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SubscriptionsSection: Argument
Honestly held opinions and provocative argument based on current events or our recent reports.
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Cropped Out: The Curious Tale of the BBC, Brexit and our Missing Vegetables
Former BBC journalist and producer Patrick Howse explores why the BBC’s reluctance to tell us when we are being lied to is well past its sell by date
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‘Kate Forbes: Religion Isn’t an Answer to Accountability’
Nobody is trying to impinge on a politician’s right to freely practise their religion – but they cannot use that religion to shield themselves from important questions, writes Nathan O’Hagan
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‘Young People are Being Let Down by Politics on the Climate Crisis’
The climate crisis is at the top of young people’s agenda but political parties are failing to meet their concerns. Is electoral reform the only hope of change?
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Suella Braverman and the Hard Right Capture of the Conservative Party
The Home Secretary’s GB News appearance shows how Rishi Sunak’s party has been taken over by a radical fringe on the right of British politics, writes Adam Bienkov
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‘Anti-Social Politics: Labour’s Crime Crackdown Isn’t What it Seems’
Yvette Cooper’s plan to rebrand ASBOs as ‘Respect Orders’ may be good politics – but it’s terrible policy, writes former Anti-Social Behaviour Officer Nick Pettigrew
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‘Can the Conservatives Ever Break Free from the ERG?’
Rishi Sunak has nailed his Government’s successes on the support of those like Suella Braverman in the European Research Group – and finds himself trapped, writes David Lowther
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‘The Roald Dahl Affair is a Lesson in the Culture War of Nostalgia’
If voters can’t be scared by the threat of the ‘woke left’ devaluing their house – they might be scared by it devaluing their childhood, writes Graham Williamson
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Debate Over AI in Journalism: ‘Can Machines Replace Human Reporters?’
In a dialogue with ChatGPT, Iain Overton explores whether truth and meaning can really be left to machines
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‘No Wonder Junior Doctors have Voted to Take Industrial Action’
Consultant David Oliver explains how the pressures and demands on his younger colleagues have led to an overwhelming vote to strike this spring
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Who’s for Dinner? Andrew Bridgen and the Conspiracy Theorists
Katherine Denkinson dips into the strange blend of pseudoscience, QAnon and GB News on the menu at a much-publicised Carlton Club dinner
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‘Sturgeon’s Resignation Makes Scottish Independence More Unlikely – But the Union is as Troubled as Ever’
The Scottish First Minister’s exit makes the possibility of a new referendum even less likely, writes Jonathan Lis
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‘Kipling Out, Hemingway In? Why the Dahl Edits Fails on Diversity’
The decision to alter Roald Dahl’s texts to make them more inclusive misses the mark – and ignores wider failures of diversity in children’s publishing, writes Sian Norris
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Small Boats: the Post-Brexit Migration Story the Media Doesn’t Report
Thom Brooks’ report reveals the Government has created the Channel migration ‘small boats’ crisis through its hard Brexit policies
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The Global Network Behind Arrested Anti-Abortion Protestor
A woman arrested for ‘praying’ outside an abortion clinic may have been acquitted but she is one node of a global network, reports Sian Norris
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‘Sunak’s Maths Drive Doesn’t Add Up’
Subjects such as history are surely more useful for further study by teenagers in UK schools than mathematics, writes AC Grayling
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Lee Anderson’s Culture Wars: How the Conservative Party is Flirting with Far-Right Hate to Appeal to its Base
Max Colbert documents the weaponisation of xenophobia among Tory politicians, with evidence suggesting the Government is encouraging extremism rather than countering it
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‘Blaming Dead Women’
When men kill women, there still seems to be a desire to pin the blame on her, writes Sian Norris
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Open Letter to the Owner of GB News from a Ukrainian Refugee: Stop Peddling Russian Narratives
Journalist Maria Romanenko calls on Sir Paul Marshall, a major shareholder in the British TV news station, to avoid Kremlin propaganda
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‘The Sun, Clarkson, Meghan and IPSO – Prepare for Another Shaming Episode of Non-Regulation’
The public is being strung along – again. No matter how outraged you were by the vicious words used against the Duchess of Sussex, nothing will change and the press will do it again, writes Brian Cathcart
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Putin’s Energy Attack: Surviving a Warm Winter Battle is Not Winning the War
Though gas prices have fallen they are expected to rise again this Summer, so Europe can waste no more time diversifying its energy market, says Mark Temnycky
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How a 50-Year US Rule Risks Denying Abortions to Ukraine’s Rape Victims
The Helms Amendment turns 50 this year, but the US foreign policy is a neo-colonialist relic that denies women around the world access to their human rights, reports Sian Norris
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Who Watches the Watchdog? The CJR’s Russia Problem
How the investigation into The Nation magazine’s pro-Russia bias was canned by ‘press watchdog’ the Columbia Journalism Review
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‘The Boris Johnson Loan Scandal Shows how Cronyism Corrupts Public Life’
BBC Chairman Richard Sharp’s hidden involvement in arranging a £800,000 loan for the former PM exposes the gilded upper circles of politics and media in the UK, writes Adam Bienkov
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‘Is Ukraine on the Path of Shock Therapy?’
