The build-up to this Thursday’s Batley and Spen by-election has descended into grubby communalism and ugly sectarianism, with an unfortunate dose of political harassment and intimidation. In truth, it is exactly what I feared – considering the Labour Party’s general direction of travel and more so after left-wing perennial provocateur George Galloway threw his hat […]
Another week, another by-election. After getting hammered in Chesham and Amersham, the Tories are probably relishing a vote in a Labour-held Brexit-voting constituency. We should, however, caution against simplistic comparisons between this race and the historic Conservative victory in Hartlepool in early May. While both are Leave-voting northern English constituencies, there are some big differences […]
Labour’s worst nightmares have materialised. Hartlepool, a constituency the party won 14 times in a row since its creation, has fallen to Boris Johnson’s Conservatives. Governments aren’t supposed to win by-elections, let alone absolutely thump the opposition. And make no mistake, this was a thumping: the Tories won 52% of the vote compared to a […]
There was a time when the Labour Party was the leading anti-discrimination force in mainstream British politics. Promoting the economic, social, and political integration of ethnic minorities, impactful race relations legislation was passed under Labour governments. The party established the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) under Tony Blair’s leadership and passed the 2010 Equality […]
A new report published by the Government’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities has unsurprisingly caused a stir – dominating mainstream news coverage and more politically-engaged sections of social media. There are two particular strands to the report that I am delighted with – the dismantling of the crudely homogenising ‘BAME’ acronym and taking pseudo-intellectual […]
Slick, forensic, a voice of sensible moderation – that was the brand being cultivated by Sir Keir Starmer. Already, though, the Labour leader seems to cut a slightly beleaguered figure, running out of steam less than a year into the job. Being a pro-Brexit trade union member who voted for the Labour Party in the […]
Last summer, against the backdrop of Black Lives Matter UK demonstrations and subsequent counter-protests, I warned that America’s divisive culture-war politics was being imported into the UK. So, with it now being the Spring of 2021 – how divided is Britain, and does it find itself in the throes of a ferocious culture war of […]
As a British Muslim man of Bangladeshi heritage who has been interested for some time in matters of social cohesion, I find myself in a slightly unconventional position: I’m a second-generation patriot who doesn’t necessarily view integration as an unadulterated good. Don’t get me wrong – I am not a segregationist. Social integration should be […]
Though much of our commentariat obsesses about racial equality, one of the most striking facts about modern Britain is that poor white teenagers in England’s former industrial and coastal towns are among the least likely to go to university. MPs are now, thankfully, investigating this baleful phenomenon, which has also been highlighted by the Office […]
With all states declared and his legal challenges collapsing one by one, the writing appears to be very much on the wall. Donald Trump is on his way out of the White House. Although he was convincingly defeated in both the Electoral College and the popular vote, his performance has thrown up a number of eye-catching […]
While the debate about pandemic management rages on, we ought not to lose sight of the various other threats the UK continues to face. Exploitative forces within and without are looking to take advantage of Covid-induced institutional frailties to sow division and destabilise our democracy. These were the themes which emerged from Ken McCallum’s first […]
The pandemic has been a severe test for countries around the world – a test of the effectiveness of democratic structures, the robustness of social support and the adequacy of health services to respond to a once-in-a-generation crisis. It has also challenged ordinary people’s resilience – their capacity for optimism and vulnerability to divisive ideologues […]
In the aftermath of the death of George Floyd under police custody, and amid the wave of Black Lives Matter demonstrations in UK, concepts such as structural racism and systemic discrimination have been thrust into the spotlight. Trust and confidence in the police force, the allocation of rewards and opportunities, and the broader well-being of […]
Earlier this week The Times revealed that counter-terrorism police officials are considering dropping the term “Islamist” for religiously-motivated terrorist attacks carried out by Muslim fundamentalists, following calls by the National Association of Muslim Police (NAMP). Rizwan Mustafa, a former West Midlands police officer and currently a lecturer at the University of Huddersfield, suggested that British Muslims […]
Anti-Semitism unites far-right, far-left, and Islamist extremists. The cross-ideological exploitation of the pandemic has seen the anti-Semitic ‘Ring of Fire’ come to the fore. What ties these extremists is a shared belief that Western market-based societies are constructed to serve the financial interests of the international Jewry. The imaginary enemy is an all-powerful, transnational Jewish […]
While most look on a crisis like this with worry, and view it as a challenge to be overcome, there are extremists who consider troubling times to be a gift. Far-right extremists across the world – both abroad and closer to home – are exploiting Covid-19 to peddle unfounded conspiracies and intensify forms of hatred […]
Like a number of previous far-right terrorist attacks, the recent shootings in the German town of Hanau were accompanied by the publication of a manifesto. Perpetrator Tobias Rathjen’s document contained pseudo-scientific narratives rooted in ethnic-supremacist beliefs – calling for the destruction of non-white peoples in countries such as Algeria, Uzbekistan, India and Laos. With the […]
