Section: UK

Battling body image

Oli Smith

Leader of the Men’s Mental Health group at his school, year 12 student, Oli Smith, candidly shares his own struggle with body image and the impact sport has had on this, including his experience of anorexia. He also offers advice for anyone struggling with the same issues. Body image is a major focus point which […]

The Covid inquiry raises bigger questions about criminality

Dr Dan Goyal

Monday was another damning day for the government at the Covid Inquiry. It is becoming clearer what the recommendations from the Inquiry are likely to be… But there is also a bigger question raised about criminality… TUC union, the BMA, the Health Foundation, and The British Red Cross gave evidence. Many of the government defence […]

Sunak’s cynical pay stunt: banks win, working people lose

Richard Murphy

Rishi Sunk has said that this year’s public sector pay awards have been agreed in full but with no new or additional funding to cover them. There is literally no economic sense in this whatsoever. Pay rises of around 6 per cent for education and health have been announced – with there being no room […]

Cruel, corrupt and in contempt – it’s all about ‘c’ words for these Conservatives

Anthea Simmons

They really don’t care, do they, these Conservatives? They don’t care how they’re seen by the public. They don’t care if they break the law. They don’t care about the optics of selecting accused/under-investigation rapists retaining the whip. They don’t care about trashing the economy/the environment/the NHS/people’s lives or the UK’s reputation. Instead, they appear […]

NHS ‘pen-pushers’ are doing a great job

Emma Monk

In the week when the NHS celebrated its 75th birthday, there was an article in The Telegraph  headlined ‘NHS to slash bureaucracy by recruiting doctors and nurses over pen-pushers’. This, of course, led to all the usual clichés about the NHS being full of managers. I thought I’d take a look at what the evidence […]

Has the NHS been value for money?

Dr Dan Goyal

No doubt we are at a tipping point for the future of healthcare in the UK You will hear a lot of misinformation, disinformation, and barefaced lies over the next 18 months – a £200bn/yr industry is on the table. So here are the facts… Has the NHS been value for money?  Here is the […]

The future is brighter than you think

James Miller

Renewable energy specialist James Miller finds reasons to be cheerful as the demise of the fossil fuel industry looms into view. We’re bombarded daily with doom-laden stories about climate breakdown and natural disasters that threaten our very existence on this planet, and many devastating aspects of climate change are already inevitable. But emerging from the […]

The spite of heartless Jenrick: letter to the editor

Editor-in-chief

Dear Editor, Inured though many of us have become to the attitudes and values (or lack of them) embodied by this government, every now and then some public utterance from its policymakers is so utterly vile that it can still surprise me. On 4 July it was reported, by The Independent and other media, that […]

Thirteen years of Tory cock-ups

Jon Danzig

“The 7 million-plus NHS waiting list, the 2 million-plus fall in the labour force, the world-beating rate of inflation and spiralling mortgage rates are all the result of a succession of bad policy choices made by Conservative Ministers at crucial times in the past 13 years.” Words of truth and wisdom spoken by a Labour […]

The Sun poison

Jon Danzig

So, press regulator, IPSO, has ruled that Jeremy Clarkson discriminated against Meghan Markle in his column in The Sun that promoted “hatred” of her with a series of sexist tropes. So what? It’s not nearly enough. 25,100 people complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation about the column, written by Jeremy Clarkson on December 18 […]

The week in Tory…Parts I & II

Russ In Cheshire

Part I: pop on the galoshes of despair, and let’s wade into The Week In Tory ! Warning! Contains strong language… and how could it not? 1. Remember that time, ages ago, when Boris Johnson was found to be a liar, ditched by his party in a 354 to 7 vote, humiliated in front of the […]

How not to handle the cost-of-living crisis

Mark E Thomas

Churchill commented, “It is a joke in Britain to say that the War Office is always preparing for the last war. But this is probably true of other departments and of other countries, and it was certainly true of the French Army.” It is certainly true of the Treasury and the Bank of England in their […]

Interest rates are fuelling inflation

Richard Murphy

I have been suggesting that interest rate rises are fuelling inflation. I have created a model of a company that is largely service-based to explore my suggestion. Using that model I show that it is more likely that interest than wages push up prices.  This is the starting point for this model: The figures are […]

UK: the Uncaring Kingdom

Mike Zollo

I have used this definition several times in the last few weeks, triggered by the government’s policy towards ‘Boat People’, the Rwanda policy, refusal to take appropriate action in respect of Afghans, the treatment of the Windrush people, and so on. Spending a few weeks in Spain (which is by no means a perfect country) […]

This isn’t a resignation statement – it’s a temper tantrum

Robert Saunders

This isn’t a resignation statement; it’s a temper tantrum. And its central claim is untrue. Johnson says he was “forced out anti-democratically” by a “kangaroo court”. So let’s remind ourselves of the process from which he has chosen to run away… Resignation statement in full as Boris Johnson steps down Johnson was accused of a […]

The week in Tory…and what a week!

Russ In Cheshire

Warning: contains strong language and adult humour! Here we go…  1. Let’s start with PartyGate, and joyless claymation ethics droid Rishi Sunak decided to sue his own inquiry for having the temerity to ask to see the things he always said it could see. 2. He said he wouldn’t hand over WhatsApp messages that are “unambiguously irrelevant” . […]

And they say the EU is undemocratic! Johnson’s (dis)honours list

Jon Danzig

In his honours list published June 9, Boris Johnson has nominated seven new members of the House of Lords, a tradition granted to outgoing Prime Ministers (yes, even those who left in disgrace). In addition, Mr Johnson named six new knighthoods, including Jacob Rees-Mogg. (He had wanted to give his dad a knighthood, but reportedly […]

The frog, the elephant and the jellyfish

Mark E Thomas

In late 2015, I began work on the book which was finally published in 2019 as 99%: Mass Impoverishment and How We Can End It. The book’s original working title – which was deemed too cheesy for publication – was The Frog, the Elephant and the Jellyfish. Recent events in the UK have made me reflect on […]

The ILLEGAL Bill

Jon Danzig

The government calls it “The Illegal Migration Bill”. But it should be simply shortened to “The ILLEGAL Bill”. Why? Well, first let’s understand what this bill is for and what it does. The bill was announced on 7 March 2023 without any public consultation. It aims to deter small boat crossings of asylum seekers attempting […]