perspectives

On announcing his candidacy for the Presidency of the United States Joe Biden declared that he was engaging in a “battle for the soul of this nation”. Reflecting on the bold scenes of fascist demonstrations that plagued the streets of Charlottesville in 2017, as well as  the current President’s unwillingness to condemn it as wrong, Biden indicated that in November “the core values of this nation, our standing in the world, our very democracy, everything that has made America, America will be at stake”.

The presumptive Democratic nominee was not the first person to employ such a high-stake, restorative narrative. Like Biden, Malcolm X, in his later years, spoke about saving America from the path of destruction that inevitably followed unchecked racism. In his autobiography he reasoned that the “r...

With the global Coronavirus pandemic now in its seventh week, and lockdowns covering a third of the global population having been in place for about as long, it seems obvious to state that the virus has had a huge impact upon people’s everyday lives. From stay at home orders permitting people to go outside only for essential reasons, to economic recessions leaving millions more unemployed and without regular income, the effects of this unprecedented outbreak have intruded into almost every part of modern life.

The United States, unsurprisingly, seems to have become a focal point for how it has responded to the global crisis, with fundamental tensions between States’ rights with those of the Federal Government having been brought to the fore. One of the most obvious and dire consequences of this...

It is hard to argue Donald Trump’s handling of the Coronavirus Pandemic does not present an active danger to the people of America. Even if you do not think he has spent the last three years blundering his way through disaster after disaster, throwing America and the world into chaos, and you agree with most of his policies, you would have to be willingly deluded not to think his comments on injecting disinfectants to stop the virus caused serious harm. Especially after the flood of stories we’ve seen since of people turning up in emergency rooms having injected watered down bleach, or people dying because they trusted the president. Whether he’s malicious or just incredibly stupid, having Donald Trump in the driver’s seat of America is no longer a car crash in the making; the crash has happene...

Joe Biden is the presumptive Democratic nominee for the presidential election this November. In the midst of the chaos and turmoil wrought by the coronavirus outbreak, his only remaining opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), withdrew from the race last week, allowing Biden to begin in earnest his campaign for the general election. Now the former vice president faces an important decision – selecting his own second-in-command. Though his promise at the final primary debate in February to opt for a woman on the ticket narrows down the list of options, qualified candidates are abound. Among them are governors, senators, newcomers onto the political scene, and former opponents in the race for the nomination.

Biden has already outlined two of the main points he’s looking out for – ideological simila...

In the middle of one of the worst pandemics in recent memory, US intelligence agencies have issued a stark warning; China may have deliberately understated the number of infections and deaths relating to coronavirus. This has major repercussions for the global response to the crisis. That being said, the USA itself did not appear to have been taking the virus seriously during the initial stages of the outbreak. Do these accusations levelled against China therefore offer a distraction from the criticism that the US has received?

Initial signs of a cover-up in China appeared in December 2019 when Doctor Li Wenliang, who was working to combat the virus in Wuhan Province, was arrested by local police for ‘spreading false rumours’ after he posted a message to fellow medics warning about the emergence...

I try to make a point not to idolise politicians, but I think it is hard not to look at Bernie Sanders and find characteristics worthy of adulation. Whether or not you agree with his policies and proposals, you cannot claim that he is not a man of conviction, of worthy intentions, who gave all he had and more to the cause he believed in. Whether on the right or left side of the aisle, few can see he was not the most honest man in politics, for better or for worse. Whilst Sanders has failed in his presidential campaigns, he has accomplished something far greater. He has spearheaded a strong progressive movement for social and economic reform within the democratic party and beyond. It is for that movement he entered the race both times. ‘Not me. Us.’

For 40 years, Sanders has spearheaded the fight...

With the 2020 United States census currently taking place, states will be bracing themselves for the upcoming redistricting cycle that follows every census. Redistricting involves redrawing the map of voting districts as the population changes and moves over time, and is undoubtedly becoming an increasingly contentious issue in the USA owing to the partisan gerrymandering of state legislative districts and congressional districts that have blighted many states over the last decade. Whilst gerrymandering, the act of shaping districts for purely political gain rather than through any natural boundaries is nothing new in the America, it has become increasingly prevalent with time. In the 2010 midterm elections, the Republicans (GOP) achieved significant gains throughout the country, particularly i...

Amidst the fear, uncertainty and angst that has overwhelmed our newsfeeds in the Western world, it is easy to overlook the late comers to the Covid-19 breakout. 

We’ve all heard about the extreme and aggressive measures China has taken, building hospitals within weeks, mass testing and putting ‘at least 50 million people under a mandatory quarantine since 23 January’. Similarly, we’ve all seen the swift lockdown measures in Europe, indeed the list goes on. 

However, I want to turn your attention to the Southern Hemisphere and one place in particular, Brazil. In stark contrast from other heads of state Jair Bolsonaro has called Coronavirus a ‘fantasy’ that has been created by the media - this was in a conference in Miami on Tuesday 10th of March. However, I’ve never heard of a fantasy that twenty

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Joe Biden is currently sitting on 1,215 delegates, in comparison to Bernie Sanders’ 909 and so, in all likelihood, it is Biden who will be the next Democratic Presidential candidate. And so, in all likelihood, it is Trump who will be the next US President once again. There were some on the left preferring a Trump win to a Clinton win in the 2016 general election, in the hopes that in the very least Trump would be so vile and shocking that he would push people to seek radical change and pave the way for a bold, new progressive leader. But in fact, whilst this may have occurred to some extent, the opposite is also true. People have become so beaten down by the idiocy and cruelty of the Trump administration that instead of seeing politics of the past as a system so bad it created Trump, people now...

In 1968, Canadian Justice Minister and soon-to-be PM, Pierre Trudeau, uttered the infamous line ‘the state has no place in the bedroom’s of the nation’ in a show of support for decriminalising sexuality. However, fifty-two years later, his son and current PM Justin Trudeau agrees that it should have some say in the goings-on of the psychologists chair. 

In a monumental move forward in Canada’s LGBT+ rights movement, Justin Trudeau’s government has proposed to criminalise the controversial practise of ‘conversion therapy’. This is just one part of what appears to be a sweeping move towards the left, and what may be the beginning of a series of liberal measures taken in order to pick apart the knot of insecurity, obscurity and prejudice Canada and the rest of the Western world have created for the...