Net migration into Britain this year reached 250,000. On one side of the Immigration debate, capped levels, earned citizenship, ID cards, and annual migration reports - on the other, open borders, a welcome for all, a call to increase the size of the cake, a celebration of a multi-cultural society.... Emma Barnett interrogates David Goodhart, Director of the independent think-tank Demos, and Ceri Dingle, Director of Worldwrite, an education charity campaigning for global equality - and then lets...
Feb 27, 2012•16 min
‘God exists, or doesn’t. It’s a 50-50 shot. Dawkins can’t call believers stupid for having taken a punt; after all, he did’.
Feb 23, 2012•3 min
‘Gender specific school uniforms can cause serious distress’ – one more example of saying goodbye to reason and good sense. [Image courtesy of Chris Millett via Flickr.com ©©]
Feb 15, 2012•3 min
Preventing ‘sneakily enhancing’ a school’s ranking with ‘soft’ subjects is a good move – but don’t put all the blame on schools
Feb 10, 2012•4 min
9 billion pounds for the sake of a tenth of a second, or a sponsorship deal... And, as for the ‘legacy’, well, just consider the fortunes of Greece. [Image courtesy of davehighbury via Flickr.com ©©]
Feb 02, 2012•3 min
‘Did nobody tell the energy secretary that on many of the coldest days the wind does not blow? That the wind is not a reliable source of power?’ [Image courtesy of Davie Dunn via Flickr.com ©©]
Jan 26, 2012•3 min
Daughter killed. Born-again Christian who has forgiven those responsible. Mary Colwell reports.
Jan 26, 2012•8 min
Brother of Michael, 17, shot dead. He hasn’t forgiven the soldier responsible. Mary Colwell reports.
Jan 26, 2012•9 min
Best friend killed next to him. Formerly commander of the junior wing of the IRA; now vice-chair of the Police Board. Mary Colwell reports.
Jan 26, 2012•10 min
Her brother was shot dead. Mary Colwell reports. [Image courtesy of Mary Colwell. All rights reserved. ©]
Jan 26, 2012•4 min
Former General of the Apprentice Boys; today, lives in the all-Protestant The Fountain, set up after Bloody Sunday. Mary Colwell reports. [Image courtesy of Mary Colwell. All rights reserved. ©]
Jan 26, 2012•8 min
Forced out of her home in the unsettling days that followed; now a peace and reconciliation worker. Mary Colwell reports. [Image courtesy of Mary Colwell. All rights reserved. ©]
Jan 26, 2012•8 min
At the age of 11, he saw the coffins lined up. He became an IRA activist; today, he’s a community development worker. Mary Colwell reports. [Image courtesy of Mary Colwell. All rights reserved. ©]
Jan 26, 2012•6 min
Uncle shot dead; three months earlier he was blinded by a soldier’s rubber bullet. Founder of Children in Crossfire. Mary Colwell reports.
Jan 26, 2012•13 min
Sister of victim Jackie, whose body was carried by friends and priest Edward Daley, waving a white handkerchief. Mary Colwell reports.
Jan 26, 2012•9 min
The priest who administered the last rites to victim Jackie, 17, amidst gunfire. An iconic photograph captured the scene. Mary Colwell reports. [Image courtesy of Mary Colwell. All rights reserved.]
Jan 26, 2012•10 min
A senior judge calls Muslim preacher Abu Qatada ‘a truly dangerous individual’, yet still we cannot insist that he is exported and tried in his home country... [Image courtesy of :Dar via Flickrr.com©©]
Jan 19, 2012•3 min
At a time when racism is in the headlines, why the media silence on ‘disturbing instances of racism against Jews’?
Jan 12, 2012•3 min
Aid goes to Evangelicals, not us, accuses voodoo leader. In the rebuilding after the earthquake, Evangelicals bring aid to a country said to be 80 per cent Catholic and 100 per cent Voodoo. With very mixed results. Edward Stourton reports.
Jan 12, 2012•14 min
WENDY ROBBINS ON PROTECTING OUR KIDS ... from sexually-explicit songs in the charts ‘My children are 7, 9, 12. They singalong to pop song lyrics like “‘sex in the air, I don’t care’. I don’t want them hearing this stuff; they don’t have the emotional maturity. Can’t the broadcasters give a lead here?’
Jan 05, 2012•3 min
GLOBAL WARMING: DOES IT MATTER? The clash between reducing emissions and development. A climate summit in Durban has ended with agreement to bring down carbon emissions to save the planet. A deadline of 2020 could yet prove a cop-out. But do we need to be so concerned about emissions? Is fear of global warming holding back much-needed development? Emma Barnett interrogates George Monbiot, environmental activist, and Claire Fox, director of the British think-tank, the Institute of Ideas....
Dec 15, 2011•19 min
Complaining is part and parcel of our everyday existence. Usually it’s personal, trivial, and not to be taken seriously. But sometimes it’s bigger than that. The question is: are there any tips for making sure our legitimate complaints are not only noted, but also acted upon? The answer is: Yes. Dougal Patmore finds out what they are – along the way meeting the man who sealed his letters of complaint with a loving kiss, and the choir whose members complained distinctively and effectively in song...
Dec 15, 2011•8 min
So why no debate on the assumptions behind the more apocalyptic forecasts? Example: the UN forecast 50 million climate refugees by 2010 – where are they?
Dec 08, 2011•4 min
To worry about our NHS medical records being handed over to drug companies is not naive left-wing rights rhetoric.We need reassuring that ‘we’re not going to end up as lab rats’.
Dec 08, 2011•3 min
Occupy London protests… the birth of people-powered politics? A gathering of non-toilet trained hippies? Or one expression among many from people who ‘feel cheated’? Louisa Bolch decides. [Image Courtesy of Wheelzwheeler via Flickr.com ©©]
Dec 05, 2011•7 min
Britain is the fat champion of Europe; the PM is considering a so-called fat tax. But it’s our choice, it’s our business, it’s not the government’s job to tell us how to eat. It’s another example of our ‘nanny knows best’ culture.e. [Image Courtesy of Tobyotter via Flickr.com ©©]
Dec 01, 2011•3 min
The ‘F’ word is ok, just cheery badinage. ‘Black, in what is thought to be the wrong context, induces apoplexy. Another sign, says Buerk, of ‘a vertiginous decline in civility…a growing coarseness in our public (and private) life’. [Image Courtesy of BIll Barber via Flickr.com ©©]
Nov 23, 2011•3 min
The News of the World became the biggest-selling newspaper by printing as much sordid detail of people’s private lives as it could grub up and get away with. But, remember, ‘we loved it’. [Image courtesy of Gideon Tsang via Flickr.com ©©]
Nov 17, 2011•3 min
Yes, bankers have ‘nationalised their risks while privatising their rewards’ – but the St Pauls’ protestors, ‘spoilt children of capitalism, living lives beyond the dreams of previous generations’, offer only ‘vapid sloganising’. What would Jesus do? they ask. The only possible answer is: God knows. [Image Courtesy of James Guppy via Flickr.com ©©]
Nov 10, 2011•3 min
As the 7 billionth human being is born, one problem, says Michael Buerk, underpins nearly all others in the world, but it’s the one we don’t talk about: ‘There are too many of us’. [Image Courtesy of Bindaas Madhavi via Flickr.com ©©]
Nov 02, 2011•4 min
