The Home Office is central in all things, lording over some of the most hotly-discussed issues in everyday life – migration, borders, drugs, policing, and terrorism. Its vast armoury of laws and high-powered forces of order “keep citizens safe and the country secure”, in their own words. Despite that armoury, when Shabana Mahmood arrived as Home Secretary in 2025, she was compelled to state that her ministry was “not fit for purpose”. Chronic issues raised included distrust

My first impression of Panama City’s Casco Viejo was one of distortion. It was only possible to catch fragmented glimpses of its whitewashed walls through reflections cast out by skyscrapers lining the waterfront. Panama City’s old town seemed awkward and incongruous, positioned in the shadow of five-hundred-foot-tall buildings. Its pristine streets lay relatively abandoned, disconnected from the chaotic metropolis barely one kilometre away. This sense of dislocation and frag

Where just a few months ago Nigel Farage seemed invincible, his political position has grown increasingly precarious in recent months. Nigel Farage’s decision to not declare a £5 million ‘gift’ from the Thailand-based crypto-billionaire Christopher Harborne remains the biggest threat to his momentum. The Reform leader claims to have “done nothing wrong”, but his failure to declare the money he received from Harborne, per rule 5 of the House of Commons code of conduct, prompte

Last month, the new Dutch government proposed a bill on expanding police online monitoring powers, tied to serious public order disruptions. The Netherlands has had its fair share of demonstrations and riots over the past year and it seems that public safety and order is on top of the agenda for the new government. But is that really what this bill is about? Ministers have approved the draft legislation, the Wet gegevensvergaring openbare orde, and it is now headed to the Cou

In the aftermath of the Cold War, scholars such as Francis Fukuyama argued that liberal democracy represented the final stage of ideological evolution, famously framing it as “the end of history.” However, what was celebrated as the final and best form of human government began to buckle under its own contradictions almost as soon as the Berlin Wall fell. “The end” became the starting point for a new political reordering, characterised by the rise of anti-liberal and, eventu

The United States of America was founded on 4 th July 1776 on the values of liberty, equality and individual rights, a place of self-determination and agency, where citizens can attain their highest potential. Now, 250 years later, the very pillars that formed the United States are being called into question through the over-centralisation of power by the Trump administration’s deployment of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents in American cities. To date, at lea

On December 1st 2025 Khaled Mohamed Ali El Hishri, commonly known as ‘El Hishri’, was surrendered to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and is to face trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity in The Hague this year. The trial is a significant moment in the modern history of European-Libyan relations as it demonstrates that crimes - both contemporary and historical - of the greatest severity that are committed in Libyan detention centres are subject to internationa

Since Labour reclaimed power last summer, the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has borne the brunt of much of the criticism directed towards the government. The decisions to scrap winter fuel payments and inheritance tax exemptions on farms struck deep; this was an electorate unprepared for such change and a media that underestimated the UK’s first female occupant of the role being so combative right from the onset. This front-footedness prompted a swift response. Hacks bayed

Labour is the party of social justice and compassion, says the party’s website . A title it seems the party will have to unceremoniously drop after its latest populist stunt regarding immigration policy. When the Labour party took power, albeit with little excitement, the reasonable public breathed a sigh of relief. No more hare-brained schemes to transport migrants to Rwanda , no more squabbling about ‘economic migrants’ , and finally a government filled with capable ministe

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s proposed asylum reforms received high praise from Reform leader Nigel Farage and notorious far-right activist Tommy Robinson. Inspired by Denmark’s asylum model , Mahmood’s reforms include refugees having to reclaim asylum every two and a half years, refugees needing to be in the UK for twenty years before they can apply for permanent residency, harsher interpretations of the ECHR frameworks regarding family reunion, and the seizing of high-v

Writing this from New York City, from research conducted studying in London and visiting Stockholm, immigration seems to be the fons et...

Keir Starmer has always reminded me of one of those schoolteachers – the perfectly decent, dithering kind whom good kids pity, and bad...

The assassination in Utah of the Christian Conservative influencer, Charlie Kirk, has cast a chilling shadow over many in the United...

If it was not already abundantly clear, Reform UK’s pledge to abolish Indefinite Leave to Remain status (ILR) confirms their stance on...

Over the weekend, upwards of a hundred thousand people took to the streets for the so-called Unite the Kingdom march, a protest that has...

If you stroll down certain high streets this month, you might think the World Cup final is around the corner. Red crosses stain...

When Ali Ahmed Aslam moved to Glasgow, Scotland in 1964 from Pakistan, he hoped to make a living for himself and his family by opening...

For those in the realist tradition of international relations, control of territory represents the top concern for sovereign states....

The seismic emergence of immigration as the UK’s most prominent political issue is catalysing Reform’s exponential successes as a firmly...

Since early June, my city, Los Angeles, has been experiencing an all-out aggressive immigration enforcement campaign from the Trump...