The Hostile Environment for Rough Sleepers is Costing Lives

Boris Johnson has Exposed a Void at the Heart of Conservatism There is a growing consensus that the Prime Minister’s days are numbered – but his party has few ideas about how to renew itself or the country, reports Adam Bienkov ShareEmailTwitterFacebook “Boris is toast.” That was th...

A Guide to the Radicalisation of the Conservative Party Sam Bright digs into the recent history of Boris Johnson’s party, to explain why its centre of gravity has shifted markedly to the right ShareEmailTwitterFacebook Deploying the military against migrants; criminalising protests; disen...

Liz TrussThe Tufton Street Candidate Sam Bright unravels the ties between Conservative leadership hopeful Liz Truss and Westminster’s network of opaque libertarian think tanks ShareEmailTwitterFacebook Boris Johnson’s premiership of the Conservative Party is dying. It is currently unclear...

A New Era of Austerity Beckons For the past 12 years, the Conservative Party’s response to high public spending has always been the same: impose the burden on lower income families, says Maheen Behrana ShareEmailTwitterFacebook Few people could have failed to be amused by the news that M...

Arron Banks v Carole CadwalladrThe First Two Days John Sweeney gives his first impressions of the landmark libel case taking place in Court 13 of the Royal Courts of Justice ShareEmailTwitterFacebook The libel action brought by Arron Banks, the man behind Britain’s biggest political dona...

The Media-Political ComplexConsumes Another Prime Minister The incestuous relationship between politicians and the press now frames the very nature of British democracy, says Mic Wright ShareEmailTwitterFacebook On this day 61 years ago, President Dwight Eisenhower delivered his televised...

The Online Arms Race Benefits the Conservatives at the Expense of Democracy Former Labour MP Ian Lucas explores how politics is being warped by online surveillance, data harvesting and ruthless social media campaigning – and why opposition parties need to take action to tackle this ShareEmai...

The Data Doesn’t Back Dorries on the TV Licence Fee The Culture Secretary has announced sweeping changes to BBC funding that will mean an end to elderly people being threatened by the Beeb – but are elderly people really going to prison for not paying their licence fee? ShareEmailTwitterFac...

A Johnson RegicideAnother Great Political Escape? Professor Chris Painter evaluates the prospects of the Conservative Party should Boris Johnson’s latest crisis of leadership prove terminal ShareEmailTwitterFacebook As 2021 sauntered to a conclusion, speculation about Boris Johnson’s futu...

Best of Bylines Network14 JANUARY 2022 Byline Times provides a guide to the top stories this week on its sister network of regional sites promoting local writers and citizen journalism ShareEmailTwitterFacebook Is the NHS Overwhelmed? Jake’s Last Friday on Earth A Notting...

Sajid Javid Signs Off £1 Billion Private Health WindfallAs MPs Sound Alarm The Health and Social Care Secretary has agreed an ‘insurance policy’ with private providers, in breach of Treasury spending guidelines, reports David Hencke ShareEmailTwitterFacebook Health and Social Care Secreta...

The Metropolitan Police is Complicit in Downing Street Law-Breaking The Met has outsourced the decision on whether to investigate a crime into the hands of the institution accused of committing it, says Adam Bienkov ShareEmailTwitterFacebook The Metropolitan Police on Thursday released a...

Trafficking Victims Will Face ‘Trauma Deadline’ Under Controversial Nationality and Borders Bill Successive Home Secretaries have made ending modern slavery a priority – but new clauses in the Nationality and Borders Bill could make identifying victims harder, Sian Norris reports ShareEmailT...

Back to School But Will Johnson’s Omicron Gamble Pay Off? Two weeks into the new school term, as Omicron cases continue to spread, what is the impact of the Government’s Coronavirus policy on teachers, pupils and school staff? ShareEmailTwitterFacebook One in 12 teachers and school leader...

The Highs and Lows of 2021A Disabled Person’s Perspective Penny Pepper shares some of the enduring inequalities and the memorable breakthroughs which characterised the past year for disabled people ShareEmailTwitterFacebook When attempting a review of 2021 from a disability perspective, i...

