Political donations transparency in Northern Ireland: progress, but not enough
Sixteen and a half years ago political parties in England, Scotland and Wales began naming their big donors in public. Ten years ago political parties in Northern Ireland began...
Brexit and the Tory deal have only deepened Northern Ireland’s political crisis
The Irish Sea, this summer, feels a few miles wider. For me, it began at the count. My fellow Green candidate and I scarcely paid any attention to our...
Labour needs to think structurally if it’s serious about deepening democracy
The unexpected growth in Labour’s Westminster seats under Jeremy Corbyn marks the advance of serious left-wing politics in Britain, especially England and Wales. Strangely enough, the Labour Party could...
The Green Squeeze and proportional representation
The Green Party in this past election managed roughly 525,000 votes compared to the previous election result of 1,157,630 votes. Slashed by over half, the party was squeezed...
Trump, May, and Autocratic Libertarianism
At first glance the fact that Donald Trump and Theresa May’s neo-Conservative agenda mixes a libertarian ideology with a strong authoritarian streak seems contradictory. In the United States we...
The Government’s cut to bereavement benefit will hurt those in real need
The death of a family member is always difficult, the death of a parent or partner even more so. Bereaved parents can find themselves isolated; struggling to find time...
My visit to Grenfell
Samir Jeraj is Policy and Practice Officer at the Race Equality Foundation and former Green Councillor in Norwich I visited Grenfell Tower as part of my day job in...
Dodgy climate accounting rules pose a real threat to our forests
Global forests play a huge role as a carbon sink. At the same time, how we manage (or mismanage) forests and land has a major impact on the climate...
Youth turnout in the 2017 general election- what was going on?
While the opinion pollsters are still crunching the data, initial evidence suggests that there was a considerable increase in youth turnout in this year’s general election, which has...
The Tory/DUP partnership could be a mixed bag for Northern Ireland
If you’ve lived in Belfast as long as I have and hold any list of principles left of a century old Calvinist preacher then you’ve probably been to...