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SubscriptionsSection: Argument
Honestly held opinions and provocative argument based on current events or our recent reports.
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Calling Out Press Racism: Has Anything Changed?
Six weeks after the bust-up at the Society of Editors, we are still waiting for evidence that racism in the media will be confronted, says Brian Cathcart – the onus is on the editors of the Guardian and Financial Times to stand up and show leadership
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The Johnson Government’s Ties to Israeli Lobbying Groups Stains the UK’s Global Reputation
CJ Werleman explores the implications of the Government’s stance on an investigation into alleged war crimes in the Palestinian Territories by the International Criminal Court
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I Exposed the Dark Arts of Lobbying – A Decade On Nothing’s Changed
Iain Overton recalls his undercover investigation into a notorious PR firm and explains why the scandal around lobbying and the ‘revolving door’ has worsened under Boris Johnson’s Government
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All Money and No Morals: Cash Threatens to Corrupt English Football – Again
The recent history of the beautiful game has been defined by destructive greed, and the proposed European Super League is yet another example, says Adrian Goldberg
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Words Pop Out of his Mouth: The Corrupt Nature of David Cameron
In light of the former Prime Minister’s involvement in the Greensill affair, here is chapter eight of Anthony Barnett’s 2017 book ‘The Lure of Greatness: England’s Brexit and America’s Trump’
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Timeline of the Plague Year: An Extract
Rupert Read and Ian Sinclair dissect the Government’s woeful response to the country’s worst public health crisis in a century
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Northern Ireland: Today’s Violence Is Not Just Due to Brexit but the Continued Contempt of the British Establishment
The trouble with borders is that once you’ve taken back control of them they come into existence, writes Jonathan Lis
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David Cameron: Johnson’s Convenient Scapegoat
With his dual tactics of projection and deflection, the current Prime Minister has pulled off a masterstroke by launching an inquiry into the former Prime Minister’s conflicts of interest, says Hardeep Matharu
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How Anonymous and Unverified Information Fuels Anti-Muslim Fake News
Faisal Hanif argues that the media’s inbuilt prejudice against Muslims leads to a clamour for stories, no matter what the credibility of the source As Muslim parents protested outside Batley Grammar School after a teacher showed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad – one noticeable feature of the reporting has been the frequent updates concerning a…
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Project Fear – The Writing Was Always on the Wall
By dismissing all the warnings about the threat to peace in Northern Ireland posed by Brexit, Boris Johnson has put lives in danger in the name of power and ideology, says Otto English
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Race Report: Sewell Commission Couldn’t Find Something It Wasn’t Looking For
The methodology used by the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities excluded the possibility of finding that differences in outcomes are the result of race, says Jonathan Portes
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Race Report: Recommendations will ‘Insulate Government from any Potential Criticism on Future Policy’
While many agree with a recommendation to disaggregate the term ‘BAME’, the director of the Institute of Race Relations warns that this aims to create a new set of norms about how race and racism are conceptualised – and to divert attention away from structural racism
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Potential Blood Clot Risk of COVID Vaccine Shines a Spotlight on Inequality Around Women’s Health
The news that under-30s will be offered an alternative to the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab has sparked a debate about women’s reproductive and contraceptive healthcare, reports Sian Norris
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America’s White Evangelical Vaccine Problem
A high proportion of evangelical Christians are sceptical about the COVID-19 jab – which is creating a major headache for the United States, says CJ Werleman
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We Don’t Just Need a COVID Inquiry – We Need a Proper, Independent COVID Inquiry
The Johnson Government will go to extreme lengths to avoid scrutiny of its record, says Brian Cathcart. We must not settle for a sham
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‘Tous Pourris’: Why is France So Sceptical of Vaccines?
Natasha Livingstone explores the prevalence of anti-vaxxer sentiments among the French population and its potential link to high-profile corruption charges faced by the country’s political figures
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The Right Must Not Be Allowed to Monopolise the Debate Over China
The left must learn how to oppose China’s military expansionism and human rights abuses, says CJ Werleman
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Greed is Good: The Conservatives’ Trope of the Pandemic
Jonathan Lis explores how the Government has hijacked the success of the vaccine roll-out by the NHS and ideologically repackaged it to selectively suit its agenda
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Beware Scientifically Suspect COVID Grief Grifting
David Oliver scrutinises a new campaign that ostensibly seeks to investigate whether COVID-19 deaths have been misattributed
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Race Report: A Deeply Cynical Exercise in Distraction
Maheen Behrana explores the sinister motivations behind a Government-commissioned report which has found that institutional racism in Britain does not exist
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Race Report: The Government Marks Its Own Homework Again
Brian Cathcart provides his analysis of today’s report by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, which found that institutional racism does not exist in Britain
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‘It’s Coming from the Top’: Concerns Inside BBC of Fear of Casting Boris Johnson in a Bad Light
Former BBC reporter Patrick Howse speaks to those inside the corporation after Byline Times asked the BBC about its lack of coverage of Jennifer Arcuri’s new revelations of a four-year sexual affair with the now Prime Minister
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Why we are Boycotting the Independent Review of Prevent
Dr Fahid Qurashi explains widespread concerns in the Muslim community about the review of the controversial counter-terrorism strategy
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Why Does the Anti-Imperial Left So Often End Up Denying Genocide?
