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SubscriptionsSection: Argument
Honestly held opinions and provocative argument based on current events or our recent reports.
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Three Years On from ‘No Deal’ Emergency: Operation Yellowhammer is Our Reality
We are now living through the bleak predictions made in the Brexit contingency report in 2019, says TJ Coles
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British Identity: The Empire’s Spectacle
The mourning of the Queen’s death has been, largely unconsciously, a nation in a state of ‘appearing’, writes Joe Haward
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The Myth of Russian Separatists in the Donbas
As Putin announces plans to annex more Ukrainian territory, Paul Niland exposes one of the most persistent Russian propaganda ploys which tries to turn victim into perpetrator
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Royal Ideology and the Future of Monarchy
Florence Scott reflects on why it is time to discuss the underpinnings of the British monarchy – Christianity, wealth, class, imperialism
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‘Liz Truss’ Premiership Will Spell Disaster for Net Zero’
A worrying environmental record and the appointment of climate change sceptics to the Cabinet doesn’t bode well for the UK’s climate commitments under the new Prime Minister, argues Thomas Perrett
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Putin’s Real War and His War of Words
Sian Norris considers Martha Gellhorn’s classic 1966 examination of propaganda, Real War And War Of Words, and updates it for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine
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‘The ‘Britannia Unchained’ Gang are on the Wrong Side of the Home Working Revolution’
Traditional, hierarchical attitudes to work are going to stifle the economic growth that Liz Truss so craves, argues Rachel Morris
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The Class Ceiling: Liz Truss’ Cabinet Offers the Illusion of Equality
Despite the racial and ethnic diversity of the Prime Minister’s top team, this counts for little if ordinary people of colour continue to suffer, says Taj Ali
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‘Out of the Picture: After the Queen’s Death, Will Britain Finally Confront Itself?’
Britain has hidden a key part of our story from ourselves. With the Queen’s death marking a decisive shift, it’s time for us all to start building a better picture of our country and its past, writes Hardeep Matharu
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Why the ‘Culture War’ Will Intensify Under Liz Truss
Sam Bright explores the forces propelling the escalating demonisation of ‘woke’ Britain
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12 Years of Conservative Failure on Renewables is Costing the Environment and the Economy
Thomas Perrett tracks the administrative missteps that have incubated the current energy crisis
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‘My Allegiance is to These Islands, Not the King’
Adrian Goldberg speaks to Paul Powlesland, who was threatened with arrest for suggesting that he may write ‘not my King’ on a sign
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‘The Queen’s Funeral Presents Diplomatic Challenges like None Other’
Former diplomat and ambassador Alexandra Hall Hall reflects on whether the occasion of the monarch’s passing could present the opportunity for Britain to ease some international tensions
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Seven Decades of Social Progress – But is the UK Heading Backwards?
The Byline Intelligence Team digs into the story of the past 70 years in data
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‘The Uses of Diversity’
Martin Shaw considers why so many politicians of colour have been appointed to top ministerial roles by white Conservative leaders
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From Tufton Street to Downing Street: The Opaque Charities at the Heart of Power
Rachel Morris tracks the burgeoning influence of ‘free market’ think tanks on Conservative politics
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How is Energy Transformation Key to Defeating Vladimir Putin?
