Opinion

Back in 2015 The LadBible launched a social experiment aimed at "restoring our faith in humanity" and subliminally quashing negative stereotypes around race and social status. They filmed a guy walking around Manchester dropping a wallet in front of the public to see how they would react, finding all the unsuspecting suspects weren't utter arsewipes after all and returned it like good little citizens. Modern journalism, hey. The problem with the stunt wasn't the evident lack of editorial creativity, but the fact...

By Simon Conington, founder of global resourcing specialist BPS World An economy thrives or dies on the talent of its workforce.  At BPS World we have been at the sharp end of the UK skills crisis in some of our most critical industries, including digital and technology.  Even before the referendum last year, filling posts in these professions was extremely difficult.  Skilled professionals have their pick of jobs and are internationally mobile: when they’re choosing jobs they don’t consider just the...

By Amy Hanson from Small Steps Project Last week a devastating landslide of rubbish on Koshe landfill site in Addis Ababa killed over 100 people. Unfortunately this is not the first and nor will it be the last. Thousands of children currently live on landfill sites and rubbish dumps, surviving from scavenging all over the world. This problem, resulting from mass production and consumption, continues to worsen, as the disposal of waste is not properly addressed. UK charity Small Steps...

Of all the indicators used to track the well-being of a nation it seems perverse that happiness is seldom used as the real test of success. A nation is more often judged to be "doing well" if its unemployment rates are low, if it has a healthy trade balance, if its currency is strong or if its GDP is increasing, all of which are empty and meaningless outside the financial markets. In a capitalist society you may think as a Brit or as...

By Courtney Greatrex  Today George Osborne became the editor of the London Evening Standard. At first I thought it was a sick joke given fake news is alive and well in the Facebook generation. But then I looked online and saw my news feed was awash with memes and comments from the likes of Ed Miliband declaring he will be the next editor of Heat. It quickly became apparent that this was a very real story. How could the former chancellor...

We live increasingly, it seems, in an age of protest. Sales of cardboard and marker pens must surely be at an all-time high, as the public laces up it boots and takes to the streets in favour of, or, more commonly, against any number of causes. Fracking being proposed in your area? Have a march. Don’t like the new US President? Organise a protest. So it was on 4 March that some 250,000 people took to the streets to demonstrate...

As anyone who has been gripped by the Netflix series The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story will attest, in certain cases power and influence is all you need to get a "not guilty" verdict. The trial was a case of hard evidence on the side of the State versus a heavily bankrolled legal team batting for the defendant. OJ's blood was found at the crime scene, the DNA was a direct match, strands of hair consistent with Simpson's were found on...

Of all the smug upper class perks one is afforded in London I bet few compare to the thrill of looking over a copy of the Financial Times to see the nose of a regular commuter smudged up against the partition door. Home to one of the most congested transport systems in the world it is beggar's belief that a class system still operates across London's commuter belt. Figures from the Department of Transport recently revealed rail passengers in the capital...

By Dr Nigel Mellor Discussing consciousness is entering a dangerous swamp with lots of traps, dead ends and scary monsters. Scientists can’t even agree on a definition. The whole shebang can also get very mystical. So let’s lighten up. We’ll start with a few things we can agree on, even though the first topic, emergence, itself can be a bit of a puzzle. “Mind” will get some in apoplectic rage. But we’ll finish off with a whiff of basic Buddhism,...