SubscriptionsCategory: UK Politics
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Why We Must Create Trauma-Informed Schools to Tackle Unequal Outcomes
Looked-after children are falling behind in school, but a trauma-informed approach could help those young people who have had difficult starts in life to flourish, says Andrew Taylor-Dawson
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Only 13% of Afghan Children Granted Asylum Since 2009 Were Girls
Data analysed by the Byline Intelligence Team reveals that most Afghan people seeking asylum in the UK are young men and boys – as charities call for an asylum system that works for everybody and fears continue about what Taliban rule will mean for women in Afghanistan
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The ‘Crackdown’ on Middle-Class Drug Use is the Government’s Seasonal Shock-and-Scare Story
Does Boris Johnson’s administration really want to introduce a policy which would see its friends in the dock or dinner parties raided?
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Behind the Headlines on the Afghanistan War Lay a Misplaced Jingoistic Complacency
Twenty years ago, large swathes of the media and political establishment defended the invasion of Afghanistan – now, as the Taliban recaptures the country, the confidence feels horribly ill-judged
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‘Deception and Possible Fraud’: Ministers Accused of Misleading Parliament Over HS2
Lord Tony Berkeley, the deputy chair of Boris Johnson’s review into the high speed rail link, claims the public is being kept in the dark over spiralling costs
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‘Deserving’ or ‘Undeserving’ Refugees? Johnson and Patel’s Afghanistan Problem
With a key pillar of the Government’s ‘culture war’ protecting our island nation from unpalatable ‘others’, Hardeep Matharu explores the crass and complex classifications at the heart of the Government’s neocolonial immigration policy
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The Glorious Twelfth: Government Continues to Turn a Blind Eye to Grouse Shooting’s Inglorious Consequences
grouse shooting seasons gets underway, Stuart Spray reports on the negative impacts that driven grouse moors have on biodiversity and climate change
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The Corporate Takeover of the NHS: What Does ‘Privatisation’ of Health Services Really Mean?
In the first of a series of investigations into the corporate takeover of the NHS, Sian Norris considers what NHS privatisation looks like now, and what could change with the new Health and Social Care Bill
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Cummings’ Brexit Confessions Reveal the Hollow Heart of a Hallowed Project
Jonathan Lis explains how the admissions of leading Brexiters five years on expose the continuing corruption of British politics by outright lies
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Light and Shadows: Law-Makers and Populist Attacks – A Transatlantic Comparison
Amid the multiple similarities between the populism of Donald Trump and Brexit, Peter Jukes and Heidi Siegmund Cuda look at the stark differences between the way in which the UK Parliament and the US Congress deal with threats to democracy
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Right-Wing Media’s Manufactured Fears Over ‘Blasphemy’ are Another Arm of the Culture War’s White Jingoist Agenda
Constructed fears around the return of blasphemy laws enable Islamophobia and distract from a reactionary recasting of British values, says Dr Richard McNeil-Willson
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Will the Government Take Action on the Sewage Pollution Crisis?
Stuart Heaver reports on the last chance for the Government to avert the sewage pollution crisis by making water companies responsible
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A-Level Attainment Gap Between State and Privately Educated Children Almost Doubles During Pandemic
hile more pupils across the education system achieved the top grades than pre-pandemic, the A-level attainment gap between state and private school is prompting concern about social mobility and inequality
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Rebutting Rhetoric with Facts: Ex-Mining Regions Suffer Higher than Average Unemployment and Poverty
With Keir Starmer saying that the Prime Minister had shown his ‘true colours’ over comments about coalmine closures, which were met with outrage, Byline Times analysed the extent of inequality being endured by ex-coalfield regions
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Delay is the New Denial: How Big Polluters Continue to Fight Climate Science
light of the IPCC’s report warning that climate change is a ‘code red for humanity’, Thomas Perrett reports on how fossil fuel companies have subtly changed their tactics to continue avoiding the reforms required to combat greenhouse gas emissions
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‘An Appropriate Donor’: AI Research at Oxford University Funded by Controversial Firm Linked to Chinese State
A £300,000 artificial intelligence project at the university is sponsored by Tencent – a Chinese company reportedly involved in censorship, surveillance, and Xi Jinping’s propaganda regime
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Touring in Europe: The Broken Instruments of Brexit
Philippe Auclair discusses the cultural isolation and loss which will result from British musical artists being deterred from performing in Europe
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While Britain Obsesses Over Europe, Europe Turns Away
Though Brexit no longer dominates the headlines in Europe, Europeans view it with a mixture of pity and concern, and look forward to the UK returning to its senses soon – if not to the EU
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The Church’s Leaders Continue to Demonstrate their Inability to Speak Truth to Power
ngland are apparently characterised by “elites”, Reverend Joe Haward considers why those in positions of privilege and power within the Church of England are so reluctant to expose the right’s dangerous and divisive narratives
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The Brexiters, the Donors and the Peer: At Least Nine COVID Testing Companies have Political Links
Coronavirus testing has become a big business opportunity – but there are concerns about regulation, oversight and complaints
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Government Procurement and the Lack of Trust
After the scandal of crony contracts, Stephen Colegrave digs into the Government’s Green Paper setting out a new regime to regulate nearly £300 billion in public spending
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What’s Gone Wrong with the ‘Sex Game Gone Wrong’ Defence Ban?
