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SubscriptionsSection: Argument
Honestly held opinions and provocative argument based on current events or our recent reports.
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Two Fingers Up to the Country they Serve: The Age of MINISTERIAL IRRESPONSIBILITY
The Age of Ministerial Irresponsibility: The cabinet ministers who got away with facing the consequences of disastrous decisions.
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Mueller Summary: the Obstruction Case Leaves a Cloud of Doubt Hanging over Trump’s Presidency
Attorney General Barr’s hasty decision to let Trump off the hook on obstruction of justice leaves a cloud of doubt that will linger for the remainder of Trump’s presidency.
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Islamophobia and the Limits of Free Speech
How much longer can our mainstream press escape the consequences of their false reporting and dangerous rhetoric around our Muslim communities?
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When Will Brexiters Accept They Were Conned?
As every day brings more uncertainty, Otto English asks how long will it take Brexit voters to accept that they have fallen prey to a vast Ponzi scheme?
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Weaponising history: the graffitied rifle of the Christchurch terrorist is a tool to radicalise
The Christchurch terrorist created a misleading historical narrative of how Christians and Muslims have interacted over time. Mike Stuchbery explains why this is so dangerous.
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Christchurch: Where Does this Terror Come From? Former Chief Prosecutor on Child Sexual Abuse Speaks Out on Islamophobia
Nazir Afzal, OBE, decries the Far Fight exploitation of the victims of child sexual abuse in ‘street grooming’ cases in Britain’s northern towns, and explains how ‘endless Islamophobia’ and propaganda provokes violence
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Don’t tear up our last shred of constitutional legitimacy
For too long we’ve relied on unwritten norms to underpin our governance – norms of honesty, shame, resignation or apology for misleading parliament and the public or breaking ethical rules and professional guidelines… We need a written constitution to protect the public…
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Brexit Zugzwang: How the UK can escape the fierce checkmate-stalemate of now
As the country lurches towards March 29th – Zugzwang Brexit is where our politicians are now at. So what can be done?
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17 DAYS TO GO: News from the Brexit Cliff Edge
A weekly comprehensive round-up of what others are writing about the looming exit of the UK from the European Union.
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A Quiet Kind of Terror: What It’s Like to be the Target of a Far Right Witch-hunt
A week after Mike Stuchbery became subject to targeted harassment and threats of violence, he reflects on the impact it has had on his life.
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Paul Manafort’s Sentencing Raises More Questions Than Answers
Caroline Orr explains how, when Manafort goes to prison, he will carry with him a slew of secrets about Super PACS, polling data and a possible Wikileaks Connection
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THE GREAT INDIFFERENCE: Brexit Wrongdoing Swept Under the Carpet
As serious allegations about Leave EU Official and Arron Banks continue to come out – the media and political class are complicit in a conspiracy of silence, says Otto English
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Boris Johnson planning a Trump-like populist bid for PM: backed by Steve Bannon and the Far Right
You can get rid of the ridiculous bouffant hair, but that doesn’t stop you being a dangerous buffoon.
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She’s Running for US President: but Who is Tulsi Gabbard?
Faisal Khan profiles high-flying democrat Tulsi Gabbard. What does she stand for? What does she believe in? And who funds her?
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Trump’s Digital Operation Comes Under Scrutiny By House Judiciary Committee: THE ARGUMENT
Following the FACTS outlined by the congressional requests for documents, Caroline Orr sets out the road map ahead and argues a new era of accountability is on the way for Trump and his digital operation
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Britain’s decline, Britain’s ascension: Brexit on the Edge
BeLeave Whistleblower and Digital activist Shahmir Sanni argues that by revealing the post-colonial corruption of Westminster, Brexit also opens the door to real radical change.
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Putin Pushing on an Open Door
By ignoring Law-Breaking and Social Media Monopolies British and American Politicians are doing Putin’s work for him, argues Tamsin Shaw
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The Catastrophe of Success
The catastrophe of success: Trump, Gove and Johnson never expected to win. What now?
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COMMENT & ANALYSIS
What is ‘SENSITIVE’? – The suppressed No Deal Impact report This week’s Contempt Committee hearing followed the successful threat of contempt proceedings being used by MPs to force the release of Brexit-related Cabinet papers. “It really would be to the eternal shame of the Conservative party if it were to continue to support a no-deal…
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Contempt Inquiry challenges Government bid to stop MPs releasing ‘sensitive’ Brexit documents
The Government would like its own legal advice and Cabinet papers to be off-limits to Opposition MPs Parliament’s Procedure Committee has held its final hearing on how Theresa May’s minority Government was found In Contempt of Parliament last December. The MPs’ inquiry – known officially as the “Powers of the House of Commons to Call…
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Online Endgame for ‘Tommy Robinson’ – but What Next for the British Hard Right?
Mike Stuchbery wonders whether British populists will ever rally round a strongman figure and whether something worse could replace it
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Tommy has No Clothes
The truth of things, deep down, is that the man calling himself ‘Tommy Robinson’ isn’t the leader or figurehead he’s been sold as… On Saturday, many of his strongest supporters began to realise that – and that’s something to worry about.
