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SubscriptionsColumn / Investigation: Backwards Britain
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‘A Relentless Assault’: the Staggering Rise in Child Poverty in the UK
Gordon Brown responds to a shocking UNICEF report that UK child poverty has worsened drastically more than 38 other OECD nations
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‘They Can’t Complain or They will Be on the Street’: Delay in Renters Reform Bill Puts Tenants in Peril of Mould, Damp and Dangerous Disrepair
Conservative backbenchers, many of whom are landlords, are trying to abolish schemes which reveal much higher rates of disrepair
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Levelling Up: 90% of Promised Schemes are Nowhere Near Completion
Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson’s promises to “Level Up” the country are going nowhere fast, according to a damning new report by MPs
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What Do the 2024 ‘Super Tuesday’ Exit Polls Tell Us About Trump’s Chances in November?
Nikki Haley may be off the stage but what will her voters do next? Martin Burns analyses the answers US voters gave to CNN’s exit polls in three states
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English Councils on the Brink of Meltdown: A Crisis Fourteen Years in the Making
A systematic reduction of funds to some of the poorest parts of England leaves many of the most needed public services at risk of collapse
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Landlord Conservative MPs are ‘Lobbying to Water Down Protections for Renters’
The allegations come as one in three renters say private renting is negatively impacting their mental health – with eviction threats looming in many cases
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Private Equity in Public Services: The Case of Special Educational Needs Schools
Private equity companies – many with connections to the Conservative Party – have been buying up large swathes of the public sector, including care homes, schools and GP surgeries. Special schools appear to be the latest hot property
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Cultural Famine: Austerity in the UK’s Heritage Sector Cuts Deep
Museums across the country are being forced to close as the reality of austerity-struck Brexit Britain hits home
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Reshuffling an Empty Deck: A Government Totally Lost and Out of Ideas
The Prime Minister’s glaring political deficiencies have been highlighted in a disastrous week for the Conservatives
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Probation Officers Speak Out About the Crisis in Managing Offenders
The Probation Service, still reeling from Chris Graylings catastrophic reforms, is another crumbling pillar of the criminal justice system
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How the Government Failed to Act on the Collapsing School Building Scandal
Ministers’ claims that the school building scandal only emerged ‘over the summer’ is contradicted by evidence of warnings going back years
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Flat Owner Describes Leasehold as a ‘Painful Scam’ After Being Left with Freeholder’s Legal Bill
Landlords and freeholders can pass on their legal costs onto leaseholders who are still waiting for reform of an ‘obscene’ feudal system
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Rishi Sunak: ‘An Authoritarian With No Authority’
The Prime Minister’s attempt to stop the clock on social progress is backfiring as Britain becomes increasingly tolerant and open-minded, reports Adam Bienkov
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Coronation Stricken: The Sound of Slamming Portaloos
Otto English joined the crowds to see if he would feel any emotion at the crowning of a new king. He did. Rage.
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The Coronation: ‘It’s Only by Chance Prince Andrew Isn’t Being Crowned King’
Baroness Jenny Jones explores how reform of the monarchy could work better for our democracy
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The Coronation: ‘Picking the Wrong Constitutional Fights’
Introducing an electoral system of proportional representation should take priority over conversations about the future nature of Britain’s head of state, writes AC Grayling
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The Coronation: ‘Is It Lese Majeste to Want Less Majesty?’
