. To what extent we are still in lockdown is unclear. Whilst we wear masks in shops…
How is Syria handling COVID-19?
Illustrations by Hannah Robinson During the Arab Spring of 2011, protesters in Syria gathered to try and oust the Assad family regime, who have been in power since 1971. In 2012,…
A-level u-turns: what backtracking means for this year’s students and the future
Illustrations by Hannah Robinson To say that the awarding of this year’s exams results in Britain has been a disaster would be an understatement. Throughout the UK, examination boards have released…
COVID-19 and recent exam results mean now is time for education reform
Illustrations by Hannah Robinson In life, the best chance at equal opportunity is arguably through education. Education reform and re-evaluation has never been more crucial, particularly considering the current outrage regarding…
The UK Government’s deafening silence is complicity of the highest order
Illustrations by Hannah Robinson On Sunday, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab decided to change the job description of one of the Great Offices of State, in order to appease a racist. When…
COVID-19 is set to deepen the global North/South divide
Illustrations by Hannah Robinson For many, the idea of a COVID-19 vaccine being on the horizon is a lifeline; a gleaming beacon in what has been an inarguably bleak few months….
We’ve never been in the same boat, COVID-19 won’t change that
Illustrations by Hannah Robinson I’m fed up of people saying things like ‘we’re all in the same boat’; COVID-19 has not suddenly caused inequalities to disappear. We have never been in…
One epidemic illuminates another – COVID-19 and the Educational Attainment Gap
Illustrations by Hannah Robinson The wealth divide in Britain is entrenched and it is vicious. A monstrous creature, it plunges its tentacles into every crevice of our lives, suffocating social mobility…
It is high time for a global de-stigmatisation of periods
Illustrations by Hannah Robinson Recently, I was struck by a friend’s refusal to buy a pack of tampons in the supermarket. This show of her embarrassment, reveals the ongoing stigma of…
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…