Victory for Ukraine is not just about defeating Russia but avoiding the path Putin’s country has taken with its economy, write Gerhard Schnyder and Simon Deakin
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‘Small Boats – Lazy Minds’
None of the solutions to the Government’s concerns about migrant boats crossing the Channel require the UK’s withdrawal from the ECHR, writes Brad Blitz
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The Weakness of Strongmen: Do We Want Charisma or Competence?
Matthew Gwyther looks at the public’s contradictory ideas of leadership and how women are (on the whole) confounding them
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‘Does Boris Johnson Deserve a Pass Because of Ukraine?’
Former diplomat Alexandra Hall Hall assesses the former Prime Minister’s recent trip to the US in support of Ukraine and what it says about his political motives
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‘Put a Ring on It and Knock Her Up’: The Proud Boys Credo of Far-Right Misogyny
A script read out at the start of every Proud Boys gathering reveals the paradoxes of being a woman in the far-right, and the misogyny inherent in nationalism. Sian Norris reports
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Stalingrad: The Second Time as Farce
As Putin threatens the West at a commemoration of the decisive World War Two battle, Paul Niland says the Russian President’s red lines are drawn in the sand
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Power and Exclusion: The UK Church Failing the LGBTQ+ Community
Revd Joe Haward reflects on how hardliners in the Church are stifling progress on LGBTQ+ rights – but homophobia and transphobia are not confined to evangelical congregations
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Wagner Crimes: How the UK can Take the Lead on Stopping Putin’s Mercenaries
Wagner Crimes: How the UK can Take the Lead on Stopping Putin’s Mercenaries
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‘Brexit – Three Years On: The Lie So Etched on Britain’s Body Politic’
Jonathan Lis explores whether telling the truth about leaving the EU would take the entire establishment down too
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‘Britannia Chained: Brexit has Left the UK in a State of National Decline’
Three years on from Britain’s exit from the EU, the deep impact on our economy and national standing is now undeniable, writes Adam Bienkov
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Brexit – Three Years On: Reconnecting the UK with Europe
In a new report for the Compass think tank, Jon Bloomfield explores how post-Brexit Britain can build a better relationship with the EU
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Lying Again? The Many Questions for Boris Johnson Over his Support for Ukraine
With the former Prime Minister again dominating the news with claims of alleged nuclear threats from Vladimir Putin, former diplomat Alexandra Hall Hall puts his record on Ukraine under the spotlight
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‘Damn Rees-Mogg’s Politics of Civility’
The Conservative MP’s promise to bring back ‘civilised political debate’ in his new GB News show is an insult to the people harmed by this Government, writes Iain Overton
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Concerns that Government’s Finance Bill Benefits Big Money and Harms the Planet
The Financial Services and Markets Bill risks wrecking the UK’s commitment to net zero, writes Thomas Perrett
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Rishi Sunak’s Government is Sinking Into its Own Swamp
The Prime Minister promised a break from the chaos and corruption of Boris Johnson’s administration. After three months, his MPs fear little has changed
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Leaping Over the Lords
Labour’s announcement that it would abolish the UK’s unelected second chamber is a headline-grabbing idea with little thought of the problems involved, writes AC Grayling
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The Rise of Fringe Science, Contrarian Doctors, and the Threat to Public Health
Dr David Robert Grimes looks at the partisan polarisation and obsession with scientists rather than science that makes us prone to medical misinformation and anti-vaccine propaganda
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‘Calls for a ‘Negotiated End’ to Putin’s War is a Simplistic Solution to an Unthinkable Reality’
No Ukrainian citizens can be left living under the Russian President’s fascist rule, writes Paul Niland
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‘The Sharp End of the Stick: Latest BBC Scandal Shows how Hard it will be for the Corporation to Recover’
To survive, the broadcaster’s governance needs to be completely overhauled, writes former BBC producer and journalist Patrick Howse
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Undocumented Immigration: Two Very Different Approaches
Brian Latham looks at the very different attitudes to migration in Southern Africa compared to the UK
