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SubscriptionsCategory: Identity
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Tear Down the Tyrants, Reappraise the Past
As the Black Lives Matter movement removes a symbol of slavery and Empire from the heart of Bristol, Otto English explains why misplaced reverence for these relics of a shameful past has had its time
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12 Facts that Prove Black Lives Don’t Matter in Britain
From childbirth to deaths in custody, homelessness and mental health, Stephen Colegrave shows how the UK is not “one of the best countries in the world to be a black person” – as the Government claims
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Beyond Exceptional: The Etonian English Imperialism at the Heart of a Deadly COVID-19 Crisis
With one of the highest Coronavirus death rates in the world, the UK has proven itself to be exceptional. But its problems go beyond shallow notions of complacency and are rooted in deep-seated structural and cultural oppression
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White Complicity Matters: The Nazis by the Lake
Musa Okwonga’s message to white people following the murder of George Floyd.
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The Government’s Reaction To BAME Deaths Tells Us Everything We Already Knew About Our Society
Two frontline NHS doctors explain why racism at the heart of British institutions must be called out and eradicated to stop any more unnecessary deaths of minorities.
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‘Tommy Robinson’ and the Hundred-Year-Old Racist Rape Meme
Stephen Yaxley-Lennon’s former producer explains why sexual fears of non-white foreigners are being used to aggravate racial tensions in the UK.
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Postcards from the Red Wall: Victory Celebrations for a Nation at War with Itself
Graham Williamson reports on how the COVID-19 phase of the culture wars in Middlesborough are an endless re-run of the 1940s
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The Coronavirus Crisis: Is Racism in the Medical Profession Contributing to High BAME Staff Deaths from COVID-19?
Tasnim Nazeer speaks to NHS doctors and nurses from minority communities who have experienced discrimination in the workforce.
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97%: Latest COVID-19 Frontline Fatalities reveal Shocking impact on BAME Staff
Almost all medical staff and two-thirds of nurses who have died from the Coronavirus have come from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities reports Mark Conrad
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BAME Coronavirus Deaths Inquiry: Trevor Phillips Appointment ‘Insensitive and Insulting’
As British Muslims on the healthcare frontline bear the brunt of COVID-19 fatalities, Dr Shazad Amin joins mounting calls for Public Health England to reverse its decision.
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A Note to the Gay Community in the Global North on Islamophobia
Shahmir Sanni argues that too many selectively use homophobia to justify prejudice against Muslims, who are themselves a unique focus of global hatred.
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Could COVID-19 Bring with it a New Inclusive Englishness?
Former MP John Denham considers the return of the nation state, British myths and how the Coronavirus crisis could help forge a new national story for England.
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Labour Must Build a New Coalition Under Keir Starmer to Win Again
Mike Buckley gives his take on what the Labour Party now needs to think about in terms of identity, class and the Coronavirus crisis.
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The Ungrateful Country
First published in 2016 in The Good Immigrant, a book bringing together writers exploring what it means to be black, Asian and minority ethnic today, in this essay, Musa Okwonga explores his complex relationship with Britain – and himself.
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‘Misbehaviour’ Misses the Mark
Chris Sullivan reviews a new take on the 1970 Miss World pageant and explores the debate about sex and race which it exposed.
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Labour Must Win Over England or Accept Never Winning Power Again
Hardeep Matharu explores the findings of a new report suggesting that the Labour Party must go beyond economic and social concerns and engage with people’s feelings about their identity.
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‘Downstream of Culture’: How Identity Politics Swept Labour Away
While the right has turned politics into a culture war, the left has yet to tackle the politics of culture, says Hardeep Matharu.
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From Sunderland to the Bullingdon Club: Englishness Unravelled
Unsatisfied with George Orwell’s description of patriotism, John Mitchinson digs deep into his own personal history to untangle the complex roots of his Englishness.
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From Sajid Javid to Rishi Sunak: Boris Johnson’s New Version of the Old Colonial ‘Divide and Rule’ Game
Hardeep Matharu explores what the rise of Conservative ethnic minority politicians reveals about the party’s approach to race and diversity.
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THE GREAT BRITISH BREAK-UP: Lessons and Warnings from Dublin and Belfast
Byline Times travelled to Northern Ireland and the Republic to uncover what Britain can learn about the dangers of a repressed English nationalism
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Psychology Isn’t Enough: The Failure to Prevent Individual Terror Attacks
Hardeep Matharu looks at how longer sentences and current counter-radicalisation policy fails to address the real risks.
