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Understanding politics isn’t easy – and that’s why we have our own ‘politics put simply’ column, Mastering Politics. This time, we’re explaining the meaning of capitalism. What is capitalism? Capitalism is, first and foremost, an ideology. This means that it’s a system of ideas and beliefs about the economy and social aspects of running a […]

When Boris Johnson was announced as the new Prime Minister, there were no prizes for guessing who’d be sent straight into the Home Office. It was always going to be Priti Patel, the loyal BoJo Brexiteer. Priti Patel, born in London to a Ugandan-Indian family, has been in politics for a while now. Originally, she […]

Theresa May has undoubtedly had one of the most trying and frustrating premerships of all prime ministers. And the worst part is that it was all caused by her own Party. The instability caused by members of Theresa May’s own Party in itself shows that she was not a masterful leader at all. Instead, it […]

It was announced this morning that Boris Johnson is to be Britain’s next prime minister. Johnson, who was always tipped to win the Conservative leadership race, beat opponent Jeremy Hunt in a ballot of Tory members. During his campaign, he was endorsed by a number of high-profile Conservative MPs, including Jacob Rees-Mogg, Michael Gove and […]

Understanding specific political terms is not an easy task. It doesn’t help when the Internet is full of people with opinions and overly-long sentences trying to explain stuff either. So, Mastering Politics is back and is here to explain socialism. What is socialism? Socialism is an ideology first and foremost, which means it’s a system […]

US President Donald Trump is no stranger to controversy. However, his latest Twitter comments have caused a stir among people and politicians alike due to their racist nature. In a three-thread tweet on Sunday, Trump said that four Congresswomen of colour who have been extremely criticial of his administration, should “go back and help fix […]

In the one and only Conservative leadership race debate on ITV, hopefuls Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt went head to head on issues from Brexit to the NHS to what it means to be the British prime minister. If you missed the debate, or just couldn’t understand anything other than Boris Johnson talking over everyone, […]

Political parties are not the easiest of things to understand – and that’s just speaking for the mainstream ones. The Brexit Party is one of the newest political parties in Britain, and it was officially founded in January 2019. It labels itself as Eurosceptic, meaning it is highly critical of the European Union (EU). The […]

As we inch ever-closer to discovering just who will win the Conservative Party leadership race, and thus become Britain’s next prime minister, there’s something seriously bothering me. It has everything to do with the teriffying thought of Boris Johnson becoming PM. You might think that this is terrifying to me – and, I’m sure, millions […]

The name Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe probably rings a bell in your mind. It’s the name of a British-Iranian woman who has been detained in Iran since 2016 after she headed out there to visit family with her young daughter. Why was she detained? According to Iranian authorities, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was “plotting to topple the Iranian government”. […]

It was the summer of 2015. My family and I were on our annual road trip and we had just visited London. As we were on our 6-hour journey coming back home, we noticed that there was a huge traffic jam and commotion occurring on the main road we were travelling on. The reason? A […]

Who’s your Baghdadi The leader of Islamic State has appeared in a video for the first time in five years. His newest release declared war on the infidel western world and all of its wretched citizen’s suckling at the teat of heathen democracy before urging viewers to like and subscribe and click the bell icon […]

Over the past few days, the world has stood alongside Paris in mourning over the tragic fires which have destroyed major parts of the Notre Dame Cathedral in one of the capital city’s central districts. Notre Dame: A Tragedy Politicians, celebrities and public figures have sent their condolences alongside kind words to a nation in […]

Our world is obsessed with ‘other’ and ‘differences’, to the point that many make it their sole obligation to rid society of people who seemingly don’t belong. Recent differences in opinion over subjects like Brexit have caused division, ultimately leading to nowhere. This, alongside conflicts over religious beliefs and sexuality, serves to do two things: cause […]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that in the Brexit negotiations, Germany stands with Ireland “every step of the way”. The revelation comes after Ms Merkel’s talked with Leo Varadka, the Irish prime minister, in Dublin yesterday. It is understood that the talks surrounded the issues with the current Brexit deadlock in Parliament. One of […]

MPs in the House of Commons are to push for a no-deal Brexit to be discounted as reports suggest Theresa May is ramping up preparations for leaving the EU without a deal. Labour MP Yvette Cooper has presented the bill in the hope that it will be passed by MPs and put into law in […]

