• Why Labour’s promised fee cut is not as good for students as it sounds

    Labour’s university fees cut pledge has certainly had the desired effect in grabbing the headlines. Clearly, they hope it will also grab the student vote. Lowering fees to £6,000 per year, they say, would reduce average graduate debt by nearly £9,000. This is no bad thing, nor is a...
  • In-depth: Are home-grown terrorists a sign that multiculturalism is failing?

    Europe faces an identity crisis. The January attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and the Copenhagen shootings have raised fresh questions about ‘home-grown’ terrorists – people who have been radicalised, often after having grown up within the same country that they attack, such as the recently ‘unmasked’ Mohammed...
  • Let’s make tax fair with a new tax-dodging bill

    Starbucks, Google, Amazon, Apple, Tesco, Vodaphone… I’m sure you’re all familiar with these companies. But what do they have in common? Well in recent weeks they’ve all been in the media spotlight accused of less than admirable tax-dodging activities. The problem On the most basic level, companies who use our infrastructure and...
  • Is the fall in UK unemployment really a cause for hope?

    UK unemployment has fallen by 97,000 in the last quarter of 2014. Unemployment now stands at 5.7% for the working population in the UK; the employment rate for those between 16 and 64 now stands at 73.2%- the highest rate since December 2004 to February 2005. Coupled with annual...
  • How do we solve a problem like a whistleblower?

    From Edward Snowdon to Julian Assange, whistleblowers have been villified throughout the Western World. A whistleblower is a person who exposes misconduct, failing, alleged dishonest or illegal activity occurring in an organisation. Some may think whistleblowers would be accepted and actively encouraged, but the recent NHS whistleblowing scandal only...
  • Can BDSM always be distanced from the abuse shown in Fifty Shades of Grey?

    “’No’, I protest, trying to kick him off. He stops. ‘If you struggle I’ll tie your feet too. If you make a noise I will gag you.’” This is a quote from the Fifty Shades of Grey book, the film adaptation of which opened in cinemas earlier this month,...
  • Western-centrism has crippled our empathy for the “other”

    When three Muslim students, Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Abu Salha, 21, and her sister Razan Abu Salha, 19, are murdered by a man with a gun in Chapel Hill, the natural response is one of disgust and upset. But perhaps the significance of the event hasn’t...