A mass roll-out of home insulation, heating efficiency and heat-pumps could rapidly eliminate gas dependence in Europe – and neuter Putin’s most potent energy weapon, writes Nafeez Ahmed
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Not Appointing a Women’s Minister Reflects Truss’ Approach to Equalities
For the first time since Harriet Harman took on the role in 1997, there will be no minister responsible specifically for women – with a man taking on the role of Equalities Minister
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‘Queen Elizabeth II: Symbolically Potent, Politically Powerless’
Anthony Barnett reflects on the passing of the ‘New Elizabethan Age’ and how sovereignty and monarchy have moved apart
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‘I Contracted a Parasitic Disease After Swimming in My Local River’
Alan Pretsell explains the human cost of privatisation and deregulation
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A New Cabinet: A New Fight for Abortion Rights
The promotion of MPs who have voted against abortion rights is a worrying precedent, as is the closeness of the new Government to reactionary US think tanks, argues Sian Norris
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How Rwanda’s Stifling of the Press Prevents Proper Accountability for Asylum Scheme
When Iain Overton was denied a journalist visa to report on violence against refugees in Rwanda, he and the Byline Intelligence Team investigated press repression in the country
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Elite Rule: Liz Truss’ Socially Exclusive Cabinet
Sam Bright examines the CVs of the new top Government appointments and finds they very much contradict the Prime Minister’s rhetoric of ‘meritocracy’
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Jacob Rees-Mogg’s Appointment Shows Truss’ Government Is Captured by the Hard Right
The UK’s new Prime Minister is surrounding herself with hardline figures who were previously on the fringe of the Conservative movement, reports Adam Bienkov
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‘It’s Targeted, It’s Deliberate’: The Demonisation of Some Women In Power
As Downing Street welcomes its third female Prime Minister, Rachel Morris reflects on social and media expectations of certain women leaders
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Lisa Nandy: Conservative ‘Levelling Up’ Promises have been ‘Outright Lie’
Boris Johnson’s flagship regional redistribution project has stalled and Liz Truss is likely to send it into reverse, writes Sam Bright
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‘Truss’ North Sea Drilling Plan Will Need to Prolong Cost of Living Crisis to Buoy Big Oil Profits’
The Government’s own data suggests that Britain’s fossil fuel lobbies want to use the cost of living crisis to keep themselves afloat, writes Nafeez Ahmed
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‘Johnsonism Gone Sour: Liz Truss as Prime Minister Will Drag Us to Disaster’
The UK’s incoming Prime Minister has accepted the worst parts of Boris Johnson’s politics, while abandoning anything that made his agenda palatable, reports Adam Bienkov
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‘The Myth of a Benign Brexit Immigration Policy’
Martin Shaw replies to economist Jonathan Portes’ recent Byline Times article, which argued that the Government’s post-Brexit immigration system is a ‘rare success’
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The End of Boris Johnson: ‘Legacy – What Legacy?’
As the UK stands on the edge of a cliff, former diplomat Alexandra Hall Hall assesses what the boy who wanted to be ‘world king’ achieved when he fulfilled his relentless ambition
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Crisis and Myth: Why Politicians Must Stop Comparing the UK Economy to ‘Running a Household’
Jack Mosse unpicks the flawed understanding of national debt that has pervaded the Conservative leadership contest and Tory economic policy for a number of years
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Why is Scottish Government Spending £10,000 to ‘Support Dialogue’ Between Abortion Protestors and Patients?
Is mediation really the answer when it comes to groups holding extremist views and women accessing safe, legal healthcare?
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EU Visa Ban on Russian Tourists: Unleashing the Full Arsenal of Democracy
With EU Ministers set to make a decision tomorrow, Benjamin Tallis argues that there is a liberal case for a Russian visa ban, and the opposition to it reveals a weakness in European democracy
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‘Emily Maitlis is Right – the BBC should be Telling the Public the Truth when the Government is Lying’
The Corporation does not know how to respond to the dangerous populism we find ourselves in, writes former BBC journalist Patrick Howse
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‘The Government’s Post-Brexit Immigration Policy is a Rare Success’
Jonathan Portes answers the criticisms of those who claim that what the Brexit campaign was really promising was lower levels of immigration
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‘It’s Only a ‘Mickey Mouse’ Degree When You’re Working Class’
Megan Byrom reflects on the elitism that frames how the political and media class talks about the humanities
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‘Sheer Cloudy Vagueness’: Language as a Tool of Political Coercion
Rachel Morris considers how distortion and evasion are being used in the rhetoric of the Conservative leadership race to deceive the public
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The Rich are Getting Richer – and They Spend Their Money on Power
Sascha Lavin examines how, even in this cost of living crisis, the rich keep getting richer – and they use their cash for political leverage
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‘Boris Johnson Completely Obliterated the Line Between Journalism and Politics’
Julian Petley explores how the outgoing Prime Minister embodies the triumph of the Conservative political-media nexus
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Starmer’s Labour Must be Radical to Save us from a Thatcher Reboot
The Labour leader needs to convince a weary public that he has the bold ideas to divert the UK from its damaging path under the Conservatives, argues Chris Painter
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How Overruling Roe is Already Risking Women’s Lives
It’s two months since the US Supreme Court ended the nationwide right to abortion, and the horror stories are already piling up. Worse is yet to come, reports Sian Norris
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Missing in Action: The British Public is Being Asked to Bail Out its Own Government
From climate change to the cost of living, ordinary people are being forced to compensate for an administration in paralysis, says Lisa Young
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‘Global Britain’, and its New Blue Passport, is Falling Behind
In terms of its access to the world, the UK is struggling to keep up with its peers, observes Professor Christopher Phillips