In what is being seen as a shocking move politically, Prime Minister Theresa May announced yesterday that she will be speaking to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn with regards to how Britain moves on with the Brexit process. Mrs May’s decision follows weeks of deadlock in Parliament with her own MPs and Cabinet refusing to back […]

Hung Parliament A dozen protesters stripped naked in the House of Commons to bring attention to climate change. Because only a naked male body can truly exemplify when there’s a drastic change in temperature. Despite the intent of the demonstration, the MPs continued discussing the enthralling subject of Brexit. You have to give Theresa May […]

Brexit. Brexit. Brexit. In case you haven’t noticed (don’t worry – I know you have), it’s all we talk about nowadays. And, if you want to know the grim truth, here it is: we’re never going to agree on Brexit. Never. Never. Going. To. Agree. If you’re asking why, I’ll forgive you. The way politicians […]

It’s that time of year again kids. That time being, that in honour of St. Patrick’s Day I will attempt to convey the week’s news in the highest form of art. That being the humble limerick. Count yourself lucky that this is only a couple of days late this year, instead of the three months […]

Brexit has quickly become one of the biggest shambles in British history. We have managed to royally screw it up, but we’ve done it so bad that it’s difficult to see where exactly things started. If you’re wondering where Brexit went wrong, strap yourself in… The referendum Many staunch Remainers may argue that Brexit went […]

It’s been a solid few days since Shamima Begum, the British-born ISIS bride, made news headlines for wanting to return to Britain with her newborn son, and discussion about it shows no sign of letting up. The country is divided about whether or not Begum should be allowed back into Britain, and the natural, immediate […]

As Honda Announces Swindon Plant Closure, Is Japan Turning its Back on Britain? In 1984 Margaret Thatcher personally lobbied the chairman of Nissan Motor Company, Katsuji Kawamata, and the Japanese Prime Minister to come to a deal attracting a 6000+ job manufacturing plant in Sunderland and establishing the UK as the natural outpost in the […]

Sir Christopher Chope is the sitting Conservative MP for Christchurch since 1997. A qualified barrister, Chope was inexplicably bestowed a knighthood for “political and public service”. In many ways, Chope is a fairly run of the mill (although of the type that is becoming less common) Conservative backbench MP. He’s socially conservative, voting consistently against […]

You may have heard of a ‘snowflake’, and thought, what does it mean? Naturally, your innate curiosity as a liberal, open-minded individual, makes you investigate this new insult people have been throwing around lately like salted peanuts at a 16th birthday party. Define: Snowflake According to the urban dictionary, a snowflake is someone that ‘thinks […]

Collider Scope Cern is planning to build an even bigger version of the Large Hadron Collider. I remember when the last one was turned on and many feared it would produce a black hole that would destroy the world. I imagine it’ll be identical when they turn the new one on with the exception of […]

What with Brexit ruffling feathers all over Europe, Trump upsetting the world in general, and the year of prevailing political correctness, 2018 has been a turbulent one. The turn of the year is a time of mixed emotions. We feel sadness for lives lost, relief at having left things behind and live in hope for change […]

I dunno about you, I feel like I’ve been away a long time. I was beginning to feel a semblance of happiness before I committed to staring down this week’s ‘amusing’ news. But with my mental wellbeing returned to a satisfactorily trudging internal scowl, let’s dive in. Serkis act If Theresa May just released a […]

96 days down, 12 more to go… not that I’ve been counting or anything. To break up the last few weeks, I’ve been trying to squeeze in as much travelling as possible. Montpellier isn’t far from several famous towns and cities and getting from A to B is fairly straightforward in France. At least, it […]

Missionary position Now, you know me. I’m not a man who likes to laugh at the misfortune of others. I swear I’m not, or my name isn’t Kieran Schadenfreude Macfadzean. But when someone gets themselves killed in such a hilariously avoidable fashion for a similarly laughable reason, I allow myself a chuckle. This was the […]

It has been over eight hundred days since the UK voted to leave the European Union. Late yesterday evening, it was announced by Prime Minister Theresa May that the cabinet had finally agreed on a draft Brexit deal ahead of this country’s withdrawal from the Union in March next year. With over 500 pages of […]

11th November 2018 marks the centenary of the end of World War I, the war that changed the face of the world and scarred an entire generation. Its significance cannot be underestimated, its fallout massive. Mechanisation, airpower, chemical weapons and ideology all led to a devastating conflict that spanned the globe, from the banks of […]

