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SubscriptionsSection: Argument
Honestly held opinions and provocative argument based on current events or our recent reports.
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‘The Trump Administration Must Abandon Its Delusions About Destroying the EU’
The European Union is far stronger and more united than those inside the Trumpian echo chamber have fooled themselves into believing, argues Alexandra Hall Hall
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‘If Nigel Farage’s Racism Is Forgotten It Will Give Him Permission for Far Worse’
When someone tells you who they are, over and over again, it is wise to listen, argues Clive Lewis MP
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The Government’s ‘Integrity Gap’ Is Leaving the Door Open for Nigel Farage
By offering watered down Faragist rhetoric combined with a programme of managed decline, Keir Starmer’s Government has left a political vacuum which the Reform leader is now stepping into, argues Labour MP Clive Lewis
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Imitating the Populist Right: The Politics of Shabana Mahmood
The Labour Home Secretary has spent her first months in the job actively enabling the forces of the populist right, argues Jon Bloomfield and David Edgar
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‘Keir Starmer’s Brexit Blind Spot Leaves Britain With a Major Missed Opportunity’
It was striking that the most impressive recent speech on Britain’s future in Europe came not from our current Prime Minister, but from one of his Conservative predecessors, argues Alexandra Hall Hall
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Boris Johnson and Alexander Lebedev Must Be Investigated in a New Public Inquiry into Russian Influence
If you think the Gill conviction is bad, linking the Reform UK Party leader’s closest aide to the Kremlin, wait till you hear about another Leave campaigner and his connections to Putin’s inner circle
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Rachel Reeves and the Daily Mailification of the BBC
For all the focus on its supposed “left wing bias”, the BBC’s heavy coverage of Conservative allegations of dishonesty against Rachel Reeves shows how its political coverage is still largely led by the right-wing press
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‘Rachel Reeves Buys Herself Some Time With a Calculated Bet on the UK Economy’
The Chancellor’s measured statement was quite different from what the weeks of media hype about it had suggested, argues Simon Nixon
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Budget 2025: ‘Rachel Reeves Bakes an Economic Pudding With No Theme’
The seeds of the Government’s current political and economic difficulties were sown a long time ago, argues Neal Lawson
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The Good News in Rachel Reeves’ Budget
From lifting hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty, to taking on the media-backed gambling lobby, there was much to praise and far less to criticise in the Chancellor’s annual statement, argues Adam Bienkov
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‘Scrapping Jury Trials Is an Attempt to Fix a Broken Justice System by Smashing It to Pieces’
Taking away the fundamental right to be tried by a jury of your peers would be a disastrous move by Keir Starmer’s Government, argues barrister Gareth Roberts
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‘The ‘Eco-Populist’ Cost-Cutting Budget Rachel Reeves Should Really Deliver’
Only a radical approach to our broken privatised energy system can make British bill-payers genuinely better off, argues Donnachadh McCarthy
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Nathan Gill Sentenced: What He Was Really Doing for the Kremlin
Reform UK’s former leader in Wales was in the centre of Putin’s preparations to attack Ukraine, argues Sergei Cristo
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Labour’s Biggest Problem Is Not a Lack of Leadership but a Lack of Ideas
Until Keir Starmer’s party decides what it really stands for, the question of who leads them will remain a hollow one, argues Adam Bienkov
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‘The UK’s Suspension of Intelligence Sharing Over Trump’s Caribbean Boat Strikes Risks a Transatlantic Rift’
Keir Starmer’s Government risked being implicated if the President’s attacks were found to break international law, reports Alexandra Hall Hall
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US-Style Culture Wars Have Come to Britain but Who Is Starting Them?
A new study raises stark questions about the link between extreme rhetoric in the media and politics and the surge in voters saying the country is being torn apart by culture wars, argues Professor Bobby Duffy
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‘The BBC’s Surrender to Trump Is a Moment of Existential Weakness’
This latest attack will leave an already weakened BBC in a perilous fight for its future, argues journalist and presenter Matthew Gwyther
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The BBC’s Attempts to Appease the ‘Right-Wing Coup’ Against It Are Now Seeding Its Own Destruction
By attempting to appease those forces seeking to destroy them, the BBC has helped trigger a crisis that now threatens its very future, argues Adam Bienkov
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Decent Housing? A Privilege – Especially for the Disabled
‘Every man’s home is his castle’ – but what if you just want the basic human right of shelter?
