Politics
Immigration is a consequence, not the problem
By Philip Benton The local and European elections seem to have revolved around one key issue. The Daily Mail reading British public have had enough of failed promises from the Government to keep net immigration under control and have made their views known by voting for anti-EU parties like UKIP. A key policy for all the main parties fighting for power is to potentially revise Britain’s relationship with Europe. There have been calls for a renegotiation of the EU powers...
#Slactivism
By Nikita Gush #Bringbackourgirls You have probably seen on your Twitter feed the trending hashtag #bringbackourgirls. This hashtag is referring to the horrific kidnapping committed by the Boko Haram Islamist militant group in which over 200 young Nigerian women were abducted from their school in Chibok, Borno State. These young women have been missing since April 15, 2014 and it is feared that some of the group have died or been sold into sexual trafficking. Presidents, politicians, and people with...
Jihad in a social media age
by Luca Foschi “My night time lessons via Skype are followed by thousands of disciples around the world”, sheik Omar Bakri said in the austere parlour of his residence in Tripoli. He lived in the UK between 1984 and 2006 when pressure from the government after the 7/7 terrorist attacks forced him to return to Beirut, where he was born 55 years ago. He is one of the most important figures in the British Islamic community and fought in Bosnia,...
How devolution could be England’s velvet revolution
By Pieter Cranenbroek This September Scotland will finally have a chance to decide whether it wants to keep or leave the Union in its referendum on independence. In recent years, more and more power has been devolved to Scotland and Wales, whereas the English question has been largely ignored. But in a time of political disillusionment and an increasingly dominant capital, devolution to its regions might be exactly what England needs. The Blair government established the Scottish Parliament and the...
The UKIP Bogeyman
By Tony Diver The PR moguls will tell us that any publicity is good publicity, but in the case of UKIP, they’ll have to make an exception. It’s not just that image is really important for any party, but when the publicity is so relentlessly awful that every major news outlet condemns and mocks UKIP on a daily basis, it’s just not a campaign that screams ‘legitimacy’. So many people ask why voters would opt for UKIP – mostly their...
Who wants to be an European? We do
By Valentina Magri European elections are coming and fear is growing. The terror is called UKIP (UK Independence Party). The party who wants Britain exit from the EU and tougher immigration laws may gain 25-35 per cent of votes, according to the latest polls, pushing PM Cameron’s Conservatives in third place. But the situation is not as tough as it seems for the EU. This is the conclusion of a recent survey by the PewResearchCenter, conducted from March 17 to...
Life after Death in North Korea
By Ashley Etchells-Butler A fundamental problem I have with any religious organisation is that it not only asks for complete obedience throughout this life, but for eternity after you die. If you are good, you go to a nice place. But if you are bad you are likely to suffer unimaginable torture – forever But at least this manner of spiritual exploitation is essentially speculative on the part of the parties involved. The blood-cult of North Korea employs a rather...
It’s still about the economy, stupid
By Andy Irwin On their own, opinion polls offer little more than a fleeting glimpse of a point in time, a snapshot of the immediate thinking of a sample of the electorate – they are dated before the ink is dry. Different polls have their own biases depending on the sampling methods they use and, dare I say, the association of particular media outlets or individuals associated with the polls. These differences are often slight, and looking at a number...
The Blame-Game, Double Standards & Fast Food: A Tale of the United States Economy
By Haridos Apostolides, US Correspondent The end of April saw the proposed federal minimum wage increase to $10.10 per hour defeated by a Republican-led filibuster in the United States’ Senate, all because it is claimed not to be the job of the federal government to decide salaries. The vote, however, wasn’t about giving millions of working Americans a pay raise but rather to decide if the Senate should merely discuss whether they deserve one. Democrats and Republicans live for divisive, partisan...