After the Financial Crisis of 2008, Gordon Brown was frequently chided for the suggestion he made, while Chancellor, that the era of ‘boom and bust’ had come to an end under his stewardship. A similar, though less well known, comment was made by Phillip Hammond…
Over the past few months, key workers have been applauded, cheered and revered as heroes. They have kept the country ticking over during the coronavirus crisis. By differentiating minimum wages between industries, key workers’ could receive the pay rise they deserve. Healthcare workers, care home…
In a time as unprecedented as the one we are currently living through – from the Covid-19 pandemic to nationwide Black Lives Matter protests – it is sometimes easy to forget a presidential election is fast approaching. What’s more, given the complete public absence of…
David Starkey is one of the most prominent historians and academics in Britain today. Specialising in Tudor history, he has published many books and hosted multiple television programmes for the BBC and Channel 4 since 1977. Recently, he has caused great offence following his appearance…
Recent headlines warning that nurseries face ‘mass closures’ as a result of the coronavirus pandemic should be a cause for concern for society at large. Regardless of whether an individual has nursery-age children, the current existential threat to the early-years care sector is tantamount to…
“Who lives? Who dies? Who tells your story?” are powerful lyrics that run throughout the musical Hamilton and it seems that Lin Manuel Miranda has told Alexander Hamilton’s story with award-winning success. Beware! There are spoilers ahead. With the premiere of Hamilton landing on Disney+ today. I thought that…
Something has changed. The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis as an event is distinct from its all too common predecessors in that its sheer clear cut brutality has altered the debate from a question of whether to hold the police accountable, to a matter…
Language is hugely important. Politicians know this, it is why spin doctors are kept in the job. But the earthquake election of Trump in America and the devastating loss for Labour in Britain have shown a dramatic change in the role of language in politics.…
From health care to education, devolution has caused Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to branch away from Westminster and centralised power. Whether powers are too many or too few is debated at length between nations, but the question up for debate today is to what…
We’re looking for two new editors to join the Backbench editorial team. Backbench is the leading current affairs blog for young writers in the UK, and the Backbench editorial team is a proven training ground for talented future journalists. The site was founded in 2012, and…
It would seem logical to assume that a nation’s financial markets would reflect the economic well-being of a country, and that a nation’s media would reflect the news and concerns of society at large. Unfortunately, I would suggest that this is no longer the case.…
It has been three years since the Grenfell Tower fire. 72 people lost their lives and hundreds more were displaced. It’s also over a year since Theresa May, in her resignation speech on the steps of Downing Street, claimed pride in her government’s response to…
Boris bounced into Downing Street in December raring to get started on his plan for his vision of post-Brexit Britain. Yet, something called the coronavirus took his attention away from his plans more than he might have expected. As lockdown eases, Johnson and the Government…
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is currently dominating headlines and social media feeds following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a policeman in the USA. Systemic racism is not a solely American problem and it is appropriate that we have conversations…
This article has been written by Maddie Grounds who is a specialist content writer andcorrespondent for the Immigration Advice Service; an organisation of UK immigrationlawyers. For the majority of the British public, leading a new life of normality thankfully no longer seemstoo distant. Yet one…
When the UK entered lockdown in March, we were perhaps naïve to think this would be a short-term problem. It wasn’t until the weeks dragged on, with every daily briefing becoming more dire with every new slide, that the full impact of coronavirus on individuals…
The Canadian-American radical feminist and polemicist, Shulamith Firestone, had this to say about marriage: ‘under Roman law [man] was invested with the rights of life and death over them all; famulus means domestic slave, and familia is the total number of slaves belonging to one…
One month ago, Germany’s parliament passed a law forbidding “gay conversion” therapy for those under 18. As well as punishments for those offering the service to under-eighteens, parents could also be prosecuted if they pressure their children to take part. What is gay conversion therapy?…
When the government decided it would be Michael Gove who would announce that it was safe for teachers to return to the classroom, this was just another insult to a profession which has spent ten years being attacked by the Tory administration. That’s because to…
With the return of the Premier League, it can be easy to forget about the protests in the last few days and zone out by watching Manchester City battle Arsenal for an hour and a half. Watching Aguero score a couple of goals will feel…