The Pessimism and Occasional Optimism of Juvenile Adulthood

On several occasions during the election campaign I started drafting articles, but the speed of events simply made it impossible to keep up. Now, with dust settling on such a momentous realignment of British Politics, let’s take stock... A party for the Labourers? Lynton Crosby’s most notable electoral strategy is the ‘wedge’, wherein a divisive issue is brought up by the right of centre party to split the opposition party (usually left of centre) on the matter. This enables the former to present a united, albeit narrow-minded, perspective and attract support. But in 2019, with Brexit, antisemitism, and renationalisation, Labour wedged themselves. This is perhaps an overly simplistic model to create but it is remarkably applicable. Jeremy Corbyn has marked himself out as a chairman, not an autocrat - a man who talks to people to decide his opinions or formulate policy. It is what led to such ‘dithering’ - as the Tories put it - on Brexit, and has been used to justify his mee...

My Sixth Form isn't perfect, though I'm sure no institution can be characterised as such. One of the perks though, is that Wednesday afternoons are folded down for 'Enrichment', a two hour period of extra-curricular activities, such as Sports Society, DofE, Creative Writing, or Amnesty International among others. However, for me and three others, we were invited to St Chad's sanctuary in Birmingham, a charity centre for refugees and asylum seekers, not only to drop off clothing and toiletry donations, but also to learn more about the charity's work and the struggles of claiming asylum in the UK. I can say with great certainty, that it was the most enriching of all Wednesday afternoons. 10 years ago, Sister Margaret established St Chad's after seeing the long queue outside a Youth Hostel, one which has since closed. The centre now operates next to St Chad’s Catholic Church, and whilst there is a clear affiliation between the institutions, support ...

Much of this article will be analysing ideas rather than reviewing the book in question. I started writing this piece just days after MPs voted against holding a general election and voted to delay Brexit until the 31st January, unless Boris Johnson can muster a deal out from his 'negotiations' with Brussels or resuscitate Theresa May's deal in some form or another. This following the government's decision to prorogue Parliament, for 5 weeks, as opposed to the typical week used for a Queen's speech. Since then, Parliament's been prorogued, 'unprorogued' and prorogued again (as of tomorrow at least). These decisions, and their subsequent responses, have once again polarised the electorate, and much anger is perhaps understandably directed at the politicians, who are frequently accused of only serving their own self-interests and more often than not towing the party line. It seems apt therefore that I'm examining Isabel Hardman's book 'Why w...

In a previous article, I spoke of how Gavin McCallum became my source of footballing passion and interest in my first match. But, when my interest in football was first aroused at the ripe old age of 7, this was too late to instantly break into my social circle’s starting eleven as a winger and I found myself quickly put in goal. Having established that my stature and distaste for running suited the goalkeeping position, I soon turned my focus further down Edgar Street’s hallowed turf to find a new idol to look up to. And there between the sticks was a certain Adam Bartlett. Every game onwards, I would watch Bartlett’s movements and hope to one day do the same. Where most fans would bemoan Bartlett’s erratic distribution of the leather and errors guarding the onion bag, I saw the most powerful goal kicks I’d ever seen and shot-stopping ability I hoped I could emulate when guarding the space between my junior school goalposts made out of red jumpers. As someone sat comfortably in C Bloc...

As Theresa May boxes up her belongings before returning to Maidenhead this week, she's probably well aware that her Premiership won't go down in history as one of the best: in fact, many people have already stated that Theresa May is the worst Prime Minister in British history, a bold statement to make. But in an age where social media can create echo chambers of opinion as quickly as a subject of opinion can say 'Fake News' to their scrutineers, rather than make a sweeping declaration, I'm going to delve back into history and see if we really can consider our lame-duck leader to be the worst to hold the office. Robert Walpole is widely considered Britain’s first Prime Minister but trying to compare his performance to Theresa May’s is like comparing the work of Beethoven to that of Edvard Munch. Walpole’s power stemmed from his positions as Leader of the House of Commons and Chancellor, and much of his premiership was spent mediating between parliament’s various f...

Last Monday, I met the Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow, in his official residence at Westminster. This was because, I along with around 15 other teenagers had been shortlisted to win the Political Studies Association's 500 word blog competition on the above question. In the end, I finished second to my friend and 'rival', meaning that we defeated around 400 other students from both state and private schools. Our Politics teacher was overjoyed. I entered the competition thinking that if I lost I would have a new article to post, and if things went well I could meet a few editors at the Financial Times and go to Westminster. Luckily, I seem to have the best of both worlds.  So here below, is my 500 word piece submitted many months ago in the aftermath of the European Parliamentary elections. And some photos, many photos! Is British Politics broken? The EU parliamentary elections saw a newly-formed populist big tent claim a sweeping victory over other natio...

Over Easter, I was fortunate enough to travel to Nepal with other members of Intrepid and Drake ESU. It is incredibly difficult for me to summarise the entire trip quickly but fortunately I don’t have to. Prior to going on the trip, I was asked to maintain a daily blog for the Solihull Scouts website about our adventures both in Kathmandu and in the city. All of these articles are available online at the following link:    https://solihullscouts.org.uk/blog/category/blog/nepal-19 However, I’d like to repost my two summary articles on the capital and our overall trip here since they are the most concise reflections I could make about the trip. I hope you like them. Nepalese diaries - Kathmandu and the first summary of two. Today, after a horrible day travelling to the capital on roads best suited for animals and hybrid bikes, we woke in Kathmandu, feeling irritated that neither of my roommates had closed either the door or the curtains before going to bed. Consequentially, toda...

On Friday, I went on strike from sixth form to protest against the lack of action to prevent climate change, and I felt that the overall experience was interesting enough to write about. So here goes... . I had been considering going on strike for several weeks and I had been aware for a while of Greta's Thunberg's actions outside the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag). With a friend having gone to the previous march in Birmingham and speaking highly of it, my mind was made up. With so much focus on Brexit in recent weeks and the minimal news coverage of climate change and its rising seas, pollution levels and increasing plastic waste in the ocean, I wanted to strike and feel as though I was filling the void of noise which I wasn't hearing on the news. I was well aware going into the protest that there would be no direct impact of me choosing to strike but that it would raise awareness of the issue and I would feel better about it. The protest was very en...