No tracking. No cookies
Subscriptions
SubscriptionsSection: Argument
Honestly held opinions and provocative argument based on current events or our recent reports.
-
Climate Lawsuits: A Weapon in the Fight Against Fossil Fuels?
Thomas Perrett explores how lawsuits which attempt to sue fossil fuel companies for their environmentally destructive business models could yet prove to be effective, particularly given the parallels between Big Oil and Big Tobacco
-
The BBC has Blacklisted Peter Stefanovic and his ‘Johnson Lies’ Video. Why?
It’s accurate, it sheds light on a vital question, and it has been viewed tens of millions of times – but our national broadcaster is pretending it isn’t there. Brian Cathcart wants an explanation
-
Coded Language: How the UK Newspaper Industry Enables Institutional Racism
The UK’s press is governed by an editors’ code that permits discrimination against groups of people – it’s time we demand better says Richard Wilson
-
Discrimination and Ethics: Gypsies and Travellers Should Be Able to Expect Fair Play from the Media
Katharine Quarmby explores why members of the minority communities are so dismayed by an Ofcom ruling clearing a controversial Channel 4 Dispatches documentary about Traveller crime
-
Why We Need New Statues Reflecting Britain’s Diverse History
MP Preet Kaur Gill explains why she is backing a new campaign for public artwork commemorating people who are under-represented and forgotten in the country’s narratives about its past
-
The Afghanistan War is Not Over Until the US Legacy of Impunity Ends
With the killing of civilians by an airstrike two days before its forces left, the US exits Afghanistan in the same way it entered it: with zero accountability or resolution of the ‘Forever War’
-
Carbon Pricing Alone Won’t Solve the Climate Crisis
Decarbonisation cannot be achieved through ineffective and counter-productive carbon pricing measures which fail to raise enough revenue to fight climate change, reports Thomas Perrett
-
The Independence of Britain’s Media has been in Jeopardy for a Long Time
With attacks on journalist Jess Brammar’s credentials to be appointed to a BBC role continuing by the right-wing press, Maheen Behrana explores how editorial independence has been eroded in Britain over a number of years
-
Plans for North Sea Oil and Gas Exploration are Incompatible with the UK’s Emissions Cuts
Evidence of the climate crisis has been unavoidable all summer but the UK appears to want to push forward with fossil fuel extraction that will cause more environmental harm
-
The Government’s New Disability Strategy is No Strategy At All
Pepper offers her own suggestions for policies that would help remove barriers for disabled people
-
The Islamophobic ‘Terror’ Narrative Still Distorts the Truth about Afghanistan
Faisal Hanif argues that islamophobia is still a default fallback position for Western media, and the Taliban provide cover for the misapprehensions to continue
-
Taliban Helps China Target Afghan Uyghurs to Woo Beijing
The Taliban has spoken out against the oppression of Muslims around the world but is staying silent on the persecution of Uyghur Muslims in China, reports CJ Werleman
-
The Government is Crying Crocodile Tears Over Free Speech On Campuses
The Government’s Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill will limit, rather than protect, academic freedom, argue Liz Fekete and Liam Shrivastava
-
The Return of the Taliban: The End of the US Empire?
Before 9/11, Nafeez Ahmed warned of an impending invasion of Afghanistan to control a strategic pipeline. 20 years on, the return of the Taliban is the predictable legacy of America’s failed strategy
-
Why is Deadly Misogyny Not Recognised as a Form of Extremism?
The Plymouth shooting is a perfect illustration of the failure of the UK’s counter-terrorism apparatus to fully understand emerging threats, argues Dr Maria Norris
-
The Fourth Wave: ‘Children Paying the Price’ of Government Inaction and COVID-19 Lobbying
England’s vaccine strategy is endangering the young, says Mike Buckley
-
Why We Must Create Trauma-Informed Schools to Tackle Unequal Outcomes
Looked-after children are falling behind in school, but a trauma-informed approach could help those young people who have had difficult starts in life to flourish, says Andrew Taylor-Dawson
-
The ‘Crackdown’ on Middle-Class Drug Use is the Government’s Seasonal Shock-and-Scare Story
Does Boris Johnson’s administration really want to introduce a policy which would see its friends in the dock or dinner parties raided?
