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SubscriptionsSection: Argument
Honestly held opinions and provocative argument based on current events or our recent reports.
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Stress Test: Will Sunak and Hunt’s Brexit Banking Reforms Weather the Current Financial Turmoil?
In the light of banking failures, Anthony Yates looks at how a plan for central bank digital currencies to protect depositors overlooks the key function of the financial sector – credit
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‘The Strangers’ Case? The Government’s Approach to Human Dignity, Asylum Seekers and a Lesson from Shakespeare’
We must all examine our values and actions in relation to vulnerable populations, writes Iain Overton
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ECHR: The Peace Machine
Seventy-five years ago, Nuremberg prosecutor David Maxwell Fyfe – an artisan of the European Convention on Human Rights – spoke in Brussels of his fear that the high ideals of the victors would be forgotten. His grandson explores why his legacy matters now more than ever
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The Fleet Street ‘Friendlies’ Climb On Board Braverman’s Prison Ships
The Home Secretary’s tabloid-pleasing plans to float desperate refugees offshore are designed to distract from the Government’s own failings, reports Adam Bienkov
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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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‘The Dangers of the RAF’s Spitfire Nationalism’
A culture of air power exceptionalism has created an environment in which the RAF can operate without fear of public scrutiny or consequence, writes Iain Overton
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‘The Curtain Falls on the Boris Johnson Show’
The former Prime Minister’s appearance before the Privileges Committee exposed – once and for all – the great charade behind his buffoonery, writes Otto English
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James Cleverly Signs ‘Roadmap’ with Israel which Threatens to Undermine ‘Apartheid’ Criticism and Human Rights Investigations
The British Government is signing up to a post-Brexit agreement seen by many as an unconditional endorsement of the dangerous direction the Israeli government is taking, reports Ben Gelblum
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In Deep Water: As Europe’s Drought Worsens, the Government Remains Silent on Water Company Failures
The Conservatives’ inaction to alleviate droughts in England is indicative of the party’s wider ideological failings, writes Iain Overton
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Iraq and Brexit: A Common Thread of Hubris
Both events were driven more by ideological conviction – than rational analysis – and against the advice of most experts, writes former diplomat Alexandra Hall Hall
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Boris Johnson Rewrites History at the Privileges Committee
The former Prime Minister’s refusal to accept responsibility for his own actions only adds insult to the injury of all those forced to make huge sacrifices during the pandemic, writes Adam Bienkov
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Poor Health: Why are the British Dying Earlier than Expected?
The UK has fallen to 29th in the global rankings of life expectancy. Matthew Gwyther looks at the economic and social reasons why the country has become the ‘sick man of Europe’ again
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‘Ukraine Fatigue?’ Thousands are Still Fleeing Putin’s Brutal Invasion
Three of the thousands of Ukrainians still living in temporary refugee centres in Warsaw, Poland, share their stories, experiences and hopes to find safety and stability in the UK
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Boris Johnson’s ‘Bombshell’ Dossier Blows Up His Own Partygate Defence
The Former Prime Minister’s evidence to the Privileges Committee only confirms his complicity in events inside Downing Street during lockdown, writes Adam Bienkov
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The Shawcross Review of Prevent: ‘Ideologically-Driven and Poorly Evidenced’
The People’s Review of Prevent refutes the recommendations made in a major Government report into the controversial counter-terrorism strategy
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Vive L’Indifférence: Why Russians Keep Supporting the War in Ukraine
Pekka Kallioniemi explores the parallel universe of Kremlin propaganda and how Russia is evolving from an authoritarian into a totalitarian state
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Georgian Government Drops ‘Foreign Agents’ Bill, but the Fight Against Kremlin Influence Continues
Mark Temnycky looks at the turbulence in Tbilisi, Georgians’ desire to join the EU, and the authoritarian drift of the ruling Dream Party
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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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Leaked Whatsapps Destroy the BBC’s Impartiality Myth
Messages sent between BBC editors and reporters appear to confirm longstanding suspicions of a pro-Government bias inside the corporation, writes Adam Bienkov
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Stop the River of Iron: The American Firearms Industry Brings Death to Mexico
As the Mexican state calls for evidence on ‘private companies engaged in the firearms industry and their effects on human rights’ Iain Overton looks at the trail of carnage
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Labour Lessons: Preparing for Power
Former Labour MP Ian Lucas explores what Keir Starmer can learn from the three most historic Labour victories in modern British politics
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‘The BBC’s Pursuit of Bogus ‘Impartiality’ Finally Crashes and Burns’
After years of appeasing its enemies, former BBC journalist and producer Patrick Howse believes the BBC’s destruction from within has been spectacularly exposed
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‘Where Tunisia Leads, Britain Follows’
Tunisia’s populism and racially-charged purges offers chilling context for the UK’s migration clampdown, writes Simon Speakman Cordall
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‘Cabinet Reshuffles Won’t Fix this Government’s Net Zero Failures’
Thomas Perrett looks at the Whitehall changes over environmental policy, and sees a lot of deckchairs being re-arranged which fail to address the climate emergency
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‘Is There Any Comparison Between Braverman’s Migration Bill and Nazi Germany?’
