Pure Anarchy
Dr Nicola Davies ON THURSDAY, August 4th, 2011, 29-year old black father-of-four Mark Duggan was shot dead by police in Tottenham, London. The fatal shooting was the result of Operation Trident, set up in 1998 to investigate gun crime in London’s black community. Duggan was shot twice by the Metropolitan Police’s specialist firearms team after [...]
Goodbye Amy
By Lucy Mapstone AMY WINEHOUSE was as famous for her personal problems as she was for her distinctive, soulful voice. Her death at age 27 in July was sad for all those who appreciated her music, yet it was somewhat expected as many had witnessed her deteriorate in the public eye from years of drug [...]
10 Years On
By Andre Langlois THE War on Terror, like the War on Drugs launched by President Nixon 30 years earlier, is a myriad of national and foreign policies with an aim that is as ambiguous as it is open ended. Nine days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks George W. Bush first uttered the phrase in public, [...]
False Accusations
Dr Nicola Davies IN LATE 2010, the Coalition Government’s plan to grant pre- and post-charge anonymity to men accused of rape was dropped. This was after Labour and female Tory MPs argued it would send a negative messages to women who accuse men of rape. However, recent events in America have reopened this debate. On July [...]
The End Of An Era
By Rob Coppingher ON JULY 21st, 2011, NASA’s space shuttle Atlantis landed, completing its final mission and in the process ending America’s 42-year dominance of the space race. The days of Neil Armstrong’s pioneering first steps on the moon and the Apollo missions appear a distant memory now as NASA’s billion-dollar budget has been cut after [...]
The End Of The World
By Neil Clangmure WHAT began with the imprisonment of “rogue reporter” Clive Goodman in 2007 has in recent weeks snowballed into the most shocking media scandal of modern times. We have seen the Prime Minister under fire, resignations from News International boss Rebekah Brooks and senior police officers, as well as the surreal experience of media [...]
UN Sanctions
By Jules Norton Selzer WITH a reported 3,500 Syrians murdered since the March uprising, the government of Bashar al-Assad shows no sign of relenting its ruthless crackdown on protestors. In response, the Arab League have threatened to expel Syria while pressure is mounting on the EU to widen its sanctions against the regime. Amongst this cacophony of [...]
Religion In Politics
By Dr Nicola Davies THE Archbishop of Canterbury has been in the news this month voicing his opinions on a number of political issues. He criticised the coalition government for burdening Britain with “radical, long-term policies for which no-one voted”. He raised concerns over the “extremist atrocities” faced by Christians in the Middle East and also stated that [...]
Sexualising Children
By Lucy Mapstone IT’S a fact of life that we all get older. And as we age, we mature from children into teens and eventually adults. But are we too eager to grow up and, more worryingly, has this led to children being sexualised too young? Concerns are widespread for the speed at which youngsters are [...]