Blog Posts
Killing for votes
Earlier in October, US Attorney General Robert Barr gave the greenlight for the execution of Lisa Montgomery. Though she was convicted of a very serious (capital) crime—she had killed…
Blog Posts
A nuanced defence of Nate Silver; or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the uncertainty
There is a good chance that I’ll look very silly by writing my thoughts on this topic down before the election. I could wait until November 4th before penning some polemic for or against Nate Silver—declaring after the fact that…
Competitions
Should the UK’s borders be more open or more closed?
For years, we liberals have decried our opponents on the left and right for their hopelessly facile solutions to deeply complex problems. Witness Labour deciding higher education could be solved by “just making it free”; the Conservatives claiming…
Competitions
What should the UK’s international aid primarily aim to achieve?
In the Tory manifesto for the 2015 election, the party pledged to keep the Department for International Development independent within Whitehall. Yet just five years on, Prime Minister Johnson has…
Blog Posts
What is the left?; and other ramblings
There are at least two major models for understanding politics in the West, and indeed across the world. The first is the well-known left-right spectrum, where parties are situated in terms of their leanings and policies. It’s hard…
Competitions
Does the UK’s green belt policy need reform in light of the mounting housing crisis?
With eight million Britons living in housing that is overcrowded, unaffordable or otherwise unsuitable, more and more adults lodging with their parents, and as increasing numbers finding themselves homeless, it seems the housing crisis has in recent years…
Competitions
Are the economic ideas of Karl Marx important today?
If Teen Vogue is a good indicator of the state of popular discourse (and of course it is), Marx is back. As the liberal capitalist order is facing its biggest crisis since 1945, people are returning to its most famous critic. This is deeply unfortunate.
Competitions
Is there an overwhelming argument for or against protectionism, or is the reality of the situation a lot more ambiguous?
This society takes the view that traditional tariff protection, overall, is bad for societal welfare; but given the growing prevalence of non-tariff measures, the welfare effects of neo-protectionism are a lot more ambiguous.
Competitions
How should economic policy be shaped by climate concerns?
The climate is changing, and we are causing it. That is not up for debate. It is clear that global, manmade and accelerating climate change is…
Blog Posts
Exam results—without exams
Students across the country will receive A-Level and BTEC results today. Under normal circumstances, these would be stressful times, but with coronavirus I can only imagine how challenging this must be. These students have not had the opportunity…