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The Flags Are Out in Grimsby For Fish and Football
Stephen Colegrave reports on the patriotic fervour and local pride in Grimsby on the day before Britain leaves the EU on 31 January 2-2020.
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The Toll of Empty Nationalism – The Brexit Bell Ends
As Big Ben (doesn’t) count down to ‘Brexit Day’ on 31 January, Otto English considers how Britain fell into the grip of a petty nationalism, warned against by the world’s greatest physicist.
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The Weaponising of ‘Woke’
James Melville argues that ‘wokeness’ is the latest concept to be hijacked by the right-wing to make a stand against equality, democracy and justice.
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Labour’s Love Lost: How Short Term Memories Constantly Pit the Party Against Itself
Stephen Komarnyckyj wonders why Labour views its most successful leaders – Wilson and Blair – in such harsh terms.
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Boris Johnson Will ‘Play the Nationalist Card’ to Stay in Power, Gordon Brown Warns
The former Prime Minister said in a speech that he agrees with George Orwell’s distinction between “patriotism” and “nationalism” and fears the Union of the UK could be over without fundamental constitutional reform.
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History Isn’t ‘Woke’ – It’s the Best Defence we have Against Tyranny and Hate
Hardeep Matharu explains how Laurence Fox’s myopia about the role of Sikh soldiers in World War One is a wider British problem of imperial amnesia.
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R.I.P. The Great White Man
Bonnie Greer on what Prince Harry and Laurence Fox’s different approaches to the world in which we live tell us about privilege, race and hierarchy – and the distinction between the White Man and the white man.
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The Harder the Brexit, the More Likely a United Ireland
MEP and leader of Northern Ireland’s Alliance Party says the DUP were fools for trusting Boris Johnson who was always going to betray Unionism.
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The End of a Decade Without a Name: From Austerity to the Isles of Wonder
Part One of Otto English’s take on the 2010s, exploring how Britain stumbled from the financial crisis into the euphoria of the London Olympic Games – only for a repressed and angry populism to rear its head.
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‘Refusal of Corbyn’s Labour to Fight Back Against the Right’s Culture War a Big Mistake’
Hardeep Matharu speaks to Faiza Shaheen, a Labour candidate in the General Election, about why the British left cannot simply bury its head in the sand over the dangerous politicisation of race and class.
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‘English Nationalism is the Real Threat’ says former Ulster Unionist Leader
Brexit is a fault line which has triggered a realignment of loyalties in the island of Ireland – will Northern Ireland be left behind by English nationalism?
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Brexit and the Fracturing of British Identity: A Warning From Ireland
Hardeep Matharu speaks to acclaimed playwright Frank McGuinness about where the nationalist Brexit project being trumpeted by Boris Johnson could end up
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This is My England, and Yours: Reclaiming Englishness
Now that English Nationalism has been unleashed, Peter Jukes argues that we must all try to restore England’s buried civic tolerance and historic diversity.
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‘A Sikh Man Standing Up for Muslim Women Mattered in Exposing Boris Johnson’s Divide and Rule Dog Whistle Politics’
Hardeep Matharu sat down with MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi to discuss his passionate taking down of the Prime Minister and his derogatory comparisons labelling Muslim women as letter boxes and bank robbers.
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Divide and Rule: ‘Colonial Mindsets Fuelling Islamophobia and Racism’
Hardeep Matharu speaks to Tahir Butt, a Muslim campaigner who spent nearly 30 years in the police, about his experience of racism and identity.
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INSIDE PREVENT: A Racist Policy of Social Control?
Hardeep Matharu explores why those in the Muslim community believe that the Government’s controversial counter-terrorism strategy is doing more harm than good.
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MYTH AND TABOO: Can Integration Ever Solve Racism?
Far from being topics of taboo, integration, immigration and racism have been politicised for years in dishonest narratives. Are Tony Blair and other centrists going down the same path again as populism rears its ugly head once more?
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The Story of Brexit is the Story of Empire: Why Did Asian Immigrants Vote to Leave the EU?
The complicated love-hate relationship of immigrants from former colonies with the British Empire cannot be ignored if lessons are to be learned in post-Brexit Britain, says Hardeep Matharu
