By Maurice Mcleod So Theresa May has done it. After saying the country needed stability and that she would let Parliament run its course, she’s had her head turned by positive opinion polls and she’s going for a land-grab general election on 8 June. With all theatre she is becoming known for, she announced on the… Read More
Why Theresa May’s announcement on mental health isn’t good enough
by Cameron De Chi Fuelled by a desire to achieve her vision of the “Shared Society,” Theresa May has promised what the BBC optimistically calls “mental health reform”, focusing specifically on young people and people in the workplace. This amounts to offering “mental health first aid training” to teachers, setting aside £15m for “community care”,… Read More
Knockout blow for UKIP’s attempts at respectability
by Maurice Mcleod I usually treat UKIP like an awful smell at a boring party – I do my best to ignore it and move as far away as possible. At some point though, you have to accept that the smell just isn’t going away and there might be something rotting under the table. Despite… Read More
Wanted: Scapegoats
by Kiri Kankhwende Listening to the coverage of the Tory Party Conference in the last couple of days a real blind spot is emerging: who are we going to blame for everything when the foreigners are gone post-Brexit? Granted, not everyone will go, but this government is going to try to get rid of as… Read More
Theresa May Might Become PM, but this is Not a Feminist Revolution
by Kiri Kankhwende It’s almost a fortnight since the referendum and no one seems to have figured out what to do with all the control we took back yet, least of all the architects of Brexit. David Cameron, who risked the both the European Union and our own fragile one for the sake of Tory… Read More
How to Politicise a Murder
According to the press and politicians, “the State” must be kept safe from public opinion by Cameron De Chi Simon Jenkins’ declaration in the Guardian that social media urgently needs a “policing regime” should make chilling reading for everyone. Even after Thomas Mair was confirmed to have links to the far right, politicians, journalists and public intellectuals have found a way… Read More
This is what a fascist looks like
by Robert Kazandjian Jo Cox, Labour MP for Batley and Spen, partner of Brendan Cox and mother of two young children, was murdered in the street by a fascist terrorist. We have sleepwalked into a nightmare. Jo Cox’s murder was the inevitable, tragic consequence of a steady flow of fascistic bile that has permeated the… Read More
Britain has confused social sociopathy for economic debate
by Chimene Suleyman We may never have been able to predict the murder of Jo Cox, and yet close observers of the long struggle with nationalist extremism will find the formula of this kind of statement-violence familiar. A man shouts in the name of his allegiance, “Britain First!” before maiming and killing, publicly, those whose ideals… Read More
Did you hear about the Hipster Safari?
by Kiri Kankhwende London is a city of contrasts. The “society” parties pictured in the Evening Standard are a world away from the clubs in Croydon where the police introduced bans on bashment. Gentrification is transforming neighbourhoods all over the city, often accompanied by eye-watering rises in house prices and new residents – including hipsters.… Read More
Tory blue-on-blue battle is just a sideshow
by Maurice Mcleod Last week, Parliament was closed for the Whitsun recess, so this column had a break – but the white men were dancing away even more frenetically than ever. The EU ‘neverendum’ continues to dominate the political news coverage, and therefore the minds of many politicians. What should be a national debate on… Read More