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SubscriptionsSection: Argument
Honestly held opinions and provocative argument based on current events or our recent reports.
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‘If the UK is Serious About Tackling Climate Change it Must Combat Military Emissions’
Like David Lammy, the military recognises the threat of climate breakdown. But that hasn’t stopped the sector’s vast emissions
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‘To Prevent Migrant Deaths, Labour Must Stop Courting Nationalism and Trying to Outdo the Conservatives on Immigration’
Labour members should organise within Constituency Labour Parties and trade union branches to pass motions in support of migrants and bring these into effect by mobilising for solidarity actions on our streets and in our workplaces
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Northern Ireland’s Plan to ‘Do What Matters Most Fails to Address key Problems and Ignores Previous Pledges’
The draft programme for government, titled ‘Our Plan: Doing What Matters Most’ drops long-standing proposals to address poverty, transform health, and advance environmental protections.
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This Innovative Proposal Could Clean Up our Rivers – So Why is Whitehall Ignoring it?
The plan could reduce pollution, create jobs, reduce imports, while also helping the UK meet its net zero targets
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‘Obscene, Illogical, Unworkable’: The Trump/Vance Plan for Ukraine Revealed
Paul Niland examines J D Vance’s recent statements on the Trump plan to end the war in Ukraine “in 24 hours”
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The Jewish Chronicle Crisis Should Mean the End for Sham Press Regulator IPSO
Labour says press regulation must be effective and independent. As never before, the press industry’s tame complaints body stands exposed as neither. For all our sakes, the government must call time, argues Brian Cathcart.
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From Assassination to Misinformation: Kremlin’s Strategic Use of Digital Disinformation
“Ukraine played a role.” Once again Russian disinformation networks are weaponising an attempt on the life of a US President
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#MediaWatch: Supping with the Devil with a Long Spoon
As the TUC passes a motion warning of the “existential crisis” in British journalism, Peter Jukes asks for your help to deal with the dual threats of legacy media monopolies and big tech
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‘Keir Starmer Must Rid Himself of his Brexit Blind Spot’
The Prime Minister’s view of Brexit remains stuck in the past. It’s time he embraced the opportunities of Europe, argues Richard Barfield
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‘BBC, Bias and Gaza: A Partial Study of Impartiality’
A new much publicised report that claims the BBC is “heavily biased against Israel” flies in the face of other specialist and academic studies
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‘Time to Think Outside the Box, Keir Starmer: Open a Cross-Channel Safe Route for Asylum Seekers’
This is the real way to smash the people-smuggling gangs, writes Professor Derrick Wyatt
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‘When Peaceful Protesters Face Harsher Sentences Than Violent Racists, Something has to Give’
Politicians have justified crackdowns on protest by claiming public support. But a new Demos report shows the reality is more nuanced.
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Back of the Class: How Theatre has Become a Game of Youth and Privilege
Tamsin Flower examines why older working-class voices are disappearing from performing arts and theatre
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How a Lack of Support for the International Criminal Court may Have Emboldened Israel and Hamas
‘It may be that Israel was able to believe that pressure on the ICC was working and that its eight years of impunity from international law since 2014 would continue’
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‘David Lammy’s Token Move on Israel Arms Licences is no Answer to Genocide – It’s a Form of Denial’
‘You do not respond to genocide with gestures; you do not continue to treat a state that is suspected of committing genocide as an ally; and cancelling a number of export licences does not cancel Britain’s complicity’
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Labour Needs the Muslim Vote to Stabilise its ‘Sandcastle Majority’
Sufyan Gulam Ismail offers some advice on how Labour can win back British Muslim voters after losing so many over the issue of Gaza
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Keir Starmer’s Partial Israeli Arms Embargo Has Pleased Nobody
The Government’s constant attempts to second guess its critics are only disappointing its supporters and emboldening its opponents
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Oasis ‘Dynamic Pricing’ Row: ‘How a System Meant to Balance Supply and Demand is Being Used to Exploit Consumers Everywhere’
The Government has announced it will include dynamic pricing in a consultation into ticket resale websites after hundreds of complaints over Oasis ticket sales. But that’s just the start
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How Russians Went from Outrage at Putin’s War in Ukraine to Not Caring – and Why Those Feelings will Outlive his Presidency
Denis Zakharov has been monitoring the changing attitudes of Russians to the war in Ukraine on social media. They’ve only got worse
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Everything That Is Wrong With the TV Industry and Why No One Is Watching the News
Carol Vorderman’s Alternative Mactaggart lecture on how snobbery turned people off TV
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‘The Paralympics not Being Broadcast on the BBC Shows the Underlying Societal Bias Against People With Disabilities’
Examining the ‘lazy framing’ around disability in sport where the focus is often on ‘the accident, the drama, the blood, the pain’ and not the competition
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Smoking Ban: The Conservative Party Suffers a Severe Case of Smoke-Induced Amnesia
From smoking, to taxes, to cronyism, Rishi Sunak’s party is desperate for us to forget everything that happened until just last month
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Explained: The Six Triggers that Spark Civil Unrest
These factors do not exist in isolation but interact and act as force multipliers for each other and are ripe to be manipulated through identity politics
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‘The Doors are Wide Open for Ukraine to Deliver a Devastating Blow to Russia – if Only the West Would Let Them’
There are 245 key Russian facilities Ukraine could strike today. It has the capabilities, but not the permission. Why deny them?
