Empty Voices

In the 2015 general election, the Green Party represented the progressive left. While Ed Miliband was buckling under the pressure from his right-wing colleagues, the Green’s unapologetically championed public ownership, fairer taxes and more. Sadly, in 2019, the situation is rather different. Today the Green Party talks less about public ownership and instead is spending most of its time using, together with the Liberal Democrats, a Brexit stick to bash Jeremy Corbyn and Labour – a leader and party that is, more than ever before, in tune with Green Party values.   Of course, the Green Party is free to criticise Labour, and just because they do so doesn’t mean they’re no longer progressives – Labour still holds regressive positions which deserve to be pointed out, e.g. its conservative approach to drug reform. Moreover, campaigning heavily to revoke the 2016 referendum isn’t itself anti-progressive, especially considering the no-deal Brexit we’re potentially facing. ...

Jo Swinson has beaten Ed Davey to become the leader of the Liberal Democrats. How will she fair? Will she continue the Liberal Democrat revival? Can she become, as she believes she can, the next Prime Minister? History and contemporary political opinion suggests not.  The Liberal Democrats were born from the unification of the old Liberal and Social Democratic Parties in 1989, t hough   the two parties continued to live on as the Liberal Democrats developed a left and right-wing. Indeed, despite the Liberal Democrats reduction in size, these two wings still exist today. The right-wing – represented by the old Liberal cohort – are Classical Liberals, which, in simple terms, mean they are as right-wing as the Tories economically, but are more tolerant to minority groups and open to equality legislation, etc. The left-wing – represented by the old Social Democrats – believe in a weak form of social democracy – allowing the state to redistribute some wealth, play a lea...

Abstract In its current state, the Study of Religion operates as an unstable and confused field in which, quite often, no differential is made between critical and confessional approaches. Drawing on collaborative work with other doctoral colleagues, we hold that a new Study of Religion is modelled from Critical Religion, adopting an anti-realist ontological framework which does not assume that our object of study exists ‘out-there’. Instead, ‘religion’ should be conceived of as a social construct, a product of language, particular histories, and intertwining relations of knowledge and power. Following this, we hold that discourse analysis is taken up as the primary methodological framework used by academics of religion. Doing so, we enter into the debate regarding the nature and position of the Study of Religion as a separate academic endeavour from that of other social and human sciences. Introduction This paper is the result of inquiries into the status of Re...

Entering the debate on Labour and anti-Semitism is always a fraught task. For obvious reasons, the debate is emotionally charged, with people often taking one of two inflexible positions. First, there are those who claim that Labour, since Corbyn’s leadership, and Corbyn himself, is anti-Semitic and anyone who denies this, or partially attempts to nuance the charge, are themselves complicit in anti-Semitism. Second, there are those who claim that most, if not all, arguments that Labour and Corbyn is anti-Semitic are lies – attempts to smear the Labour party and Corbyn to prevent Labour from attaining power. There is, however, a third position – situated in the middle of these two opposing camps. This group does not get a good hearing in the media, but – as is often the case with polarising debates – this middle camp usually has the most balanced perspective on the whole discussion. People of this third group claim that while there is small but consistent evidence of anti-Semitism wit...