SubscriptionsSection: Argument
Honestly held opinions and provocative argument based on current events or our recent reports.
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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
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How Can We Guard Against the Climate Crisis When Defence is Our Biggest Carbon Emitter?
Iain Overton examines the Ministry of Defence’s carbon footprint, and asks whether plans to boost military spending are compatible with the Government’s net zero targets
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What a New Polish Textbook Tells Us About Education’s Culture Wars
A bizarre history book is set to be introduced to Poland’s secondary schools – with its reactionary content symbolic of a wider battle for values in global education
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This Septic Isle
Brexit is compounding, not relieving, the UK’s slurry of economic and environmental problems, says Rachel Morris
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Boris Johnson’s Malignant Legacy
Paul Connew reflects on the Prime Minister’s long, scandal-ridden rise to the top of British politics
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The New Mass Movement Rallying Against the Failures of Westminster
Taj Ali reports on the ‘Enough is Enough’ campaign, that is attempting to give a voice to those suffering from the worst excesses of the cost of living crisis
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Truss’ Attitude to Workers is a Medieval Mindset With a Modern Day Makeover
AV Deggar argues that the Conservative Party’s beliefs about a work-shy population echo a bygone age
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The Conservative Leadership Contest has Exposed the Big Lie About Brexit
Voters were promised better-funded public services and stronger employment rights after Brexit – Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak are now offering us the opposite, reports Adam Bienkov
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Things Can Only Get Worse: The Dangers of a Truss Premiership
With Boris Johnson’s demise, the true believers of the Brexit revolution have sensed their opportunity, writes Jon Bloomfield
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A Small Step for Women’s Safety in Policing is Not One Giant Leap
Sascha Lavin reflects on the news that the College of Policing will introduce harsher sanctions for police accused of abusing women
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The Shock of the Fatwa – What it was Like Back Then
Anthony Barnett remembers the political and social circumstances around the response to Salman Rushdie’s ‘The Satanic Verses’
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Where is Britain’s Liz Cheney?
Alexandra Hall Hall explores the worrying trajectories of the US Republicans and the UK’s Conservative Party
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Liz Truss’ Claim About Productivity of Workers Outside London is Economically Illiterate
The Conservative frontrunner’s belief that Londoners simply “graft” harder than people outside the capital does not stand up against evidence on regional inequalities, says Sam Bright
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Liz Truss’ ‘Lazy Brits’ Comments Expose her Own ‘Plastic Patriotism’
A leaked recording of the Tory leadership frontrunner deriding UK workers for lacking “graft” gives the game away about her real views of the British people, reports Adam Bienkov
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Werleman’s Worldview: The New Age of Political Violence in America
The reaction of Donald Trump, Republican politicians and right-wing commentators to the FBI’s recent raid on the former president’s Florida home signals a crisis for the US, says CJ Werleman
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How Ukraine’s Southern Offensive Could Lead to the End of the War
Brian Frydenborg looks at the routes open to the Ukrainian Army if they succeed against Russian forces on the Kherson front, leading to an isolated Crimea and pushback in the Donbas