-
The Far-Right’s Shift from Climate Denial to Ecofascism
As the climate emergency escalates, sparking a new migration crisis, ethno-nationalist forms of politics could undergo a revival, reports Thomas Perrett
-
‘Deserving’ or ‘Undeserving’ Refugees? Johnson and Patel’s Afghanistan Problem
With a key pillar of the Government’s ‘culture war’ protecting our island nation from unpalatable ‘others’, Hardeep Matharu explores the crass and complex classifications at the heart of the Government’s neocolonial immigration policy
-
Afghanistan: The Terrible End of the War on Terror
In the collapse of its $2 trillion 20-year war in Afghanistan, which cost hundreds of thousands of lives, Hasan Sari sees the last disastrous epitaph for US foreign policy
-
Our Promise to Afghanis: ‘We Must Not Fail Them’
Rich Martyn fears for the fate of people like the interpreter and teacher he met while in Afghanistan, and explains how the tragedy also affects others who served there
-
How to Save the World in 15 Years – Part Three: The Looming Death Spiral of Carbon-intensive Industries
Disruptive technologies and societal change could allow us to reach net zero much quicker than anticipated, if we make the right choices now
-
Age is a Feminist Issue in the Arts
The announcement of a new writing prize for under-35s raises questions about how age limits create barriers for women writers, says Joanna Walsh
-
How to Save the World in 15 Years – Part Two: Net Zero is Not Enough
Just as we underestimated the speed and scale of climate change, Nafeez Ahmed argues, our narrow, linear ways are leading us to underestimate the scope of potential solutions
-
Cummings’ Brexit Confessions Reveal the Hollow Heart of a Hallowed Project
Jonathan Lis explains how the admissions of leading Brexiters five years on expose the continuing corruption of British politics by outright lies
-
Light and Shadows: Law-Makers and Populist Attacks – A Transatlantic Comparison
Amid the multiple similarities between the populism of Donald Trump and Brexit, Peter Jukes and Heidi Siegmund Cuda look at the stark differences between the way in which the UK Parliament and the US Congress deal with threats to democracy
-
How to Save the World in 15 Years: Part One
As the IPCC issues its direst warnings yet about an inevitable rise in global warming into the 1.5C danger zone, Nafeez Ahmed proposes a better way out of its dystopian vision
-
Right-Wing Media’s Manufactured Fears Over ‘Blasphemy’ are Another Arm of the Culture War’s White Jingoist Agenda
Constructed fears around the return of blasphemy laws enable Islamophobia and distract from a reactionary recasting of British values, says Dr Richard McNeil-Willson
-
Will the Government Take Action on the Sewage Pollution Crisis?
Stuart Heaver reports on the last chance for the Government to avert the sewage pollution crisis by making water companies responsible
-
Delay is the New Denial: How Big Polluters Continue to Fight Climate Science
light of the IPCC’s report warning that climate change is a ‘code red for humanity’, Thomas Perrett reports on how fossil fuel companies have subtly changed their tactics to continue avoiding the reforms required to combat greenhouse gas emissions
-
Touring in Europe: The Broken Instruments of Brexit
Philippe Auclair discusses the cultural isolation and loss which will result from British musical artists being deterred from performing in Europe
-
The Church’s Leaders Continue to Demonstrate their Inability to Speak Truth to Power
ngland are apparently characterised by “elites”, Reverend Joe Haward considers why those in positions of privilege and power within the Church of England are so reluctant to expose the right’s dangerous and divisive narratives
-
What’s Gone Wrong with the ‘Sex Game Gone Wrong’ Defence Ban?
The Domestic Abuse Bill promised to end the use of the defence after a woman is killed, but as two recent cases show, that simply hasn’t happened
-
Matt Hancock Sleeps with the Fishes…
Mic Wright on Boris Johnson’s obsession with The Godfather, and why director Francis Ford Coppola decried him for bringing “the beloved United Kingdom to ruin”
-
Johnsonian Policy: The Lord of Misrule
Professor Chris Painter looks at the Government’s unprecedented and unilaterist policy-making and the dire implications for the quality of UK governance
-
Coronavirus and Climate: The Choices We Face
Tom Burke sets out the battle-lines in the conflict over the planet’s future – between policy and politics, cooperation and competition, young and old, freedom to and freedom from
-
Will the Independent Press Standards Organisation Ever Uphold Any Standards?
After 28 breaches and four libel cases, the Jewish Chronicle is accused of a collapse in journalistic standards. But will the regulator IPSO do anything about it? Brian Cathcart reviews the evidence
-
Travels on Another Path: Obstacles for a Disabled Explorer
Penny Pepper shares her experiences of trips away and why, despite doing everything to mitigate it, the challenges of travel continue to reinforce disabled people’s second-class status
-
Northern Ireland Amnesty: ‘How can you Build Reconciliation on Denying People the Right to Truth?’
Anne Cadwallader reports on cross-party opposition in Northern Ireland and among human rights groups to the UK Government’s decision to end prosecutions for crimes committed during the ‘Troubles’
-
The Death of the Last Good Chap
Why do those in positions of power now evade accountability despite numerous examples of incompetence, dangerous liaisons, lies, and even corruption at the heart of Boris Johnson’s Government? Because the British political system allows them to, says Gavin Esler
-
‘Dancing Queen?’: The Fixed Term Parliaments Act and the Return of the Royal Prerogative
Historian Robert Saunders considers the constitutional consequences of a new bill which transfers the power to dissolve Parliament to the Crown and removes checks on the Prime Minister
-
Subverting the ‘Will of the People’: How Brexit Sowed the Wind
Chris Grey explores the forces unleashed by Brexit and how they reveal the weaknesses of Britain’s unwritten Constitution – vulnerable in its reliance on norms and conventions to deliver representative democracy