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‘Elon Musk Must Take a Net-Zero Approach to Violent Hate Speech to Save his Businesses and Credibility’
Elon Musk’s relationship with X is a commercial and political disaster. He badly needs an off-ramp
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‘Kamala Harris Casts Herself as the True American Patriot in Barnstorming Democratic Convention Speech’
Where Biden’s campaign erred in building up Trump as a larger-than-life threat to democracy, Harris and other speakers sought to take him down with a series of jabs
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‘The Government Must act now to Bring Down Bills – and Ready our Communities for the Future’
Keir Starmer “must do more to help” families hit by higher energy bills this winter, writes Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer
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What Russia’s Proposed Red Sea Naval Station Could Mean for the Sudan War
Whether the development has an impact on the conflict or not – it seems to represent a diametric shift in the Kremlin’s involvement in Sudan
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‘David Lammy has an Immediate Opportunity to end a Half-Century of Atrocities – and it is Very Straightforward’
Over 50 years ago, the UK and US governments conspired in secret for the UK to hold onto Chagos and expel its entire population
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‘How Lawsuit Against AI Music Will Offer Little Help to Smaller Labels and Independent Artists’
As a lawsuit against music generation startups Udio and Suno makes its way through the courts, an AI song in Germany has already made the Top 50
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Hate Sells: ‘The Spectator Cannot Defend Douglas Murray But It Won’t Sack Him’
Cutting ties with the controversial columnist and the magazine’s Associate Editor would be bad for business – and it is hard not to conclude that it must agree with him, writes Brian Cathcart
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‘How the Conservative Party Helped Cause the Riots and why Their Islamophobic Rhetoric Won’t Change’
Ironically, the riots during a leadership election give the party a unique opportunity to turn a page and turn their back on Farage-type populism. The signs are they will not take that opportunity
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‘Ukraine’s Kursk Offensive is Vladimir Putin’s Emperor Has No Clothes Moment’
It is the first occupation of Russian territory since the Second World War – and it has created a myriad of problems for Putin
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‘Keir Starmer Wants Police to Expand Use of Facial Recognition Technology Across UK – He Should Ban it Altogether’
The PM announced plans for ‘wider deployment’ after the riots – but it is a ‘deeply flawed’ technology ‘technically and legally, and impacts entire communities’
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The UK’s Race Riots: A Trial Run for Another US Insurrection?
Peter Jukes draws out the connections between the violence on Britain’s streets and the Capitol Insurrection
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Anjem Choudary’s Sentencing During Riots is a Timely Reminder of the Media’s Role in Promoting Hatred
Anjem Choudary was not a Muslim cleric as the media loved to present him, but the media’s cleric, a rent-a-gob, drinker and playboy turned cosplay Mullah.
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‘UK Riots Were not Reflective of Working Class People or Working Class Ideals’
Right-wing commentators and politicians were quick to suggest the riots were caused by the working class being ignored – ignoring the fact they were ignited by misinformation spread by the far-right minority
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Riot Act: Unpicking Matthew Goodwin’s Arguments in Defence of ‘White Anger’
The honorary professor attempted to explain why the riots swept across the UK – but did so using information selectively, choosing to emphasise certain details that supported his narrative
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‘Why the Online Safety Act Won’t Stop Type of Misinformation that Sparked Riots – the Government Must Create New Legislation’
When the riots stopped conversation moved to the Online Safety Act with suggestions changes would be made ‘if necessary’. Prime Minister Keir Starmer also pledged to ‘look more broadly’ at social media
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‘Citizens’ Assemblies Could Wake Keir Starmer up to Reversing Brexit ‘
Polls show the public would now vote to rejoin the EU, so why isn’t the Prime Minister listening?
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‘Anti-Muslim’ – Isn’t There a Word for That?
How the media spent days failing to call the far-right riots exactly what they were – Islamophobic
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What the Fight Against Racism in the 1970s Can Teach us About Defeating Fascists in 2024
The events of the past two weeks have been eerily reminiscent of the violent rise of the far-right National Front
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UK Riots: How the Right-Wing Press Fought to Stop Laws to Combat Online Disinformation
The story of how the Conservatives exempted their media supporters from laws against spreading dangerously false information online
