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In a week when further education became nothing more than a burdensome debt obligation and stats on home-ownership confirmed how unattainable buying a house has become, we must ask ourselves; what are we doing for our youth? Major English cities have seen the sharpest falls in home ownership since a peak in the early 2000s, according to new analysis, with homes becoming increasingly unaffordable for struggling potential buyers. West Yorkshire, the metropolitan area of the West Midlands and outer London...

We teachers work 9-3.30 and have ‘all that holiday’ to look forward to. At least, that is what the public tend to believe – just as 2 members of that same public were amazed I wasn’t going on holiday this summer, as “teachers get £40,000 a year, don’t they?” The reality is that, after taking 14 years to pay off my student loan (despite taking only the minimum £3000 a year to live on for 3 years), plus the rise...

By Deborah Hodge As a previous television addict I can map out the time of year according to big shows that mainstream media feeds us. Britain’s Got Talent begins the year nicely and the X Factor winner is announced just before Christmas. Yes, we really do have our lives mapped out by television. It used to “feel like Christmas” on the cold evenings. That elusive feeling we crave from our childhoods. A sense of routine and safety: I remember it well....

First the car emissions testing scandal, now the big coffee cup lie. It's very worrying when huge public facing companies such as Starbucks, Costa, Café Nero and other major food retailers are happy to hoodwink consumers into thinking they 'do their bit' for the environment, when all they're really doing is paying lip-service in a dark-arts PR exercise. Nothing highlights the corporate trust issue more than the coffee cup scandal being highlighted by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall on BBC One at 9pm...

When he called Mexicans rapists, the Hitler comparisons were hyperbolic. When he said he'd ban Muslim immigrants, 'bigot' was closer the mark. When the wall got ten feet higher, he was just a nativist. But Donald Trump's acceptance speech at the Republican national convention pushed him beyond typical right-wing populism. Donald Trump is running for president as a fascist. Unlike some commentators, I've avoided describing Trump as a fascist. It's even caused some heated arguments with friends and family as...

By Deborah Hodge Hilary Clinton is set to be the first female American President and Theresa May has snuck in from nowhere to become the second female British Prime Minister. I have to be honest, even though I stood for London Mayor in 2016, I had no clue who she was until recently but as I read more about what she stands for, my stomach is sinking. It was very nearly a two woman race until Andrea Leadsom blurted out “I...

It took no time at all for the authoritarian Turkish government to turn the failed coup into a PR victory for the regime. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's unbelievable claim that Turkey's 'democracy' has won the day is as grounded in reality as Donald Trump's ideas about Mexicans. The crackdown has already started. Literally hundreds of judges have been suspended with a cull of military personnel not far off. Turkish citizens' fragile civil rights face further attacks as Erdoğan and his AKP...

Today Theresa May will officially become leader of The Conservative party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. She is by far the worse candidate for the job, except for all the others. After all, what's a pro-war, pro-bedroom tax, pro-trident, pro-welfare spending cuts politician who repeatedly uses immigrants as scapegoats and wants to scrap the Human Rights Act compared to a bunch of Leave dweebs who couldn't find their arse with both hands? Leadsom was given the unfortunate job of being the...

David Wilson co-founded the War Child charity, set up the Pavarotti Music Centre with the late opera star to heal the survivors of the Bosnian conflict with music workshops, then spent many years haranguing Tony Blair as Press Officer of the Stop The War Coalition. The lifelong anti war activist told TLE why he wants Tony Blair put on trial: When I was Press Officer at the Stop the War Coalition, my job included keeping close watch on everything Tony...