Mail Aggression So some lunatic’s been sending pipe bombs through the US post. Cesar Sayoc is accused of mailing explosives to prominent Democrats and Trump critics. Honestly, I’m quite offended I didn’t get one. But then, I have switched address quite a lot recently. If there’s a smoking crater in Sandyford in the near future, […]

Almost 700,000 people marched through Westminster on Saturday in the name of a ‘People’s Vote’ on Brexit. The demonstration was the largest in the country since the anti-Iraq war protest in 2003. Protestors, who came from all around the country, were demanding a second referendum on whether or not Britain stays in the European Union. […]

Let’s get down from business X-Factor contestants who were filmed excitedly enjoying business class were sent back to economy once filming stopped. I don’t see why people are annoyed by this. The short taste of opulence followed by a hard push back to poverty is great practice for the eventual winner. The only way they […]

Since being at university, the number of people in my social circle has increased quite dramatically. Suddenly, I know a whole bunch of people, most of them from the south, who have lived (and are living) very different lives to me. By this I mean there are some people who are incredibly wealthy, or at […]

Mamma Mia, here we go again Theresa May danced onto the stage to give her speech at the Conservative Party Conference. She came out wriggling to ABBA’s Dancing Queen and even warmed up the crowd with a few jokes. In reference to her embarrassing speech last year, she quipped that if she coughed, it would be because […]

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has had some, er, memorable moments during her tenure at the top of British politics. And as the Conservative Party Conference approaches, we thought it was an appropriate time to have a look through the PM’s best/worst moments in office. 1. Her shoulder laugh While in the House of Commons […]

Boris Johnson has been making headlines for many years now. At first, though, the headlines were all jokes. There was his wild helmet hair. Then there was that time he got stuck on a zip wire. And that time he managed to rugby tackle a kid to the ground. But recently, the headlines about Boris […]

Virgin Fail We begin this week with US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. He has claimed that the sexual assault allegations against him cannot be true because he was a virgin in high school. Now these two things, obviously, are completely unrelated. This, of course, caused every satirist and left-leaning Twitter user to engage in […]

Two years after the murder of MP Jo Cox by a neo-Nazi terrorist, a square in Brussels has been named after her. Mrs Cox, who lived in Brussels for six years before representing Batley and Spen in the House of Commons, was named on a list of ‘illustrious women’ who are having squares, streets and […]

Prime Minister Theresa May has given a statement on the Brexit negotiations inside Number 10 this afternoon in which she gave a strong message to the EU. The statement follows talks with the EU yesterday in Salzburg which seemingly fell apart after they rejected her Chequers proposal. In Chequers, the blueprint given by the PM […]

Toad in the hole Let’s talk about Stormy Daniels. Now, I could spend this whole section droning on about the lewd descriptions she gave this week about Donald Trump’s genitals… so I’m going to. Apologies for the imagery some of this may bestow in your mind. Frequently repeated is her depiction of Donnie’s penis as […]

Ruth Davidson MSP is the leader of the Scottish Conservatives. Yes, that’s right: she’s a Tory. No, I have not gone insane. Ruth Davidson, over the past few months, has actually done a lot of inspirational things. And I have actually found myself admiring her story and her sheer bravery to tell it, especially in […]

I have no shame in admitting that I voted for Brexit. Over two years since the referendum I still maintain the belief that Britain will be better off outside of the EU and that the long-term benefits will greatly outweigh the possible pitfalls that will occur in the short term. Despite my optimism about Britain’s […]

In a surprise move today the Home Secretary has announced that he will not be introducing protest buffer zones outside of abortion clinics. It was widely accepted that said zones, which would prevent pro-life campaigners from protesting within 100 metres of clinics, would be introduced by the government after former home secretary Amber Rudd had […]

Following a week of speculation and accusation surrounding the two main suspects in the poisoning of the Skripals in Salisbury, the pair has come forward in an attempt to clear their name. Speaking to Russian state-backed TV channel Russia Today (RT), Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov said they visited the town of Salisbury as tourists […]

A Guardian investigation has found that the tweets of Russian troll accounts have been cited in over one hundred UK news articles. The tweets were included in stories about US president Donald Trump, Donald Glover and Lena Dunham by the British press. The investigation used the details of 1,000 accounts listed as Russian trolls by […]