Only two months after its founding, MP Zarah Sultana was already calling the UK’s newest political party a “sexist boys’ club.” Her antagonism was surprising given that, along with the well-known socialist Jeremy Corbyn, she was one of its founders. Their endeavor, currently known as “Your Party,” was founded earlier this year as a left-wing […]
Tag: United Kingdom
A Deeper Shade of Blue: the Tories’ Leadership Woes
On the 5th of July 2024, members of the British Conservative Party, or Tory Party, woke up to their biggest-ever general election defeat. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the parliamentary party was reduced to a rump of 121 seats, merely a third of the 365 seats they earned in the 2019 election. […]
The Threat of Growing Leftism in U.K. Academia
British academia leads the world in research, innovation, and creativity. The U.K. is ranked third in the world for published scientific research alone, with around 200,000 citable publications in 2020. Yet, U.K. universities are far from leading the world in academic freedom. Liberal identities have become dangerously intertwined with the identities of the institutions. In […]
The Case for a United Ireland and Why It’s Only a Matter of Time
More than 750 years after the arrival of the first English occupying forces in Ireland, the passage of the Government of Ireland Act by the British Parliament in 1920 partitioned the island into two separate pieces. In the south, the majority-Catholic population gained national independence as the Republic of Ireland, finally free from centuries of […]
Lessons in Hitting Rock Bottom: The United Kingdom’s Fall From Grace
In September 1923, the Empire of Great Britain, already the largest the world had ever seen, grew to its peak geographic size following its assumption of control over the territory of Palestine. A century later, the United Kingdom has become one of the foremost declining powers of our time as domestic incompetencies, divisions, and delusions […]
Simultaneously, the U.S. and U.K. Move to Shut Out Asylum Seekers
As various global crises continue to stimulate substantial waves of migration on both sides of the Atlantic, the United States and the United Kingdom are taking parallel steps to close their doors to migrants in need. In the United States, the Department of Homeland Security recently published a new rule, set to go into effect […]
Democracy Under Attack in the United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, the right to protest is under direct assault by the Conservative government. However, some of their efforts were recently dealt a significant—but limited—blow by a body of unelected nobles and aristocrats. On February 7, the House of Lords handed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government a substantial legislative defeat by rejecting several […]
When Universalism Met Culture
As I read the story of Aasia Bibi, the 17-year-old Pakistani girl who unintentionally poisoned and killed 17 members of her family in her attempt to escape the prospect of an arranged marriage, I wonder how many South Asian women have contemplated the same. As a South Indian woman myself, talk of my marriage is […]
In Defense of the Firearm
This is one part of the larger debate on gun control in the U.S. The opposing article can be found here. When discussing an issue that carries the gravity of loss of human life, it is critical not to mince words. Guns are tools with a very specific utility. They are machines designed to kill […]
The Deal of the Decade
Many thought this day would never come. In an interesting turn of events, negotiations between the United States and Iran over a developing nuclear deal are currently underway. Secretary of State John Kerry has led negotiations with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif over a deal in which sanctions on Iran would be lifted on […]
Snapchat Terrorism: Liberty and Security in Britain
When two gunmen stormed the central Paris office of Charlie Hebdo in early January, and slaughtered the magazine’s most prominent cartoonists, Europe stood still in shock. Across the English Channel and a mere 2 hour 15 minute journey away by train, policemen poured into sensitive sites across London, visibly increasing their presence in the British […]
Power Move: Scottish Independence
The recent Independence Referendum in Scotland, where voters flocked to the polls to answer a deceivingly simple question, “Should Scotland be an independent country?” failed by a comfortable margin. 44.7 percent of voters, about 1.6 million, answered yes, while the remaining 55.3 percent of voters, around 2 million, answered no. The week leading up to […]
Referendum is the New Revolt
Weeks of tension, anticipation, and indelible patience led to the ultimate “no”—or “No thanks”, as the Scottish campaign politely advocated—vote on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom on September 18th. Nearly 85% of eligible Scottish voters turned out to give their two pence on the contentious issue, according to NPR’s Ari Shapiro—a turnout that broke […]