SubscriptionsSection: Argument
Honestly held opinions and provocative argument based on current events or our recent reports.
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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
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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
