News and Opinion

Europop has to be the most maligned genre in the past 50 years. Music writer, broadcaster and record collector Pete Paphides hails its influence. You’ll find it somewhere amid the sweeping strings and disco drums of Boney M’s Daddy Cool; between the hesitant verses and defiant chorus of Yes Sir I Can Boogie. It’s abundant […]

Fifty-six per cent of people in the north of Ireland voted to remain in the EU. Martin McGuinness, the deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, explains why Brexit is an affront to democracy and explores its consequences The island of Ireland is facing the biggest constitutional crisis since partition as a result of the Brexit […]

Arriving in Saint Denis, the northern suburb of Paris one leaves the Hausmannian dreams of Parisian romance far behind. This impoverished banlieue, home to a mediaeval basilica that was for eight centuries the burial place of French kings, is now one of the most notorious parts of France, a symbol of ethnic division and considered […]

Theresa May says: ‘Brexit means Brexit.’ What she’s not telling you is that Brexit means bugger all. Not only might we never leave the European Union, but even if we do not a lot is actually going to change. Can you imagine the chaos if it did? There’d be border checks with queues stretching into […]

Not all older people are selfish individuals who are indifferent to the interests of their children and grandchildren. You can be a university graduate of high intelligence and still vote against Britain’s economic interest. And while you may live in a town that has attracted few immigrants to date, you can still believe that your […]

Number of page views, number of likes, number of tweets, number of retweets, number of shares, click-through rates, site traffic, bounce rates, and measures of engagement. In our digital media world every click is captured, every view, every engagement. Captured, categorised, and then used to filter, prioritise and judge communication. We see this most clearly […]

There was the initial shock and furore of the referendum result itself, followed by the inevitable panic in the markets. But after that initial shock a sense of denial has set in – a misplaced hope that perhaps it’s all somehow going to proceed without a hitch after all. You can see it in the […]