Brad Blitz looks at the storm of controversy over Gary Lineker’s comments on the Illegal Migration Bill, and while he finds no evidence of Nazi policy, does hear echoes of fascist rhetoric
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Gary Lineker, Andrew Neil and the BBC’s Real Impartiality Crisis
Prominent right-wingers at the BBC have long been given the sort of leeway for their views that those on the left never will, writes Adam Bienkov
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‘Threatening to Leave the ECHR would be the Perfect Terrain for Next Conservative Election Campaign’
The Government may do just enough to rile up the Conservative Party’s voter base by engineering yet another pointless row with European bodies, writes former diplomat Alexandra Hall Hall
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Staggering onto Bakhmut: Russia’s Culmination Point
While Russia’s winter offensive crawls onward at a tremendous cost in blood and armaments, Paul Niland assesses the strategic position as a Ukrainian counter-offensive looms
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New Strategic Realities: A Rising India and Declining Britain
Chris Ogden – a consultant on the recent BBC documentary series examining the record of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi – explores why the West appears to be silent on the authoritarianism unfolding in the world’s largest democracy
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Compassion-Free Conservatism: ‘Suella Braverman Uses Vote Leave Playbook Against Vulnerable Refugees’
The new ‘Illegal Migration Bill’ is using the same dishonest tactics used to take Britain out of the EU to secure the Conservatives a fifth election victory, writes Adam Bienkov
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UN Ocean Treaty: ‘A Step Forward, but Achieving Action will be the Real Test’
Many countries fail to protect, or even actively exploit, their coastal marine reserves – how will new initiatives be different?
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‘Britain Must Meet its Historic Responsibility to Hong Kong’
The UK Government must do more to stand against the curtailing of democracy by Beijing in the former British colony – and fulfil its legal and moral responsibilities, writes Lord Alton
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‘Sunak’s Anti-Asylum Bill Could Pit Britain Against the United Nations’
The Prime Minister’s law will stand in defiance of the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, writes Brian Latham
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‘Oakeshott, the Telegraph and Unscientific Anti-Lockdown Propaganda’
Kate Denkinson looks at the background to Isabel Oakeshott’s Lockdown Files and the newspaper which Boris Johnson once claimed was his ‘real boss’
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‘Courts of Conscience and the Climate Emergency’
Tom Hardy explores the role of the judiciary in combatting the climate emergency as activists are prohibited from mentioning the issue in their defence in court
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No Shades of Gray: Privileges Committee Report Exposes Boris Johnson’s ‘Partygate’ Lies
A damning new report blows apart the former Prime Minister’s claims to have been ‘stitched-up’ over the scandal of lockdown parties in Downing Street, reports Adam Bienkov
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‘Towering Wealth Mountain of the Super-Rich Could Help Fund Social Reconstruction for the Many’
There is an historic opportunity for a progressive sea-change to reset today’s productivity sapping and inequality driving economic model, writes Stewart Lansley
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‘Anglo-British Unionism Will Not Save the Union’
Only when England can see itself as England will it be possible to challenge the idea that Britain is England, writes former Labour MP John Denham
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‘Incompetent Ministers and Duplicitous Journalists:’ The Matt Hancock Leaks
Isabel Oakeshott’s exposé comes in the wake of repeated rejections by the Government of every Freedom of Information request on the disclosure of ministers’ use of WhatsApp for official business, reports Iain Overton
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Rishi Sunak’s Brexit Deal Shows what Britain Lost by Leaving the EU
In seeking praise for repairing some of the damage caused by Brexit, Rishi Sunak’s revised deal only highlights what we lost through cutting ties with the EU, reports Adam Bienkov
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‘With the Northern Ireland Protocol Deal, Sunak has Recognised Peace is Hard and Conflict is Deadly’
Do Boris Johnson, David Frost and the ERG want Northern Ireland to be stuck in a similar spiral of distrust and possible resumption of violence as the Israelis and Palestinians, writes former diplomat Alexandra Hall Hall
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‘Government’s Football Governance Proposals are a Good Start But Need to Go Further’
Football’s unique place in people’s lives and communities means we have to sort out mismanagement of the clubs we love, reports Shamik Das
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‘The Politics of Amnesia is All the Conservatives have Left’
Britain is now a land in which a Tory away day is seen as the panacea to years of abject government failure, writes Iain Overton
