MACRON VERSUS LE PEN
On the 23rd of April, France chose the winners in the first round of voting. By a slim margin, they turned out to be Emmanuel Macron, from the populist movement En Marche! and Marine Le Pen, from the infamous Front National. Mr. Macron is running on a neoliberal platform, emphasizing financial dereg
FOR THE PARTY, NOT THE NATION
The Conservatives may be ready for a general election, but the country isn’t. In the past week, the Conservatives have been placed twenty-one points ahead of Corbyn’s Labour Party in two polls. Many Labour MPs have accepted that not only do they face no real chance of forming the next governmen
‘Love Actually’ and Brexit
Admittedly, I hadn’t seen Love Actually until very recently. Criminal, you might say. But, unspoiled by any childhood viewing as it was, I was able to grapple with it fresh from a 2017 perspective. Because of the nine overlapping plotlines, I found it hard to properly engage with any of the indivi
Feeding off Terror
These have been a terrifying couple of weeks to be a Muslim. Passport holders from seven Muslim-majority countries were banned for ninety days from entering the US, the first major act of Trump’s new racial agenda; the ban has since been suspended by the American judiciary, having been brazenly un
A hierarchy of death: why do black lives not matter in the media?
The rapper M.I.A. has controversially criticised the media coverage of the Black Lives Matter movement, suggesting that in contrast with the attention received by police brutality against black people, consideration of violence against Muslim people is not only neglected, but is actively whitewashed
“WEEK OF THE LONG KNIVES”: WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
After the political shitstorm labelled by The Sunday Times as the “Week of the Long Knives”, Oxford colleges and societies alike sought to publicly support and endorse the manoeuvres of their treasured alumni this week. Of outgoing PM David Cameron, who allegedly had a zealous fondness of fellow
BREXIT: WE CAN’T TURN BACK TIME
In the weeks before the EU referendum, I was more engaged with politics than I’ve ever been. I watched Question Time, Prime Minister’s Questions, I scrolled through the Guardian’s website reading opinion pieces, and I even read a few pro-Brexit pieces in the Daily Mail and the Sun. Yet despite
Very tiny countries
Micronations are self-proclaimed states, sometimes partially—but almost never universally—recognised. There are as many as 200 known micronations in the world today, ranging from political protests to eccentric experiments. Many are permeated by a spirit of rebellion and subversion—from Akhziv
In Satan We Trust
“Given the erection of a statue of the Ten Commandments in the Oklahoma State Capital, it is only fair that a statue of the occult deity Baphomet also be erected, in the name of respect for the inclusion of religious minorities.”