From the Soviet Union to China, Bosnia to the Uyghurs, CJ Werleman traces a historic tendency that turns a blind eye to international crimes
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Why has Britain Failed Its Businesses when Other Countries have Protected them from the COVID Crisis?
Mike Buckley reports on how the decisions of other governments to provide more comprehensive support to businesses during the pandemic will likely put their economies in a much stronger position than the UK’s
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A Race to the Bottom: The Weird World of the 2021 London Mayoral Election
Otto English provides the lowdown on all those hoping to lead the running of the capital… and only just emerges from the rabbit hole
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‘Diversity’: A Smokescreen Not A Solution
As Buckingham Palace conducts a ‘diversity review’, Hardeep Matharu explores how the focus on ‘opportunity’, minority recruitment drives and Boris Johnson’s ‘most diverse’ Cabinet actually sidesteps the issue of tackling systemic racism in Britain today
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Children Are Not Economic Commodities: The Manufactured Terror of Lost Learning
The widespread panic about schooling during the pandemic reveals the rotten assumptions that underpin our education system, says Chris Bagley
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America Can End its Mass Shootings by Treating Violent Attacks like a Contagious Virus
CJ Werleman reports on the third mass shooting in a week in America in Boulder, Colorado, and explores how the country could start to stop such events happening with alarming frequency
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Boris Johnson’s Toxic Domestic Posturing Over Nuclear Weapons is Threatening Britain’s Global Leadership Status
The Prime Minister’s strongman antics make a mockery of his ‘Global Britain’ mantra, says Ben Donaldson
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Huw Edwards, His Flag and How the BBC’s Appeasement of its Enemies Backfired
The corporation’s biggest mistake was to court and give a platform to extreme voices, says former BBC journalist Patrick Howse
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Get the Bunting Out for Bonkers Britain 2021!
Otto English provides his assessment of how a country became consumed by a flag and lost its mind
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Strongman Politics and Culture Wars Purposefully Derail All Chances of Progress
In the past week, the police was deployed as an instrument in Boris Johnson’s increasingly authoritarian agenda, argues Maheen Behrana
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The Futility of ‘Global Britain’
Mike Buckley’s analysis of the Government’s foreign and defence policy review explores how moving away from Europe leaves the UK with unrealistic ambitions with regards to the rest of the world
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Atlanta Murders: The Toxic Relationship Between White Supremacy and Misogyny
CJ Werleman explores the overlap in beliefs between the ideologies and how and why they combine with deadly results
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Football Index’s Collapse Reveals a Deeper Rot in the UK Gambling Industry
Customers are estimated to have lost £90 million, showing why proper regulation is more essential than ever, says John Lubbock
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The 1945 Moment: Boris Johnson Should Follow Biden, Not Cameron and Osborne
Austerity failed Britain during the COVID-19 crisis, but the Government has not yet signalled a bold new vision for the UK’s economy, says Jonathan Portes
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‘An Extremely Dangerous Precedent’: Are the Conservatives Institutionalising Islamophobia?
Examining key appointments to Ofcom, the BBC and the Prevent review, Hamza Ali Shah argues that the Government appears to be more intent on rewarding intolerance to Muslims than investigating it
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Why is Sarah Everard’s Murder a Tipping Point?
Hardeep Matharu explores how the tragedy of Sarah Everard’s death has captured public attention in a way many other killings of women have not – and the questions this raises for us all
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Women, Interrupted: The Reaction to Reclaim These Streets Shows How Women are Trivialised
Kat Cary explains how women have been met with doubt and hostility, even when organising a peaceful act of remembrance
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Will the Editors Who Came Out Against Racism Now Walk the Walk?
Brian Cathcart argues that, if the discussion on how to tackle racism in the press only focuses again on the recruitment of journalists from minority communities, the chance for systemic change will be missed
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Parents are Being Forced to Send Children to Schools that have Not Been Made Safe
Mike Buckley reports on how the Government has wasted a year in providing COVID-19 protection for nearly nine million pupils
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Peaceful Protests have Shaped Democracy – We Must Do Everything we can to Protect Them
With a Government crackdown on protests to be voted on imminently, frontline NHS doctor Meenal Viz explores how powerful taking a stand can be in speaking truth to power and enacting change
