Lecturers and trade unionists rally in support of an academic at Soas, University of London, who has been twice refused a permanent post, and urge institutions to review their use of casual contractsCasualisation in academia is rampant and on the rise. And despite fine words about tackling ethnic disparities among students and in staff recruitment, fixed-term contracts are disproportionately held by ethnic minorities and women. Now, an academic at Soas, University of London, Dr Feyzi Ismail, has twice had her application for permanency rejected, even after having worked at Soas since 2011 and for more than four years on continuous contracts. Universities are increasingly finding ways to keep people on fixed-term contracts, which is against the spirit of the law. Yet academics like Dr Ismail who are repeatedly put on fixed-term contracts do the same valuable work as permanent employees, but on significantly worse and more precarious terms and conditions.

We need new agricultural policies to encourage biodiversity, says

Marcia MacLeod

Islamophobia | Blue-rinse Tories | Unwrapping veg | Causes of death | Real namesNesrine Malik’s article (

The most important parts of Green New Deal and the Evergreen Economy Plan aren't necessarily the parts you've heard about

BP says its business plan is consistent with the Paris agreement to limit global heating, but this just isn’t trueThe container I’m currently inhabiting has everything I need to keep going for quite a while, so I don’t want to sound too self-pitying, but it is, nevertheless, a box. It’s got a chemical toilet, an internet connection and heavy bolts to fasten it to the pavement, and it’s

The eastern European country has become a proxy for what could be the face off in the next US presidential election

Great leaders used to be measured by whether you would take a bullet for them. Nigel Farage can't even pay someone to take a gourmet milkshake for him

As the company dances to the tune of an isolationist megalomaniac, it appears the internet won't be ever truly be free from political meddling

By re-distributing just 2 per cent of voters from the weakest to the strongest Remain party in each region, the pro-European side could snatch victory from the jaws of supposedly inevitable 'defeat'

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There simply isn't time to to hold a public vote before we are due to leave in October

Big tech has gone unchallenged for too long. Donald Trump’s decision to blacklist the Chinese company is changing that The post-digital revolution starts here. Thank you, Donald Trump. The US president’s

Those who argue the party must back remain for the European elections are wrong. We cannot abandon leave voters nowThe European elections have polarised the Brexit debate into two camps: those who want to remain and discard the verdict of the 2016 referendum, and those who want a “clean” or “no-deal” Brexit. Labour is urged to pick a side in this ongoing tug-of-war. That is a dead end for the party and for a very divided country. The pollster

European Elections 2019: meet the candidates in this month's fractious vote

Even though I've been threatened thousands of times, I do not want revenge. I want change. I want a regime where every citizen is equal, not prisoners of conscience

How long we live and how well we live in old age is such a lottery. Most of us who get anywhere near a century will have something wrong with us either physically or mentally

It isn't just a moral issue – it would be a tactical mistake to exclude such a significant proportion of voters. A network of politically engaged Bame activists exists. We need to appeal to them

Remove London from the UK’s economy and the nation would fold. Decentralisation would benefit everyoneLondon could be justified in feeling a little unappreciated right now. Britons outside the capital think of its residents as

Minority rule has always been a feature of American democracy. These days, however, it is getting worse The core democratic principle is that people should have a meaningful say in political decisions that affect their lives. In Alabama, we’ve just seen what the opposite of democracy looks like: 25 white male Republicans in the state senate were able to

Facing challenges from Russia, China and the US, the continent can no longer neglect its core values of peace and human rightsSometimes, when it comes to Europe, things are clearer from afar. Take Viktor Orbán’s encounter

In my home town, I’ve see how middle-class angst over Brexit is creating an existential threat to the party which could once count on their votesIn a seemingly endless season of Tory nightmares, this week looks set to mark the most dreadful phase so far. The Conservatives are about to endure a set of elections that they never thought they would face. Only four years ago, the party won a general election; now, there is talk of them finishing fifth, or

In an election when parties finally woke up to the power of half a billion women, many of us backed anyone but the BJPFor the first time, more women than men are likely to have voted in the Indian elections. That’s more than half a billion women who have had a say on issues that really matter to them. So finally, Indian political parties seem to have woken up to the fact that the female voter matters. What then, have been her top concerns? According to a recent survey

Readers argued it was wrong to highlight that white men voted in the measure. But lack of representation is central to the story Why, demanded several readers, does

Whistleblowers have revealed that the legal policy of judging cases on their merit has been circumvented by a secret policy at the CPS

If there is no majority for the prime minister’s bill next month, the chances of a Brexit outcome in this parliament look remote

How will games play out when they are superimposed on the real world?Once upon a time, when all the world was analogue, games could only be played together by people in the same place and at the same time. But that was before the internet. One of the most profound and least anticipated ways in which the internet has changed society is that it has allowed more people to play more games together than ever before in history.

