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SubscriptionsSection: Argument
Honestly held opinions and provocative argument based on current events or our recent reports.
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Labour’s Shadow Culture Secretary Says the Press is Bound by the Law: Has She Been Paying Any Attention?
Days after four more current national newspaper editors were accused of having acted unlawfully, the party’s media spokesperson rules out future action on press accountability
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The Kremlin’s Game of Thrones: Why did Putin Sack Shoigu?
Putin may replace his long-standing Defence Minister but cannot tackle the real cause of his disastrous foreign policy – himself
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‘Why the BBC Should Give a Voice to the Terminally Ill in Its Assisted Dying Documentary’
The latest episode of the hit Media Storm podcast focuses on a new programme arguing against the legalisation of assisted dying – but some viewpoints are missing
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‘Assisted Suicide: Always Personal and Always Political’
For Penny Pepper, debates about changing the law on assisted suicide are a way in for a dangerous, niggling, idea of how we should value disabled people’s lives
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‘Kevin Spacey Unmasked’: Why Feminists Must Use their Campaigning Experience to Fight Discrimination Against #MenToo
The executive producer of a new compelling documentary into the disgraced actor reveals why being a man should not make a difference when it comes to being a victim of unwanted sexual advances
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‘Labour Won the Local Elections but it has a Problem – it Can’t Engage With UK Muslims’
Labour’s triumph was almost entirely due to a collapse in Conservative support. To succeed in the General Election it must directly engage with a new generation of British Muslim voters
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Why Mayors Outside Westminster Are Distancing Themselves From their Parties’ Politics and Colours
Much was made of newly elected Conservative Mayor Ben Houchen not being able to find a blue rosette – but outside the Westminster bubble associations with party brands are often an obstacle to get work done
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‘Keir Starmer’s General Election Reality and Why Comparisons with Tony Blair’s Victory Are Problematic’
Professor Chris Painter explores the likely determinants of the next general election outcome – which polls consistently predict Labour will win
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‘When Articles Exclude Voices of People They’re About, It’s Dehumanising’ – UK’s Biggest Media Players are the Worst Offenders
Once you notice their silence, you can’t not hear it – introducing a new Byline Times column to accompany the new series of the hit podcast Media Storm
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The Local Election Results Flush the Conservative Party’s Culture War Strategy Down the Gender Neutral Toilet
The Conservative party’s strategy of trying to win the general election through a mixture of ‘culture wars and the trans debate’ is only worsening their defeats to Labour
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How the Georgian ‘Foreign Agents Bill’ May Cost it Everything its People Have Ever Dreamed Of – And Benefit No One But Russia
Georgian Dream’s ‘Russian-style’ law has prompted strong statements of concern from the UK, US and EU with critics saying it is an attempt to muzzle the media and NGOs – it may also end Georgia’s hopes of joining the EU
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Drax to ‘Begin one of the Most Expensive Energy Projects in the World – And UK Public Will Pay Three Times Over’
Through its expensive and harmful bioenergy with carbon capture scheme (BECCS), Drax will impose a triple cost on taxpayers in the form of public money for subsidies, higher energy bills, and more extreme weather, the CEO of the Environmental Justice Foundation argues
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‘We Must Stop Incitement of Violence Against Environmental Activists Before Someone is Seriously Harmed’
Regulators are failing to stop the media from encouraging vigilante action against activists – the law must step in to keep them safe, argues Tom Hardy
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The Labour Scandal that’s Arguably Bigger than the Angela Rayner Story
The new Welsh First Minister Vaughan Gething and the £200,000 donation that could trigger a leadership crisis
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Rishi to the Rescue: How the Prime Minister ‘Moved Heaven and Earth to Help the Conservative Press’
The Government went to bat for Conservative media titans to quickly block the Telegraph takeover bid – yet more pressing reforms often take years to progress
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‘With his Poll Ratings Sinking, Sunak Goes For One More Attempt at Scapegoating the Vulnerable: The “Skivers” Revisited’
The Prime Minister’s announcements on sickness and disability benefits were not just another assault on an already punitive welfare system – they were nuclear-level gaslighting, writes Mary O’Hara
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‘The Prayer Ban at Michaela Community School Will Not Set a Landmark Precedent’
The CEO of the Islamophobia Response Unit sets out the significance of the High Court’s ruling being made in a very specific context of one school’s strict behavioural regime
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Ofcom Confirms GB News Is Not Being Held to Different Rules on Impartiality
Julian Petley and the Good Law Project informed the broadcast regulator that it would apply for judicial review of its approach to the controversial channel unless it made clear the same rules apply to it
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Special Report: Our Society’s ‘Non-Human’ Population – A National Scandal Ignored
Hardeep Matharu, Editor of Byline Times, explains why the May 2024 print edition focuses on the denial of human rights and basic care to people with learning disabilities
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‘Gideon Falter Came to a Pro-Palestine Demo Looking to Provoke – And the Media Gave him What He Wanted’
The chief executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism appears to have got ‘exactly what he came for’ at the march, according to a witness who was there
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‘Asylum Seekers Could Make UK £1.2 Billion – Instead the Government is Spending That On Keeping them in Inhumane Conditions’