US Lawmakers are Blacklisting Renewable Energy Efforts Thomas Perrett reports on the efforts of corporate lobbyists to stymie US President Joe Biden’s climate ambitions ShareEmailTwitterFacebook Since he assumed office, US President Joe Biden has encountered significant obstacles blocking...

English Rivers Suffer‘Chemical Cocktail’ of Contamination A new report exposes the deteriorating condition of England’s waterways and calls for regulatory action and investment ShareEmailTwitterFacebook “Wet wipe reefs” are clogging up English rivers after years of “chronic under-investm...

Law Firm Raises Concerns OverHead of Downing Street Parties Inquiry Questions are being raised about the past record of Sue Gray – charged with investigating the parties held by members of the Government during Coronavirus lockdowns, reports Sam Bright ShareEmailTwitterFacebook A law firm...

‘The Met’s Reputation is More Important than My Safety’Can the Sarah Everard Murder Inquiry Rebuild Women’s Trust in Policing? Women’s groups have raised concerns that the narrow confines of the Angiolini Inquiry – combined with a failure to grapple with women’s safety – mean that l...

INSURRECTION AT THE CAPITOL One Year On The Race War Sian Norris and Heidi Siegmund Cuda delve into what happened on 6 January 2021 at the US Capitol and investigate how the white supremacist aims of the insurrectionists have led to a far-right capture of education policy ShareEmailTwitterFa...

BBC Airtime Must Not be Squandered on Liars and Cranks Former BBC reporter Patrick Howse explains why comments this week by the corporation’s head of editorial policy to a House of Lords committee are so concerning when it comes to the BBC’s mission to ‘inform, educate and ent...

5,664 People Died From COVIDWhile Downing Street Held Parties Thousands of people lost their lives on the days that Government ministers, advisors and officials flouted lockdown rules, Sam Bright reports ShareEmailTwitterFacebook Thousands of people died from COVID-19 on the days that Dow...

The Programme Remains the SameBeware the Post-Johnson Conservative ‘Reboot’ It’s not who leads the Conservative Party that we should worry about – it’s the Conservative Party itself, says Brian Cathcart ShareEmailTwitterFacebook Poll ratings are heading south, there are stirrings in the s...

Boris Johnson was Created by the Media Now Destroying Him The Prime Minister was swept into power, with little consideration for his suitability for the job, by the same forces now deserting him, reports Adam Bienkov ShareEmailTwitterFacebook Boris Johnson is running out of friends fast....

Millions of Pro-Trump Americans Support Political ViolenceBut Not Who You Might Think CJ Werleman unpicks the insights from a new report into who took part in the attempted insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 and what this tells us about the growing pro-Trump far-right movement in...

Oil, Gas & WarPutin’s Choices in Kazakhstan & Ukraine Nikola Mikovic looks at the Kremlin’s response to two crises on the borders of Russia, and sees strategic energy reserves as a key factor in its decision making ShareEmailTwitterFacebook While the world has been wai...

Covering Their Tracks?The Flaws in the Downing Street Parties Inquiry Sam Bright considers the potential conclusions of Sue Gray’s investigation into the Number 10 lockdown breaches ShareEmailTwitterFacebook Downing Street is embroiled in yet more controversy, following the revelation tha...

‘The Country I Represented as a Diplomat for 30 Years No Longer Exists’ Alexandra Hall Hall, who resigned from the Foreign Office over Brexit lies, now thinks the British malaise is much deeper than that or Boris Johnson ShareEmailTwitterFacebook It has often been said that British diplom...

Catch-22? How the Nationality and Borders Bill Risks Failing on its Stated Aims The Government’s New Plan for Immigration, as set out in the Nationality and Borders Bill, wants to deter people from making Channel crossings and support women and children – but will it do so? ShareEmailTwitterFaceboo...

All the Lies Boris Johnson ToldAbout the Downing Street Parties The Prime Minister and his spokespeople told lie after lie about the gatherings held inside Downing Street during Coronavirus lockdowns, reports Adam Bienkov ShareEmailTwitterFacebook A leaked email inviting more than 100 peo...