Free from fear or favour
No tracking. No cookies
Honestly held opinions and provocative argument based on current events or our recent reports.
To celebrate the Winter Solstice, Byline Times has a ray of light in all the doom and gloom. | To celebrate the Winter Solstice, @RVAWonk has a ray of light in all the doom and gloom.
With more concerning climate emergencies unfolding in the past week in Australia and Greenland, CJ Werleman asks: what will it take for people to wake-up to reality?
The Labour Party first gained parliamentary representation when Liberal chief whip Herbert Gladstone agreed to stand down 51 candidates. Could an alliance of a similar kind work again at the next general election?
The Labour Party must work out how to scrutinise the Government on Brexit and outbid the Tories on the NHS, public services and aspiration to keep its current voters and win back its heartlands.
Paul Niland takes inspiration from the Ukrainian EuroMaidan revolution and argues that fundamental forces will stop Britain from moving too far away from the EU.
Former senior Lib Dem researcher Gareth Roberts on the wake-up call provided by the 2019 General Election result which means he can no longer sit on the sidelines and lament his feelings of political homelessness. How did you feel at 10pm last Thursday when the BBC declared that the exit poll was projecting a Tory…
James Melville explains why the Brexit vote and now a Johnson victory has propelled him away from the Union to Scottish Independence.
Paddy Briggs argues than any hope that Boris Johnson will show a more liberal side underestimates the scale of the coup inside the Conservative Party.
How the defeat of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party in the 2019 General Election fits within a wider global shift to the right.
While Boris Johnson broke all the rules in the 2019 General Election, his opponents must create new networks to bring him to book.
With the Tories already planning for a general election in five years, David Hencke looks at their vulnerabilities and the prospects of a progressive counter-attack.
Brexiters loaned Boris Johnson their votes in the 2019 General Election, which was dominated by the issue of Britain leaving the EU – can Labour win back their natural supporters next time around?
The party badly needs a period of reflection to learn the lessons, not just of this week, but of the decade, if it is to have a hope of winning the next general election.
Boris Johnson’s sweeping victory is a disaster for the country, but he cannot deliver on his false promises. Here’s how to survive and resist because his nemesis will come.
Actor Hugh Grant sets out why today’s General Election may be the last chance to save Britain from the lies engulfing it.
Stephen Colegrave looks at how Boris Johnson’s determination to make Brexit a success is in danger of increasing inequality and social problems in Britain on a scale not seen before.
Poet Salena Godden with a personal reflection ahead of tomorrow’s General Election.
One of the tragedies of the 2019 General Election campaign is that the fundamental decision about the type of country we will become has not been made clear to voters
Paul Niland explores the lurking horror of a Johnson majority government for British jobs, the economy and the other pitfalls of his murky Brexit plans.
As the populist Brexit surge shows, we have taken liberal democracy for granted for too long in the UK.
Dr Shazad Amin explains why hatred of Muslims is such a powerful, hidden force in this General Election.
James Melville sets out the state the Conservatives have left Britain in after nine years in power – and wonders why people are still willing to give them their vote.
The International Olympic Committee must learn from its mistake in proceeding with the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany, says CJ Werleman.
Musa Okwonga examines why the myth of the Conservative Party’s competence persists and how those meant to be holding Boris Johnson to account are complicit in its belief.
The Conservatives’ withdrawal agreement is a ticking time bomb under our economy, rights and public services – why aren’t opposition parties or the media highlighting this to the electorate?
With Michael Gove turning up at Channel 4, and threats being issued to defund the public service broadcaster, is his party trying to be Stephen Yaxley-Lennon or Vladimir Putin?
Aimee Pearcy asks: why are ordinary working families willing to vote for policies that will hurt them?
Isobel Ingham-Barrow on how Islamophobia in the Conservative Party needs root and branch investigation.
Hardeep Matharu mourns the death of two young reformers and the horrific exploitation of their legacies by Boris Johnson and the tabloid press.
Otto English raises a glass half full – to a future of hope after the years of chaos which may follow next month’s General Election.
CJ Werleman dissects a new poll showing that 39% of white evangelicals and 54% of white protestants believe the US President to be God’s chosen representative on Earth.
The director of Labour for a Public Vote on why Labour is the only party to have correctly identified that next month’s General Election is about much more than Brexit.
With Islamophobia rife in the Conservative Party, and its leader mocking Muslim women as ‘letterboxes’ and ‘bank robbers’ Alex Tiffin looks back on Johnson’s history of prejudice.
Former BBC newsreader Jake Lynch on why the corporation is proving so feeble in exposing lies told by politicians.
The founder of MEND (Muslim Engagement and Development) explains why the Muslim vote could cause some upsets and surprises at the polls next month.
When anti-Muslim rhetoric is combined with the rewarding of war crimes against Muslims, the consequences are grave – not only for Muslim Americans but the US military, CJ Werleman argues.
Iwan Doherty considers the competing economic approaches of the Conservative and Labour parties in the 2019 General Election.
The director of Labour for a Public Vote asks: why are none of the opposition parties using the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal to their advantage?
Stephen Colegrave delves into the real reasons behind austerity and considers whether it was just a political fallacy.
The editor-in-chief of Press Gazette, Dominic Ponsford, insists all is well with British journalism. Here, Brian Cathcart, Professor of Journalism at Kingston University, responds.