King Charles’ Coronation is a missed opportunity to move monarchy into the modern era, writes former diplomat Alexandra Hall Hall
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Crowns, Codes, and Conflict: King Charles III’s Military-Filled Coronation Endangers the Nation
For all its claims of modernity, the ‘Corps’ still joins the Crown and the Church in a god-ordained trilogy of state power in the forthcoming ceremonies
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‘Palm Oil is Great Product’: The New Post-Brexit Trade Deal Scandal
Rachel Donald looks at how the Trade Minister’s justification for a zero-tariff trade deal with Malaysia only accelerates global deforestation
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‘Sunak’s Anti-Social ‘Crackdown’ is an Assault on Evidence-Based Policy’
The PM’s tabloid-pleasing ‘War on Yobs’ will only worsen problems in crime-hit communities, writes former Anti-Social Behaviour Officer Nick Pettigrew
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‘Keir Starmer is Missing His Big Chance to Rebuild Broken Britain’
The Labour leader is missing a once in a generation chance to set out much-needed radical reforms for a broken nation, argues his former advisor Simon Fletcher
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Why Leaving the ECHR would be Such a Backwards Step for Britain
Barrister Gareth Roberts explains how the European Convention on Human Rights affects the lives of British citizens
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Hedge Fund Feudalism: Right to Roam Goes to War
Max Colbert reports from Dartmoor where a Court Ruling has provoked a mass demonstration this weekend over the ancient right to camp in the National Park
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‘The Conservative Party: No Common Good’
The Conservatives have abandoned their post-war commitment to any meaningful social contract, argues Chris Painter, and are reduced to discredited market dogmas and neo-imperial fantasies
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F*ck Business: The Year Johnson Boosterism Ended in Brexit Bust
Now the Conservative Party’s reputation for economic competence has cratered, Matthew Gwyther sees businesses getting increasingly politicised
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‘An Idea as Old as Time’: How a Single Rail of Warm Clothes for Homeless People has Grown
Stefan Simanowitz explains how an old idea of neighbourly sharing has blossomed into a cold-weather initiative that has spread through grassroots support
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The Sewage Scandal: ‘The Worst We Have Seen in Years’ – Why British Bathing Water is the Dirtiest in Europe
With its budget halved, the Environment Agency has seen a dramatic drop in enforcement actions against utility companies that continue to pollute our waterways
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Brexit’s Global Trade is Fit for Georgian England: Devoid of Ethical Responsibility
Iain Overton reflects on the Government’s policy of Free Trade Deals with countries regardless of their human rights
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‘It’s the Stupidity, Stupid’: Brexit and Populism
As the London stock market falls behind Paris for the first time, Matthew Gwyther looks at the real inner causes of Britain’s decline
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Britannia Unchained Review: Imperial Nostalgia and the Unravelling of Social Progress
Sam Bright unpicks the Truss-Kwarteng manifesto, finding a worrying obsession with Britain’s distant economic past
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Cruel Britannia and the ‘Global Britain’ Fallacy
The rhetoric and the reality of post-Brexit Britain are more distant than ever, notes Rachel Morris
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How Should We Respond to the Conservative Party’s Authoritarian Turn?
David Lowther speaks to experts in national identity and authoritarianism, to shed light on how progressive forces should react to the debasement of democracy under this Government
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The Britannia Unchained Gang: Why the UK’s Next Prime Minister May Well be Its Worst
Replacing a self-interested opportunist with doctrinaire ideologues will be nothing to cheer about, argues AV Deggar
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Raaberdämmerung
Composer and writer Howard Goodall explains how the Deputy Prime Minister’s patronising comments about Angela Rayner undermine the Government’s own stated principles about the role of music in education and empowerment
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‘What Do They Know of Cricket?’ The ECB’s Refusal to Deal with Racism
Duncan Stone reveals how the governing body of English cricket – like the country as a whole – can no longer promote a selective view of its history
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Australian Free Trade Deal Hampers UK on Environmental and Food Standards, says Parliamentary Report
The UK’s first post-Brexit free trade agreement with Australia was so rushed that protection for niche British products was overlooked, according to a Parliamentary report
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The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee: An Unprecedented Reign – But What Next for 21st Century Britain?
The Queen’s 70 years on the throne have seen Britain undergo extraordinary change – how will the monarchy’s constitutional and societal role continue to evolve in the years ahead?
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Imperial Measures: Confected Culture Wars and National Identity
Sam Bright considers the metrics that undermine the right’s new ideological gambit
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African Trade Deal Exposes Brexit Britain’s Myths
Joe Walsh explores how Africa is seeking closer economic integration with its regional neighbours, in contrast to the UK
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Male, Pale and Colonial: Russell Group Universities Dominated by Named Buildings Reflective of a Bygone Era
Max Colbert investigates the backgrounds of those commemorated on leading university campuses
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Backwards Britain: Having Rejected a European Future, We Can Only Hark Back to an Imperial Past
Hardeep Matharu explores how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has exposed the UK’s perilous retreat – at a time when collaboration and a new vision of itself is required to navigate the dangerous realities of a changing world
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Are the Royals Trapped in a Gilded Cage – Or Is Britain?
Is the Royal Family trapped by Britain’s past or is the problem our inability to conceive of a social order without monarchy?
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Will the End of the Queen’s Reign be Britain’s Deepest Crisis Of All?
Chris Grey considers the potential impact on the fabric of the UK of the passing of its head of state, Queen Elizabeth II
