“The saddest thing about attempts to batter Northern Ireland’s distinctive and prolonged traumas into a Brexit-shaped argument groove, is the implication that things would be grand if only the boat hadn’t been rocked: we should seek to maintain the present ludicrous settlement, which has seen poverty and alienation flourish.”

David Jamieson: Northern Ireland isn’t a character in your Brexit drama



“News addicts, activists and idealists tend to be confounded by the apparently slow recognition of a major social and economic crises in the wider public. But taking a step back from the frenetic cycle of events makes perfect sense of the phenomenon.”

Analysis: It’s too early to know the meaning of 2020



Tomorrow, it will be exactly 67 years since the coup in Iran which overthrew Iranian prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh. It has long been known that the UK’s MI6 and the US’ CIA orchestrated the coup, but for the first time a first-hand account has come to light, one which shines a spotlight on the key […]

Why the UK’s history of coup-making still matters



Never say protest doesn’t work. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has pledged to cut the Police Department and increase spending on social services in response to protester demands to do exactly that. ‘De-fund the police – fund the community’ has been a central demand of the US protests, and it has paid off. In […]

Confronting British ‘historical amnesia’ is not only about the past