At ground zero in Charlottesville: time to stop making compromises with racism
Flowers laid in the street in in Charlottesville for Heather Heyer, killed by a white supremacist at the 'Unite the Right' rally on Saturday. Photo by Bob Mical, Flickr. I sat…
Votes at 16, Von Trapps and Viable Electoral Reform
Photo credit: flickr user H2Woah! Creative Commons license: “I am 16 going on I know that I’m naive”; a classic quote from Liesel Von Trapp of ‘The Sound of…
Green Party call for overhaul of Gender Recognition Act
Creative Commons - Ted Eyton The Green Party of England & Wales has responded to the Government Equalities Office’s (GEO) announcement of a review of the Gender Recognition Act, calling…
All Hail Sir Vince
So, Sir Vincent Cable has finally manipulated and schemed his way to the top of his Party, unopposed, like the king of a war-torn, pillaged and ruined land no…
Political donations transparency in Northern Ireland: progress, but not enough
Photo credit: flickr user Peter Whiddon Creative Commons license. Sixteen and a half years ago political parties in England, Scotland and Wales began naming their big donors in public. Ten…
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 own…
Labour needs to think structurally if it’s serious about deepening democracy
Labour supporters need to act if they want their leadership to support electoral reform. Image by Firdaus Latif, Flickr. The unexpected growth in Labour’s Westminster seats under Jeremy Corbyn marks…
Trump, May, and Autocratic Libertarianism
A section of the cover of Hobbes' Leviathan with engraving by Abraham Bosse, 1651. Image via Wikipedia. At first glance the fact that Donald Trump and Theresa May’s neo-Conservative agenda…
Youth turnout in the 2017 general election- what was going on?
Student protest in 2014. Photo credit: flickr user Chris Beckett Creative Commons license: While the opinion pollsters are still crunching the data, initial evidence suggests that there was a…
The Tory/DUP partnership could be a mixed bag for Northern Ireland
Arlene Foster, leader of the DUP. Photo credit: flickr user NICVA, Creative Commons license: If you've lived in Belfast as long as I have and hold any list of…