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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 Causes and Consequences of Political Chaos: MPs Versus Party Members
The genesis of the current chaos lies in the main political parties deciding to allow their members to choose their leaders, writes David Keys
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‘Bringing Back Johnson would be a Betrayal of Sexual Harassment Survivors’
The former Prime Minister’s downfall followed his claims he did not know about sexual assault allegations against an ally – that alone means he should not be returned to high office, argues Sian Norris
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‘The “Second Coming” of Boris Johnson Shows the Conservatives are a Party Woefully Out of Ideas’
That the scandal-prone former Prime Minister is even being discussed as a replacement for Liz Truss proves how out-of-touch with reality the governing party now is, writes George Llewelyn
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The Lady is For U-Turning
Max Colbert reflects on the political chaos and the string of U-turns during the Truss campaign and premiership
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Britain’s Stark Choice Ahead: Transformation or Collapse
The country is following a familiar pattern of environmental, energy and economic-driven state failure – and if the next government refuses to break with neoliberal orthodoxy, it will only accelerate this downwards trajectory, writes Nafeez Ahmed
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How to Deal with Russia’s Nuclear Threat over Ukraine
Putin’s nuclear posturing is largely empty, says Paul Niland, but that doesn’t mean the risks are non-existent
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‘Keir Starmer’s Squeeze of the Left is a Worrying Sign of Things to Come’
The Labour Leader is seeking to rebuild the party as an increasingly narrow church, argues his former advisor Simon Fletcher
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‘The Conservative Party Must Take the Blame for the Truss Catastrophe’
Liz Truss is a merely a creature of a party and its press supporters who are now desperately distancing themselves from her, writes Adam Bienkov
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Britain and the World is Falling Behind on Climate Change, as COP27 Approaches
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shaken an already precarious consensus on climate action, says Thomas Perrett
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‘Britain is Sleepwalking into Societal Collapse’
The sacking of the Chancellor is a symptom of the escalating incoherence of Liz Truss’ Government – not a sign that it is changing course to become more coherent, writes Nafeez Ahmed
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Reform or Ruin: Could Labour Win the Next Election but Lose the Future?
AV Deggar considers the structural changes needed from Labour, if it knocks the Conservatives out of power at the next election
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Britain on the Brink: ‘It’s Not Just Liz Truss: it’s Brexit’
In his editorial from the October 2022 print edition of Byline Times, Peter Jukes argues that Liz Truss is ushering in the final phase of the Brexit project It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. When David Cameron took over as leader of the Conservatives in 2005, he wanted to transform its electoral reputation as the…
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Casino Politics: Westminster’s Gambling Addiction
With a number of MPs accepting salaries and gifts from the gambling industry, Rachel Morris explores how those in power have an uncomfortably close relationship with betting
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The Government is Prolonging the Cost of Living Crisis and the Climate Emergency
The Conservative Party’s decision to ‘cut the green crap’ has had far-reaching consequences, writes Thomas Perrett
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Liz Truss’ Economic ‘Shock Doctrine’ is Pushing the UK to the Brink
As the Bank of England takes alarming steps to stabilise the economy, the Prime Minister is preparing for a devastating new era of austerity, reports Adam Bienkov
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BBC Panorama and the Labour Antisemitism Crisis
Richard Sanders, a producer of the Al Jazeera Labour Files, asks why serious allegations by the national public broadcaster about the leader of the opposition were not properly scrutinised
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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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‘The Government’s Punishment of the Poor is Only Just Beginning’
Liz Truss’ regime has already picked its losers, says Thomas Perrett
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China: The Dawn of the Authoritarian Century?
