Essays

I am firmly of the belief that housing is a human right and something that is essential for a happy and healthy life. States should do their best to ensure secure, safe, and affordable housing for their citizens. Unfortunately, the neoliberal shift in the late 20th century has left us in a situation where housing is unaffordable for so many, regardless of whether they are renting or buying. The explosion in private landlords and the normalisation of housing as an investment has ratcheted house prices over recent decades; for most this has seen their assets increase in value, but we are reaching a precipice now where younger generations are unable to get in on the market....

The way in which UK council funding problems are reported in the media is helpful only in obfuscating the source of the problems. As with most things political in the UK, the issue descends to tribal mudslinging with the media outlets ensuring to name the controlling political party in question in the headline, or first paragraph of their piece. In doing this, it frames the problem as purely party political and for many people the solution boils down to just choosing another party at the next election....

I recently had an interesting conversation with a colleague at work. We were discussing the toppling of the statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol in 2020 and the circumstances surrounding it. My colleague was sympathetic to the overall aims of the protestors, but believes that politics should be non-violent, and that by crossing the line from a peaceful protest, the protestors muddied and delegitimised their own aims. This view of politics is, in my mind, prohibitively restrictive and narrow....

I recently saw a comment on an article about the UK’s tax loopholes; it said that tax reform is a dull subject for the electorate and boring for governments to implement, hence why it won’t be dealt with any time soon. This kind of view is symptomatic of a host of the political issues limiting the country, and one that we’ve been dealing with for decades. The neoliberal shift that began in 1979 has given us a political situation whereby the electorate are promised a better life so long as the economy grows - a chicken and egg type situation, if you will....