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‘The SNP Isn’t a Threat to the Security of Any Nation I Want to Be Part Of’
Labour’s attempts to brand the Scottish National Party a threat to the UK’s national security is a drastic escalation of Labour’s anti-independence rhetoric, argues Adam Ramsay
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Follow the Money: How the Right Weaponises the Costs of Supporting Learning Disabled People
If politicians are worried about the costs of support for the learning disabled, society must become more transparent about where the money is being spent
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How the Not-So Independent Media Censors Criticism of Its Billionaire Owners
Former Independent columnist Donnachadh McCarthy on how the UK’s billionaire-owned media silences those journalists trying to speak out against them
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‘Geert Wilders’ Far-Right Retreat Leaves a Very Dutch Political Mess’
The advance of centrist parties in the Dutch elections will not be enough to produce a new stable governing coalition, argues Chris Keulemans
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‘How to Stop Labour’s Autumn of Discontent Turning Into Farage’s Winter of Despair’
Keir Starmer’s Government must learn the lessons of history, or risk paving the way for an authoritarian future under Nigel Farage and Reform, argues Neal Lawson
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‘How to Convert the Success of the No Kings Protests Into a Nationwide Anti-Trump Uprising’
The scale of protests against the President show he can still be beaten, but only if his opponents start offering a coherent alternative, argues Alexandra Hall Hall
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The Reform Backlash: Caerphilly By-Election Result Shows Nigel Farage’s Party Is Much Weaker Than It Looks
Despite widespread media predictions of a Reform victory on Thursday, Farage’s defeat shows his party continues to be overestimated, argues Adam Bienkov
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The Real Energy Scandal The Media Won’t Tell You About
Fossil fuel interests are colluding with billionaire-owned media companies to block the UK’s transition towards a cheaper and greener future, argues Donnachadh McCarthy
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Keir Starmer’s ‘Brexit Is Bad, Let’s Make It a Bit Worse’ Strategy
The Chancellor just admitted that Brexit has been an economic disaster. It’s time the Government stopped making it even worse by imitating Nigel Farage’s damaging anti-migration agenda, argues Adam Bienkov
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‘The Stolen Children Scandal in Syria Exposes a Deeper Problem in SOS Care’
Investigations revealed how children disappeared by Bashar al-Assad’s regime were transported to facilities run by a global charity
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‘The Conservative Party Must Log Off Social Media and Start Engaging Again With the Real World’
Conservative Party member and whistleblower Sergei Cristo, reports from the empty halls of its conference in Manchester and finds a movement that is fast running out of supporters and ideas
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How Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan Could Quickly Crumble
The President’s America-first, Palestine-last plan for Gaza risks collapsing under its own contradictions, argues Rana Sabbagh
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‘Donald Trump’s Plan Will Not End the Gaza Genocide’
The author of The New Age of Genocide, Martin Shaw, on why Trump’s ‘peace’ plan will allow the ongoing destruction and replacement of a Palestinian Gaza
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How Western Media Whitewashed Israel’s Mass-Abduction of Activists
Over 450 members of the aid flotilla to Gaza are now being held by Israel in an “anti-terror” prison in the Negev desert
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‘Morgan McSweeney’s Factional Labour Takeover Has Left Keir Starmer Looking Increasingly Alone’
Labour’s conference showed a party leadership doubling down on a strategy that has left the Prime Minister with few remaining supporters either in or outside the party, argues Neal Lawson
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Gaza: Is There a Way Out?
On Yom Kippur, Eric Lee examines the horrors of the conflict and asks whether we could now finally see a turning point towards peace
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Keir Starmer’s Farage-Dominated Conference Takes Labour Up a ‘Darker Path’ Towards a Reform Government
The Prime Minister’s condemnations of Reform’s racist rhetoric, was undermined by him accepting the central premise of Nigel Farage’s anti-migrant politics, argues Adam Bienkov
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‘Why I Support Trump’s Gaza Plan’
Former UK Foreign Office diplomat Alexandra Hall Hall makes the case for why America’s ‘long shot’ strategy could be the best hope of delivering peace
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The Integrity Gap: How We Built the Authoritarian Future We Fear
Labour MP Clive Lewis argues that the collapse of public trust in Government is the product of corporate power being wired into the architecture of the state
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‘The Media Lets Misogyny Thrive – It’s Their Job To Call It Out’
The media must not allow Reform UK to push the narrative that immigrants are putting women and girls in danger, argues Helena Wadia
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‘America’s Allies in Europe and Asia Are Stuck Between Trump and a Hard Place’
Trump’s Presidency has exposed the weaknesses at the heart of our global security alliances, argues Alexandra Hall Hall
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Curtis Yarvin: How the Alt-Right Gets In
Following his appearance on a panel with Alastair Campbell, Byline Times examines the writings of the thinker who is apparently inspiring Silicon Valley Tech Bros and the Vice President of the United States
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Where Is the Opposition to Nigel Farage’s Immoral Mass Deportation Plan?
Keir Starmer’s Government’s refusal to explicitly condemn the Reform leader’s plans to tear thousands of families and communities apart is only clearing his path to Downing Street, argues Adam Bienkov
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‘What’s the Point of the Lib Dems in a Post-Liberal Era?’
As Ed Davey’s Party gathers for its annual conference, Neal Lawson asks whether the party can still prosper in an increasingly illiberal political era
