It seems that NHS is planning a longterm future for its own application. Will we be ready for the ‘new normal’? Lots are the worries coming from academics and privacy experts. An app of this kind is a powerful tool that could give authorities additional surveillance powers. Something difficult to renounce. In an open letter to Google, 300 academics from around the globe expressed their worries about the jeopardisation of our privacy due to “mission creep”. This will result with “systems which would allow unprecedented surveillance of society at large” the letter said. Reflecting upon this point, Snowden described it as the creation of “the architecture of oppression”.

Read More

Now, about me… My name is Rita. I am white and Polish. I come from a country that is racist, sexist, homo- bi- and transphobic and ableist and I, despite efforts, am all of these things, too.

Read More

We are experiencing unprecedented circumstances and the main priority of governments should be to prevent the virus from spreading. But what rights are we ready to give up in order to do that? What kind of planned actions would make us feel safe enough? What degree of trust and compliance can governments expect, and which decisions should be enforceable?

Read More

There is plenty of anger here; plenty of intelligence; and enough understanding of our need for systemic change. Yet it seems to me that we’re whimpering, rather than shouting. We’re spitting on the glass and wiping it clean, rather than smashing it straight in. So I ask you: is revolution still possible here, and how would it look in 2020?

Read More

“The first step will be to create the biscuit base. It should be short and rich. So, that won’t be a problem.” Welcome to the Bloomberg Cookery Channel - a satire piece that will have you cackling, musing on Michael Bloomberg’s US election campaign and baking the perfect millionaire’s shortbread at the same time.

Read More

Are more young people getting involved in progressive activism or is it just a trending topic?

Read More

The thing about democracy is that more than half the people are getting what they want, more than half the time. Or that’s what American journalist E.B. White thinks. But let’s dig below the surface a little bit… Is that what’s actually going on?

Read More

The Conservative party had 6 times as many social media adverts as Labour by the later days of the campaign, but I don’t think I saw a single one. Is it really any wonder we’re confused about what happened when we didn’t even see most of it? 

Read More

The worst people that want to do the worst things are now in a position to do them in the worst way. We might have just seen the end of any meaningfully left wing, parliamentary opposition, let alone government for years.

Read More

At 10pm on the twelfth of December I sat in front on my computer watching a BBC news live stream sobbing. This is not been the first time an exit poll has brought be to tears, I vividly remember 2015’s exit poll having similar effect, watching Iowa go Trump in 2016 and waking up earlier in the year to see that we have left the EU. 

Read More

On a serious note though, all I’ve thought about since the exit poll announcement was this – how the fucking fuck are we here AGAIN?! Who in their right mind is voting for this Dickensian fever dream that’ve we’ve woken to?

Read More