Accid­ents are likely to happen, as demonstrat­ed by what appears to have been the un­intentional shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger plane. At the same time, Trump and his administration are peculiarly...

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What the jihadis left behind

Nelly Lahoud, 23 January 2020

Bin Laden’s wives and daughters were excluded from leadership on grounds of their gender, but their brothers were unsuitable for other reasons. Siham’s son, Khalid, doesn’t seem to have had his sisters’...

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Short Cuts: So much for England

Tariq Ali, 23 January 2020

Corbyn’s four years as Labour leader have transformed the party and it will not easily return to supporting neoliberalism and foreign wars. The leadership candidates are all aware of this fact. Even...

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Given the outcomes to which we collectively acquiesce, and the levels of uncertainty involved, it isn’t hard to excuse many of those who – deliberately or otherwise – contribute to current patterns...

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Mother Country: The Hostile Environment

Catherine Hall, 23 January 2020

In the 1960s, when the children of the Windrush generation were arriving with their parents, there were no issues with their entry to the ‘mother country’: they were travelling internally within the...

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An article published in the Times just after the 1922 election suspiciously lists some of the things organised by the Independent Labour Party: ‘Socialist study circles, socialist economics classes,...

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Her vision of Britain as a Singapore off the coast of Europe no longer has to be hidden. Some, indeed, hope it will soon become official government policy. Yet anyone who wants to see the coming Johnson...

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Shock Cities: The Fate of Social Democracy

Susan Pedersen, 2 January 2020

These​ two books will be read, inevitably, as studies of neoliberalism, a world order – and a word – that has snuck up on us in the last few decades. I say ‘snuck up’...

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Soon to Be Stateless: Modi’s Plans

Francis Wade, 2 January 2020

In​ early September, footage was shown on Indian media of a mass detention camp being built to house three thousand ‘illegals’ in the north-eastern state of Assam. The camp will be...

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What next for Bolivia?

Tony Wood, 19 December 2019

By any sensible definition, what took place in Bolivia on 10 November was a coup: Morales was forced out of the country at the prompting of the army, two months before the end of his third presidential...

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The Enlightened Vote: Ernest Renan

Stefan Collini, 19 December 2019

‘Whatever may be the judgment of time on the intrinsic value of Renan’s contribution to the sum of knowledge, he can never lose his place among the few great names in the history...

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In Palestine we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country … The Four Great Powers are committed to Zionism. And Zionism,...

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BJ + Brexit or JC + 2 refs?

David Runciman, 5 December 2019

The trouble with ‘Who governs Britain?’ elections is that elections are no way to decide that question.

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What counts as work? Gig Economics

Katrina Forrester, 5 December 2019

The dystopian promise of the gig economy is that it will create an army of precarious workers for whose welfare employers take no responsibility.

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Diary: ‘A test case for Corbynism’

Ben Walker, 5 December 2019

Derby City Council​’s offices sit on the River Derwent, a stone’s throw from the site of Lombe’s Mill, built in 1721, which claims to be the first fully mechanised factory in...

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Autumn in Paris: Autumn in Paris

Musab Younis, 5 December 2019

On​ 11 October, Julien Odoul, an official from the Rassemblement National, formerly the Front National, interrupted a French regional council session to ask a woman in the audience either to...

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Short Cuts: Deepfakery

James Meek, 5 December 2019

Election​ season in the Trapped-Together Kingdom, and people are talking about politicians and parties, sort of. The talk isn’t always talk, as such. To put it another way, when was the...

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Once democracy and public argument are premised on the logic of the platform, it simply doesn’t matter what anyone says or does, so long as they remain engaged and engaging. President Trump is the symptom...

Read more about Let’s eat badly: Irrationality and its Other