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The Real Militant Tendency: ERG and the Brexit Layercake
Otto English looks into the background and funding of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s ERG, alleged to operate like a ‘party within a party’ by senior Conservative MPs
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Shamima Begum and the Case for Mercy
Otto English argues that ‘an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind’ and that an advanced democracy like Britain should not seek to punish a naïve girl for the sins of those who groomed her.
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‘Tommy’ & Facebook: Kicking the Habit
Mike Stuchbery challenges Mark Zuckerberg to stop enabling Stephen Yaxley-Lennon’s hate and asks you to help him
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Killing Democracy, Softly
Without a written constitution, our governance relies on abiding by norms of good behaviour with the backstop of the criminal law. Now both are vulnerable to soft corruption. Ten months after the Metropolitan Police received a file on potential illegality within Brexit referendum campaigns, Byline Times has learnt that Scotland Yard has still not decided…
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Time to Speak for Britain – Before It’s Too Late
As Ford threatens to quit the UK and each day brings more catastrophic news – staying silent is no longer an option.
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Britain is in Crisis – is a New Centrist Party the Solution?
Does the UK need more centrism or has it been the cause of the current malaise facing the nation? Since the EU Referendum in June 2016, Westminster has regularly been awash with rumours of a new centrist party. With polls showing increasing disaffection with the leadership of the traditional parties and distrust in wider politics,…
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Theresa May is Flying Flight Brexit into a Crash Landing
As Theresa May travels to Belfast and Brussels, time is running out. Article 50 needs to be extended or the UK crashes out with No Deal. After all – it didn’t say “Brace! Brace! Brace!” on the side of that bus.
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Phone Hacking: Time the Police Stepped In
Evidence against executives and editors is piling up in the civil courts, but newspapers are just buying their way out of trouble. The right place for this is the criminal courts, which means the Met must act
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Snowmaggedon Brexit: An Inch of White Stuff Brings Britain to a Halt — Tell Me Again About No Deal
Snow has shut schools, emptied supermarkets and left motorists stranded. A glimpse of what No Deal Brexit might bring? You ain’t seen nothing yet, says Otto English
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A Message to You, Rudy
While it’s sometimes fairly lazy to find a contemporary angle to finish on, Rudolf’s story does bring to mind several political leaders as of late, unable to take the reins and engage with a fracturing, divided populace.
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‘No One is Coming to Save Me’ – Can Prisoners Become their own Life Coaches and Escape our Failing Jails?
Hardeep Matharu meets the charity helping inmates to think about their lives and how to transform them and explores why we can’t wait for the Government to make prisons places of change.
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Brexit has become a Doomsday Cult
Planet Brexit can be reached, the spaceship is coming, we simply have to extract the metal bits from our bras and check that we have set our watches correctly.
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Sleight of Hand: Beware of the Brexit Referendum Three-Card Trick
Amidst the growing clamour for a second referendum to break the parliamentary impasse around her Brexit deal, some Whitehall insiders are claiming that Theresa May could use a clever ‘three-card-trick’ to force her unpopular deal through.
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Is Boris Johnson Betraying Britain with his Bannon-Style Paranoia about the Deep State?
There’s little doubt Boris Johnson was inspired in his deep state rhetoric by Steve Bannon…. The problem for Boris Johnson is that Steve Bannon is a key subject of the FBI investigation into Russian interference.
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The BBC on the Edge of the Abyss 2: THE ARGUMENT
The BBC has failed the license fee-payer in its core duty to inform when it comes to three of the biggest stories of recent years. Peter Jukes explores why should this concern each and every one of us.
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‘Political Content Removed’ as UK Treasury Minister Met ‘Dark Money’ US Think Tanks
Unearthed reveal Treasury minister Liz Truss met with representatives of five US libertarian groups at the UK taxpayers cost. But her political remarks have been censored
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Racism in the Press: Lessons of the Raheem Sterling Case
Calls for change from within the press are welcome but will make no lasting difference – the only workable remedy is effective, independent regulation that takes racism seriously, says Brian Cathcart
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Democracy isn’t just about VOTING – Lord Adebowale on the limits of the British ballot box
Lord Victor Adebowale, chief executive of the charity Turning Point and crossbench peer in the House of Lords, questions whether Britain actually is a democracy. I am sitting and writing this in a great bastion of the British Establishment, the walls thick with books describing the lives of earls, dukes and the entitled going back…
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FOOTBALL and CATHARSIS
A study of Aristotelian “catharsis” and the plays of Bertolt Brecht should be obligatory for football managers, argues Alexei Sayle.
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The US Midterm Elections – Democrats vs. TRUMPLICANS
Michael Janofsky explains how the 2018 Mid Term elections haven’t resolved anything, only intensified the antipathies of the Republic.
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BREXISTENTIAL CRISIS: The Woman using Philosophical Psycotherapy to Help EU Citizens Cope with Brexit
The EU citizens turning to philosophical psychotherapy to help them cope with Brexit
