Where there is much to be positive about regarding the UK’s strong vaccine rollout, a public inquiry into how this pandemic has been handled in the country since the first signs of COVID emerged will be required, to ensure mistakes aren’t repeated in the future. Such an…
Torrin Wilkins is the Director of Centre Think Tank, a think tank and pressure group which supports a comprehensive welfare system alongside free markets. All views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent Backbench’s stance. Members of Centre Think Tank will…
After more than a year spent battling the social, economic and health effects of a pandemic, Britain is tired. Admittedly, that’s a bit of a sweeping statement, but with news of lockdown fatigue and an escalating mental health crisis making headlines, I think it’s a…
Joe Biden has announced that he expects to run for reelection in 2024. This means that he would be campaigning at the age of 81 and by the end of his second term he would be 85. It is said that the goal of politics…
Hartlepool fits the bill for the much clichéd image of the ‘Red Wall’ constituency: northern, coastal, deindustrialised and the tenth most deprived local authority area in England as of 2019. After the resignation of the Labour MP elected in 2019, May’s by-election has generated significant media…
When I caught myself reminiscing about the past year, my immediate thoughts were primarily self-centred. Upon reflection, I felt a degree of shame. Why hadn’t I been more compassionate about the positions of everyone else? Empowered by frustrated aspiration, the normally repelled streaks of selfish…
Regardless of whether it’s a cheap stunt or a threat to the lifeline many refugees depend on, the Government’s threat to jail alleged people smugglers for life involved in English Channel crossings have certainly not been taken lightly by campaigners, activists and much of the…
As a student at the University of Bristol, I was shocked at the violence that took place in the city centre last Sunday night. Bristol has garnered national and international press attention for protests and civil disobedience on its city’s streets in recent years, but…
For as long as people have talked, conspiracy theories have run riot. And while sometimes they’re nothing more than the result of festering boredom or curiosity turned conjecture, they can be extremely dangerous, especially during times of uncertainty. A conspiracy theory can be defined as…
On Sunday 14 March, British-Iranian dual citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was back in an Iranian court facing more charges. This time relating to a protest long ago outside the Iranian embassy and an interview with BBC Persia. Legally, the judge had to give his verdict by…
Like most outspoken public intellectuals on the right, Jordan Peterson uses gibberish and verbosity to disguise the fact that he has nothing particularly insightful to say. If you found 12 Rules For Life enlightening, as apparently many did, you may be tempted to read Beyond Order: 12 More Rules…
On returning from the hospital after receiving treatment for Covid-19 in early 2020, Boris Johnson cut a changed figure. Perhaps understandably, confronting his mortality appeared to have left a psychological mark on the Prime Minister. This mark took the form of a seemingly renewed gratitude…
The past month has seen a flurry of successive outrage campaigns from political figures on the right over what has been described by sitting Senators and even a US President as ‘cancel culture’. Prominent examples include Gina Carano’s firing from Disney in February for posting…
Ensuring energy sustainability in the long term is one issue among many that has been utterly obscured by the combination of COVID and Brexit. Time that could have gone into a debate over how Britain should be powered has instead been spent dealing with a…
I have spent the last few days feeling deeply unsettled. Like many people, I can’t stop thinking about what happened to Sarah Everard. My feelings are a mix of sadness, anger, fear and frustration. Ending violence against women is something about which I am passionate,…
A High Court judge has granted a possession order to evict anti-HS2 campaigners from the Euston tunnel, after a month-long protest against the high-speed rail network and its destruction of woodland. News of the ruling comes as the fifth of nine campaigners leaves the tunnel,…
The Labour Party never does itself any favours, does it? With the government in disarray, Labour had a real chance to put a credible plan forward as an alternative ahead of this May’s local elections. Instead, the party has imploded, and many socialists are now…
Those who hate Piers Morgan miss the point. He exists in the media space as a figure to be hated, or, for those who ‘love’ him, to direct their hate against groups who allegedly threaten his disproportionately older, socially conservative audience. And is it really…
The gut-wrenching, heart-breaking news came on Wednesday night that human remains were discovered in Kent where police have been searching for thirty-three-year-old Sarah Everard after she disappeared a week ago while walking home from a friend’s house in Clapham, London. The idea of a woman going missing…
There was always something slightly off about seeing images of Boris Johnson and the rest of the Cabinet clap for careers during the first wave of the pandemic. For me, it seemed superficial, as it could never make up for the lack of PPE, and…