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Freedom MLK
Featured Society

Reasons to be hopeful

Dave Middleton1
Generally when I sit down to write an article I’m pretty clear what I want to write about and very clear on the positive note I’m going to end on. But, this week I have been filled with a growing sense of despondency. A despondency which turned to anger as it began to dawn on me just how selfish and short sighted many of my fellow citizens can be. This
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Featured Health Society

If not now, when?

SoapBoxJury0
Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabon on Unsplash “If not now, when?” has been asked a lot recently in terms of ending the remaining COVID restrictions. For what it’s worth, although COVID-related hospitalisations and deaths are lower than they’ve been for a while, that is against the backdrop of truly horrific statistics that many of us have become immune to (no pun intended). As I write, almost 50% of the population
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Featured Society

Is it time for committed anti-racists to ‘Stand Up To Racism’?

Natalie Strecker0
Saturday last week, I attended the People’s Assembly ‘National Demo’ in London. The demo was to raise awareness and protest a number of long-standing issues, and to call for a ‘new normal’ post-Covid. The demands included (not an exhaustive list) the following: ending austerity and committing to tackle poverty, funding our NHS and giving nurses a much deserved and needed pay rise, protecting our environment, an end to Israeli apartheid, withdrawal of
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Featured Society

The God Question

Lauren Nolan0
Four year old Frank was sitting with his brother in the bath this week and out of nowhere asked me; ‘do you believe in God, mama?’. I paused before offering up a classic deflection technique; ‘well, what do you believe?’ He didn’t skip a beat – ‘you first’. Damn it. I was raised Catholic but my family aren’t especially devout; as is often the case my Grandparents are, but my parents less
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Banksy
Featured Finance Politics

Is capitalism the pinnacle of human achievement?

Dave Middleton0
The great liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith once famously said: “Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it’s the other way round.” As Clive Crook wrote in an obituary following Galbraith’s death in 2006: “ If he didn't say it, he might as well have. It has an authentically Galbraithian ring: It seems profound, and it's funny. .. And it is a travesty of the truth.” Let’s imagine for a second
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Broken umbrella in the wind and rain
Featured Society

A paper boat in a storm: managing stress in the capitalist workplace

SoapBoxJury0
I work for one of the largest Universities in the UK which seems to think that rather than delivering world class teaching and research, its main purposes are to keep its staff on their toes with constant restructuring and to run a budget surplus (I'll come to this later). This restructuring inevitably leads to uncertainty for staff and usually involves recruitment freezes as well as voluntary redundancy measures. Despite often
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Featured Politics

Strong Britain; Divided Nation?

SoapBoxJury0
Creating division is nothing new in British politics, especially under conservative governments. The public are constantly pitched against each other: immigrants v 'British' people (whatever that means); working v unemployed; young v old; everyone v Muslims and so on. The government's latest focus (with help from cross-party MPs, I should add) - which in itself is nothing new - is dividing white working class people from non-white working class people.
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United We Stand collage
Featured Media Politics

United we stand

Dave Middleton0
If Twitter is to be believed the future of the left in the U.K. is in the hands of the 1.4 million members of Unite the Union. Current General Secretary Len McCluskey, a staunch supporter of Jeremy Corbyn and a major figure on the U.K. left stands down shortly and the new General Secretary will be announced on August 26th. In April 2017 McCluskey had retained his leadership of the
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