The Truth, Not Myth

If you’re heartbroken by the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and want to make your voice heard, here’s a letter you can send to your MP. Feel free to copy, adapt, and share. To: [Your MP’s Name] House of Commons London SW1A 0AA Subject: Gaza Starvation and Siege. A Humanitarian Catastrophe Demands Action Dear [MP’s Name], I am writing to you as one of your constituents, deeply alarmed by the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. This is not about religion or politics. It is about fundamental human rights, the denial of food, water, medical care, and safety to over two million people. Children are dying of hunger. Civilians are being killed while seeking aid. Hospitals and clinics have been bombed. Medical workers have died while trying to save lives. Homes, schools, and shelters have been destroyed. As of 28 July 2025, over 59,900 Palestinians have been killed and more than 145,000 injured, including many women and children. Starvation and malnutrition have claimed at least 147 lives, ...

Most people imagine history like a toy train on a track. The train moves forward, yesterday, today, tomorrow, and many believe it is heading towards a better future. They think the world keeps improving over time, one smooth stop after another. But Walter Benjamin says, “Hold on, that’s not quite right.” He tells us that history is not a straight, happy track. Instead, it is more like standing in front of a huge pile of broken toys. Every toy in the pile represents something that went wrong in the past, such as wars, unfair treatment, or people who suffered and were forgotten. That pile is what the past really looks like when we stop and pay attention. Benjamin describes an “Angel of History” who sees this sad pile and wants to stop and fix it, to help the people who were hurt. But a strong wind called “progress” keeps pushing the angel forward, away from the wreckage and towards the future. The angel cannot stop to help because the world just keeps rushing ahead. Benjamin’s p...

The true measure of moral character is not how one behaves under scrutiny, but what one does when no one is watching. As Plato warned in  The Republic , “The measure of a man is what he does when no one is watching.” This principle underpins the so-called “ shopping trolley test ”,  a deceptively simple test of conscience: will you return the trolley when no one will reward or punish you for doing so? Israel fails this test spectacularly. With over 50,000 civilians dead in Gaza, entire neighbourhoods levelled, and a decades-long apartheid system documented by Amnesty International as “a cruel system of domination and a crime against humanity,” Israel’s actions reveal not simply moral failure, but the total abandonment of ethical restraint. And unlike the shopping trolley, this test is not theoretical. It leaves real children starving. It buries real families beneath rubble. Plato’s parable of the Ring of Gyges , in which a man becomes invisible and thus unaccountable, re...

They changed the rules,  resistance learns new forms. Across the globe, the right to protest is under assault. The street, once a site of public power, is now being treated as a crime scene. From London to Delhi, Paris to Washington, governments are rewriting the rules to silence dissent. They are not hiding it. They are accelerating it. In the United States, Donald Trump has made his intentions brutally clear. He wants to revoke the visas of pro-Palestine protesters, label climate activists as terrorists, and invoke the Insurrection Act to crush demonstrations. He has promised to deport so-called radical leftists and his allies are drafting laws to define protest as a form of domestic terrorism. Opposition is being recast as treason. The United Kingdom is not far behind. The Public Order Act 2023 hands police sweeping powers to shut down protests before they even happen. Serious Disruption Prevention Orders can restrict someone’s freedom of movement or association without them eve...

This article examines the ongoing failures within the United Kingdom’s social security system, focusing particularly on the harm inflicted on disabled people and those with mental health conditions. Drawing on Amnesty International’s Social Insecurity report and other verified sources, it explores how current policy, employer practices and social attitudes combine to entrench hardship and exclusion. It concludes with a set of clear recommendations designed to build a system that protects, rather than punishes, the people it was meant to serve. Introduction The United Kingdom once held up its welfare state as a model of fairness and protection. Today, that image is barely recognisable. For many disabled people and those living with mental health conditions, the system offers neither safety nor dignity. Instead, it exposes them to cruelty, neglect and institutional indifference. Amnesty International has described the current model as “consciously cruel”, and for those forced to navigate...