One solution to the UK’s economic and labour shortage problems is asylum seekers – if only the Government stopped to consider options other than sending them to Rwanda
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Russia’s war Against Ukraine is About to get a lot More Difficult for Vladimir Putin
While Ukraine has struggled to maintain vital supplies, Russia has lost all momentum and is pushing for a timeout just as things are set to dramatically change, writes Paul Niland. Here’s what will happen next
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‘Neglected, Exhausted and Exploited’: A Mum’s Story of Caring for her Disabled Daughter 24 Hours a Day
A parent carer to a severely disabled woman explains just how difficult life can be – and just how little help and support is available
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Voter Data is Being Trawled by Conservative Politicians – Help Us Shine a Light On It
Help Byline Times follow the dark money and track the dirty data as millions are spent on online political campaigning this election year
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The Law That Could Prevent the Next Hillsborough
35 years on from the disaster that killed 97 Liverpool fans, survivors believe a law demanding a ‘duty of candour’ in public inquiries could prevent future cover ups
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Rwanda ‘Cash for Humans’ Flights Leave Asylum Seekers ‘Terrified’
Asylum seekers are “living in limbo” in the UK, worried they could be put on a plane at any moment, as the controversial scheme returns to the House of Commons on Monday
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‘I Called out “Free Speech Champion” Laurence Fox as a “Racist” – and He Tried (and Failed) to Bully Me into Silence’
In an exclusive interview, Mukhtar Yassin explains how “a normal working-class bloke from the Ends” took on the millionaire-backed Reclaim Party leader
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The Dilemma Facing Civil Servants Over the UK’s Arms Sales to Israel
Former British diplomat Alexandra Hall Hall, who resigned from the Foreign Office in 2019 as she felt unable to represent the Government’s Brexit stance, unpicks the questions of law and morality facing those working inside Whitehall
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Newspapers Knew New Team GB Kit Was Not a ‘Flag Redesign’ Project
A Team GB spokesperson told Nathan Jones-Sparkes that the British Olympic Association was very clear with the press that its new kit design would always feature the Union Jack
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Machine Learning and the Carnage in Gaza
The Israeli army is using an AI-assisted targeting system called Lavender in Gaza. Are we really willing to entrust an algorithm with the lives and deaths of human beings?
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‘Mel Stride’s Remarks on the Public Using Mental Health to Avoid Work Hide a Culture of Failure and Secrecy at the Department He Runs’
The founder of an employability and recruitment solutions consultancy lifts the lid on what is it like to work with the Department for Work and Pensions
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Lawfare: How Journalists and Activists Can Combat Vexatious Litigation
Lawyer Stephen Kinsella examines the exploitative use of legal threats, and offers advice on how not to play the game
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‘Panic, Misinformation and Hysteria About Freeports is Drowning Out the Real Concerns’
Chris Grey disentangles the myriad alarming claims being made about ‘special economic zones’ and freeports in order to focus on the real risks
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‘Media Attacks on NHS Translation and Diversity Spending Completely Miss the Point of the Health Service’
The Express suggested that £100 million of NHS spending on translators should be spent on nurses – but ensuring patients get the care they need is fundamental and a legal requirement, writes NHS consultant David Oliver
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‘Rishi Sunak’s Delay in Calling an Election May Help the Conservatives – But it Could Benefit Labour More’
The Conservatives may be hoping that ‘something will turn up’ to ease the inevitable – but they are also giving Labour time to prepare for power and form a bedrock of support, writes Mike Buckley
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‘Telegraph Takeover Bid Backed by UAE Doesn’t Matter – Because there’s an Agenda at Every Newspaper’
A former Editor of The Independent provides an inside look at just how much influence the owners of British newspapers – including Rupert Murdoch – have on what gets written
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‘Trump’s Second Presidential Run and the Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapse Have a Lot In Common’
Baltimore’s Francis Scott Bridge collapsed after one part of the structure was hit by a ship. The disaster is a perfect metaphor for the crisis Europe may face if Trump is re-elected, writes Alexandra Hall
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‘In the Wake of the Massacre Near Moscow, Russian Anti-Migrant Policies Could Backfire’
Can the Kremlin respond to calls to limit Central Asian migration, when Russia faces a demographic crisis?
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‘A Keir Starmer Government Will Trigger a Revival of the Labour Left’
The Labour party leader’s long marginalisation of the Left cannot survive the realities of Government, argues his former advisor Simon Fletcher
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Revealed: The Worst Big Woke Things in the World
In a bid to join the booming right wing media market, Otto English reveals his secret Big Woke hitlist
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‘Keir Starmer’s Condemnation of “Terror” in Gaza is a Step Forward — But Just the Beginning’
Starmers speech at a recent Iftar in London is a seismic shift in the Labour Party’s approach to both the Middle East conflict and anti-Muslim prejudice in the UK
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Rishi Sunak’s Head Boy Energy
Becoming Prime Minister wasn’t the first significant position Sunak was handed – Winchester College taught him a thing or two about prestige without power, writes Richard Beard
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Outsourcing and Our Hollowed-Out State: A Story of Dependency Without Delivery
Scratch the surface of just about any public service failure of recent years and outsourcing features as a key cause, writes Chris Grey
