“Oh no, we shouldn’t talk about politics. It’s not worth getting involved”. That is the reply of an Ama (Granny) to a question about the “Nine-in-One” local elections taking place in November later this year. You can understand where Ama is coming from – she has lived through a prolonged “White Terror” period of martial law, where talking politics could cost one their life. For the young people in the modern, democratic Taiwan, the opposite is now true. “If we allow the KMT

For years, the Kremlin has marketed itself as a dependable security patron for embattled regimes by offering military support, mercenaries, and diplomatic cover without Western-style political conditions. However, recent setbacks in Mali, alongside immense pressure on Russian partners in Syria, Venezuela, Iran, and Cuba reveal that Moscow fares much better at preventing immediate collapse rather than delivering long-term stability. It is not that the Russians necessarily aban

If one thing is a cardinal sin in British politics, perhaps it’s being boring. Plain, unassuming, uninspiring - all words that have been used to describe our current Prime Minister. Keir Starmer is just the latest to suffer from these epithets, which had also been levelled at predecessors such as Theresa May and Gordon Brown. As much as politicians aspire to situate themselves above the masses, relatability and likeability have undeniably become election winners. In attemptin

Mens Rea dominates our perception of juridicality. Best demonstrated by the rise of true crime media, the grisliest cases arise a morbid curiosity in the spectator. Why did they do it? We can delineate the ensuing response into two categories: impulse and calculation. The former leads to a lesser punishment socially and juridically, with the crime being dismissed as the passions overcoming an otherwise just subject. It wasn’t them, it was the moment. Inverting the above formu

Zach Polanski’s invigoration of the UK’s Green Party has been nothing short of a miraculous turnaround, taking what was a fringe political movement for those student-heavy constituencies in Bristol and Brighton to a national superpower, with only a small helping hand from the complete capitulation of the traditional two-party system. The success isn’t unfounded, either. Well-spoken, charismatic and with what appears to be a genuine grasp of democratic socialism, Polanski’s ab

At a news conference regarding agricultural policy on the 12th of August 1986, Ronald Reagan delivered one of his most recognisable quips satirising the organisation he had been elected to lead two years prior: “I think you all know that I've always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help”. Given the enduring appeal of this line for so-called libertarians and free-marketeers, the words that followed Reagan

I first read Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis the year I turned fourteen. I’m sure, at that age, a lot of her prose had gone over my head; rich musings which described intricate political theory were as understandable to me as a foreign language. Her accompanying black and white illustrations of a childhood and early adulthood spent in post-Islamic Revolution Tehran had stood out to me the most – a powerful amalgamation of religious conflict, gender politics and punk music. I rev

Political change is sweeping Europe. Nigel is rising in Great Britain. Peter replaced Viktor in Hungary. Macron is on his way out in France. Populism – defined by “people” vs. “elites”, distrust of institutions, and moral absolutism – is the connecting theme. Yet that populism is present in Northern Ireland too, which is odd for two reasons. First, the power-sharing institutions require party-opposites on the constitutional question to cooperate on delivering significant cha

Scotland votes in the nationalists for a fifth straight time, but nobody seems too happy about it. A pro-independence majority, made up of the SNP and the Scottish Greens, looks increasingly like a majority of arithmetic over conviction. The SNP didn’t win this, the other parties simply failed to capture the imagination of the country. The Tories’ vote collapsed into Reform, Scottish Labour was weighed down by its incredibly unpopular Westminster government, and the Greens ho

The UK awoke this week to news stories of demonstrations and agitation in the capital alongside a review of the overrunning and overspending on the HS2 rail project. These seemingly disparate stories tell another story, however, when linked together. In part, the reason we have creaking sclerotic bureaucracy capable of blowing £100bn on – well, it is hard to say what exactly is being delivered in return – is the same reason extremist groups are able to galvanise large number

Beyond time-travelling aliens and intergalactic invasion plots, Doctor Who is political; it always has been, and always will be. Sylvester McCoy, who played the 7th incarnation of the titular Doctor, understood that one of the factors that propelled Doctor Who’s success was the political subtlety it holds within. As the longest-running science fiction show in history, airing its first episode in the wake of JFK’s assassination, the programme was quite literally born in the mi

Donald Trump did not engineer the decline of American soft power, though he would probably trademark it if he could. Instead, he is one of its clearest consequences and biggest brands. Long before he entered the White House, faith in the American model was already eroding at home and abroad. Trump emerged from this decline and has spent his presidency accelerating it. After failing to secure a Nobel Peace Prize last year, Trump petulantly wrote to Norwegian Prime Minister Jon

Reform UK’s burgeoning popularity has never stemmed from policy alone. A central pillar of its appeal has long rested in the promise of purification; an anti-establishment, anti-corruption party supposedly untainted by the deceitful Westminster habits that have set Labour and the Conservatives hurtling towards electoral devastation come 2029. If polls are to be believed, this gambit will reap lucrative electoral dividends for Nigel Farage’s latest insurgency project. But the

Boards of Canada, a Scottish electronic music duo, are soon to release their first LP in 13 years. ‘Inferno’, will be available through Warp Records and conventional streaming from the 29th of May. The duo released their first full length LP, ‘Music Has the Right to Children’, in 1997, an album which has since been described by Simon Reynolds as ‘the greatest psychedelic album of the ‘90s’. ‘Music Has the Right to Children’ represented a crystallisation of what is now recogn

On the 4th of November 2026, South Africa is holding its municipal elections. Johannesburg, the city built on gold and still the economic hub of Sub-Saharan Africa, has found itself in a mayoral race caught between politicians' moral stance on the Middle East and their ability to fix a decimated, chronically underfunded infrastructure. Helen Zille is the Democratic Alliance's (DA) candidate for Johannesburg. In a system of proportional representation, the DA is the main liber

The parliamentary theatre that played out on the stage of Westminster last week, the kind this country has become so used to in recent years, has resulted in a strange and uniquely British political situation. The future direction of the government, the Prime Minister, the Labour Party and the country will depend on the votes of some 80,000 people in the suburbs of Wigan and its neighbouring towns. A by-election in the constituency of Makerfield should be a shoe in for the L

Spanish politics has undergone profound transformations in the last decade. The shift from a relatively stable two-party system to a fragmented and highly polarised multi-party system has not only reshaped the electoral landscape but has also weakened the capacity for dialogue in the Congress of Deputies. The emergence of new forces to the left of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and to the right of the People's Party (PP) did not revitalise Spanish democracy; on t

It feels like only a short while ago that everyone watched Kamala Harris attempt what many saw as an impossible balancing act: to defend an increasingly unpopular president while somehow preparing to inherit the party. Now, JD Vance may be realising his vice presidency comes with the same trap; the parallels have become difficult to ignore as we approach 2028. Both Harris and Vance have served under unpopular presidents. Both are expected to publicly defend every administrati

“Damn Daniel! Back at it again with the white vans!” Says the narrator in a viral Internet meme from roughly a decade ago. You probably associate this meme with reactions of laughter or derision in the school corridor. Regardless, the meme remains in your mind years later. Internet memes – colourful static photos, gifs, or short videos – are easy to recall. Constant repetition helps to reinforce the meme in the memory – your friend may have laughed at “Damn Daniel!”, repeatin

A Quick Refresher Before November We are all expecting the GOP to hemorrhage congressional seats this November. Great. This is a de facto requirement of American politics, actually. That is, for the president’s party to lose seats in their first midterms – it’s happened in 20 of the last 22 cycles. And given Trump’s bonkers first year in office and the plummeting approval rating that has ensued, this is all but guaranteed. But will a few more blue seats genuinely transform w