Chris Ogden looks at how democracy is retreating in the face of China’s ‘Pax Autocratica’ – capitalism combined with state intervention and one-party rule
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‘The Dark Heart of Trussonomics: The Mainstreaming of Libertarian Theories of Social Darwinism and Apartheid’
The legacy of the Nazi ideology of eugenics – popularised by Charles Murray’s controversial book ‘The Bell Curve’ – goes some way to explaining Trussonomics, writes Nafeez Ahmed
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Mini-Budget Opacity Resembled ‘Failing State With Barely Functioning Tax System’
The economic turmoil following Kwasi Kwarteng’s statement showed why tax transparency is essential, argue Andrew Baker and Richard Murphy
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Saudi Oil Decision Exposes More Failed British Diplomacy
Saudi Arabia is following the example of Russia by mocking Britain’s permissive, pro-trade policies, say Sam Bright and Sian Norris
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‘Moving UK Embassy in Israel would be a British Betrayal’
Former diplomat Alexandra Hall Hall – who headed the Foreign Office’s Middle East Peace Process Section for two years in the late 1990s – assesses reports that the UK’s embassy in Israel could move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem
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‘The UK Must Help Bosnia Resist Putin’s Pressure’
Following Bosnia’s elections, Labour MP Fleur Anderson discusses the country’s prospects and what Britain can do to help
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Liz Truss is the Real Leader of the ‘Anti-Growth Coalition’
The “enemies of enterprise” over the past decade have actually consisted of a Government presiding over historically low growth and stagnant wages, writes Adam Bienkov
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‘Growing Nowhere’
Liz Truss’ agenda is meaningless without a wider framework for the non-economic values that will enable Britain to flourish, writes former diplomat Alexandra Hall Hall
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Who Voted For This, Liz?
Rupert Read says Liz Truss has no authority to govern based on 80,000 Conservative members and calls for an immediate general election
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Almost One Million Children Experiencing Poverty in England Denied Free School Meals
As Mayor of London Sadiq Khan demands universal free school meals for primary school children, Natasha Phillips reports on the impact of the cost of living crisis
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The Importance of Learning Lessons from the Pandemic as the Cost of Living Crisis Looms Large
With one Government sitting on its hands and another washing its hands of all responsibility, where does that leave Wales? Leader of Plaid Cymru, Adam Price, writes for the Byline Times
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Exposing the Conservative Hedge Fund Scandal: Better Late than Never – Or Too Little Too Late?
As Kwasi Kwarteng faces questions over his attendance at a cocktail party with financiers, Byline Times’ Editor Hardeep Matharu asks why this newspaper’s warnings from three years ago about the influence of hedge fund donors in politics were ignored
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How Will Labour Navigate the Crisis-Hit Britain it Could Inherit?
Opinion polls are looking good for Labour – but in victory Keir Starmer would inherit the greatest challenges ever faced by an incoming prime minister, writes Gareth Roberts
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‘Great British Democracy’: Who Voted for This?
The UK’s political system currently resembles an unelected autocracy rather than a truly representative democracy, writes former diplomat Alexandra Hall Hall
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How Russia Feeds the Factory of Unthinking
From Ukrainians being mainly Jewish to allegations of black magic, hypnotism and colonising Africa, Oleksiy Pluzhnyk explores the Kremlin’s exploitation of the conspiratorial mindset
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How Austerity has Endangered Britain’s Ability to Safeguard its Natural Environment
Debilitating cuts have reduced regulators’ role in safeguarding the natural environment and stymied the Government’s approach to net zero, reports Thomas Perrett
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‘Ministers Can Make it Mean Anything they Want it To’: The Realities of Citizenship-Stripping in the UK
Faima Bakar speaks to experts about the Government’s removal of citizenship without notice and its disproportionate impact on British Muslims
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The Tufton Street Elite Takes Back Control of the Brexit Project
The libertarian ideologues in Downing Street are taking a hammer to Boris Johnson’s Brexit coalition, says Sam Bright
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Keir Starmer’s Labour is Starting to Believe it is Heading for Government
Hope is overcoming fear for Labour delegates in Liverpool as they watch Liz Truss’ Government begin to implode just weeks after its inception, reports Adam Bienkov
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Five Policies that Jacob Rees-Mogg Should Adopt Now on Climate Change
Stuart Spray runs through some of the immediate actions that could be taken by the Government to address global warming and fix our energy system
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‘Keir Starmer Risks Drifting to Defeat if Labour Tries to Win by Default’
The Labour leader’s former campaigns and elections strategist, Simon Fletcher, warns that Starmer’s excessive caution risks losing the next election
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Liz Truss’ Economic Shock Doctrine Will Only Help the Richest
The Chancellor has announced a series of massive tax cuts for high earners and corporations, which have seen the pound slump and the value of Government bonds fall. Why is the Prime Minister risking turning an economic crisis into a disaster?
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‘Small Constitutional Changes Could Urgently Address the Big Mess We Find Ourselves In’
Frances Crook, co-convener of the Commission on Political Power, sets out why incremental shifts in the role of monarchy and an over-powerful executive could strengthen democracy in the unlikely event of wholesale reform
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Fabricated Buildings: The Conservative NHS Investment Myth
As the latest Conservative regime takes office, Rachel Morris considers one of the starkest failures of its predecessor