The Domestic Abuse Bill promised to end the use of the defence after a woman is killed, but as two recent cases show, that simply hasn’t happened
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Matt Hancock Sleeps with the Fishes…
Mic Wright on Boris Johnson’s obsession with The Godfather, and why director Francis Ford Coppola decried him for bringing “the beloved United Kingdom to ruin”
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Military Magazines Issued with Ministry of Defence Knowledge Reveal Its Top Secrets
The department has refused to disclose the location of Operation Catallo – while British Army publications have shared details of it
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Johnsonian Policy: The Lord of Misrule
Professor Chris Painter looks at the Government’s unprecedented and unilaterist policy-making and the dire implications for the quality of UK governance
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Coronavirus and Climate: The Choices We Face
Tom Burke sets out the battle-lines in the conflict over the planet’s future – between policy and politics, cooperation and competition, young and old, freedom to and freedom from
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Prisoners Released on Temporary Licence Plummet
The number of prisoners able to access temporary release to go to work – or take a job in prison – has dramatically decreased during the pandemic, and women are disproportionately impacted
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HS2 Ltd Does Not Know How Many Oak Trees it has Destroyed
A freedom of information request has revealed the extent of the damage done to ancient woodland – and failures to count the destruction – caused by the controversial rail project
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Northern Ireland Amnesty: ‘How can you Build Reconciliation on Denying People the Right to Truth?’
Anne Cadwallader reports on cross-party opposition in Northern Ireland and among human rights groups to the UK Government’s decision to end prosecutions for crimes committed during the ‘Troubles’
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COP 26: The Government is Still in Thrall to Fossil Fuel Lobbyists
Behind the rhetoric on climate change action, the British Government is still heavily under the influence of the oil and gas industry, and their supporters in aviation and transport
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Government ‘Fast-Tracking’ Children’s Social Care Review
Children’s rights charity accuses Minister Vicky Ford of failing to guarantee the Government will seek proper public consultation in reviewing the care of vulnerable children
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The Death of the Last Good Chap
Why do those in positions of power now evade accountability despite numerous examples of incompetence, dangerous liaisons, lies, and even corruption at the heart of Boris Johnson’s Government? Because the British political system allows them to, says Gavin Esler
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‘Dancing Queen?’: The Fixed Term Parliaments Act and the Return of the Royal Prerogative
Historian Robert Saunders considers the constitutional consequences of a new bill which transfers the power to dissolve Parliament to the Crown and removes checks on the Prime Minister
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Gavin Williamson Faces Free Speech Legal Challenge Over Palestine Letter
After 47 Muslim pupils and teachers faced censure for expressing solidarity with Palestine during the recent conflict with Israel, a human rights group has launched a legal challenge against the Secretary of State
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Subverting the ‘Will of the People’: How Brexit Sowed the Wind
Chris Grey explores the forces unleashed by Brexit and how they reveal the weaknesses of Britain’s unwritten Constitution – vulnerable in its reliance on norms and conventions to deliver representative democracy
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Why is the UK’s ‘World Beating’ COVID-19 Vaccination Programme Stalling?
Social scientist Colin Talbot analyses the summer slowdown of the Government’s mass immunisation campaign
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Breaking Taboos: ‘We Need to Talk About Money’
Poppy Sebag-Montefiore speaks to Otegha Uwagba about her new book, which questions why those who have benefitted from financial help are so reluctant to be transparent about it
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Revealed: The Involvement of Palantir and Faculty in the UK Public Sector
Peter Thiel’s Palantir and an AI-company linked to Dominic Cummings combined have won public sector contracts worth over £100 million – including contracts connected to NHS data. Max Colbert reports with The Citizens
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Highwire Act: Why the Northern Ireland Protocol is the Ultimate Brexit Test
As the UK struggles with the reality that it is the only country in the world to create its own internal trade barrier, Mike Buckley looks at the dangerous pitfalls for Boris Johnson
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Prominent Conservative Donor Wins Large Contract with Ministry of Justice
Company behind £450,000 donations to the Conservative party awarded a series of emergency Covid-19 work, alongside contract for new prison build, Max Colbert reports
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Governments Must Focus on Degrowth to Combat Climate Change
Curtailing excess production and waste could help save the planet and create more equitable societies, says Thomas Perrett
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A Culture of Institutional Violence: The Lambeth Child Abuse Inquiry Exposes how the System is the Scandal
In the wake of the Lambeth Council findings by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Katharine Quarmby considers why the systemic failings around locking vulnerable people up out of sight, out of mind are never acted upon
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The UK’s New Elite Regiment and the Evasion of Democracy
Murray Jones of Action on Armed Violence explores whether the specialist forces will simply be allowed to fly under the radar