The anti-Brexit billboards seek to shame Nigel Farage and Ann Widdecombe, but only end up publicising their hardcore beliefs When Ann Widdecombe

Readers take sides on Gary Younge’s argument that people who stuck with Labour over the Iraq war should not now abandon it over BrexitI agree with the point Gary Younge is making (

Bernie Evans

Lesley Regan

The Kenyan case shows that the military cannot be trusted to deal with soldiers’ misdemeanours, write

Fiona Collins

Prescription packaging | Starch wrappers | Turbans | Jeremy Kyle | Preston North EndI collect my small but regular prescription from Lloyds. A year ago I wrote to the company requesting a change from plastic to paper bags (

From the Tory party to the police, senior figures raise problems which are simply irrelevant. It says a lot about their willingness to confront this prejudiceLast week it became clear that according to senior police, the Tories and some non-Muslim public figures with some Muslim friends, the term “Islamophobia” is undefinable in any meaningful, actionable way. The

The Tory party is in trouble. Having a rightwing populist incompetent as leader would quickly trigger an election“This isn’t a TV reality contest!”. So declared defence minister Tobias Ellwood, when asked by Sky News’ Sophy Ridge about the forthcoming

It is hard to be optimistic about the chances of any plan from this lame duck prime minister getting through the Commons. We can, however, try to rebuild trust between the UK and the EU

Migrants, minorities and people of colour are almost absent from Thursday’s list of prospective MEPsWith days to go until the polls open for the European parliament elections, most political parties are finding it a struggle to convey the relevance of the EU to voters (in 2014, voter turnout was just 42%). Eurosceptics from Nigel Farage to Matteo Salvini, Marine Le Pen to Alternative für Deutschland’s Alexander Gauland, have been united in their criticism of the Brussels “elite”. They focus on the “unelected bureaucrats” running the EU institutions. Yet there’s an elite they don’t notice – and of which they are members. The EU’s institutions, and its parliamentary seats, are all but closed to people who aren’t white.

As an audience member in Tel Aviv I saw the flags of many nations on display, why not those of Israel’s neighbours? There were loud boos in the Tel Aviv Expo Centre on Saturday night, and not just when it was announced that voters in Greece and Cyprus had

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Our perspectives on racial inequality are important, but by pigeonholing Bame writers, we risk creating an environment where we're only asked to comment on 'ethnic minority issues'

Israel isn't the first 'controversial' state to host the competition, and it won't be the last. There are many platforms to take a stand against in terms of politics, but Eurovision shouldn't be one of them

The Brexit Party's performance this week all depends on turnout. As unlikely as it may seem, unleashing another abhorrent political party in Europe will affect us all

Truly, the Brexit party leader moves in mysterious ways

Manic episodes can be dangerous, and I would never, ever recommend doing what I did. But I love the body confidence my new ink has given me

The death of a Jeremy Kyle guest should be the moment broadcasters celebrate rather than exploit their guestsThe trouble with having very little is the perception that you can be easily bought. Many participants on

European Elections 2019: meet the candidates in this month's fractious EU parliament vote

Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn’s negotiations were always doomed but not for the obvious reasonsThe collapse of the Tory-Labour

The state is enforcing a collective amnesia about not only recent political events but those that happened thousands of years agoRemembering the deaths of

As the anniversaries of D-Day and Monte Cassino approach, we should remember how and why the ‘European project’ started Shortly after Thursday’s elections for the European parliament, we shall be witnessing the 75th anniversaries of D-Day and of the terrible carnage of the battle of Monte Cassino. One hopes that memories of these events – or, in many cases, learning about them for the first time – may concentrate minds on all sides in the debate about our future relationship with the rest of Europe. It was the horror of the second world war that led European leaders to bring individual countries together in the hope that future conflict could be avoided. Despite the fantasies of Nigel Farage and his ilk, winning that war was hardly a solo effort on the part of Great Britain. The Americans were an indispensable force in the D-Day landings; Polish forces lost many troops fighting at Monte Cassino. And, of course, the war was won by the allies as a whole, who included the US, Commonwealth countries and, not least, the Soviet Union.

The world over, the actions of citizens are being monitored on an unprecedented scaleSometimes, it is the very ordinariness of a scene that makes it terrifying. So it was with a clip from last week’s BBC

Europhiles should ignore Labour and vote for a Remain partyThis Thursday, voters face an important choice. It’s not the choice they deserve: whether to approve or reject the Brexit deal Theresa May has negotiated on their behalf. But it is the most important opportunity yet to send a clear message to our political leaders that the gridlock, the lacklustre leadership and the general sense of malaise that have infected Westminster since 2016 just isn’t good enough. For months, people have been denied their say, despite the prolonged parliamentary stalemate and the knots in which both main parties have tied themselves over Brexit. These European elections should not be treated as a proxy referendum: there is no distinct question being put to the public and turnout will probably be much lower than in a general election or referendum. But they are a precious chance for those who share the

This country can easily afford to offer sanctuary to many vulnerable youngstersAnyone horrified in 2017 by the government’s shamefully inadequate response to helping lone child refugees trapped in makeshift camps in France should know that the situation has become even worse, with reports that the Dubs scheme (to get unaccompanied minors safely to the UK)

Official figures mask the growing income disparities dividing Britain Britain needs to wean itself off measures of inequality that disguise more than they reveal about the gap between rich and poor. So says the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which last week used the occasion of its 50th anniversary to launch a five-year quest for

Is the powerful virus that infected WhatsApp a flying horse or a Trojan horse? Don’t ask the woman who developed itThe unsavoury revelations about the

Putting a statute of limitations on charging soldiers means justice may not be served for families of victimsIn 2003,

The many naysayers, including myself, were wrong – it’s the best channel on TV A shoestring revolution is happening beneath the noses of most of Scotland’s population. It’s why I watched a Glaswegian hairdresser last night discussing sex, religion and politics as he bobbed and weaved with scissors around his customer’s salt and pepper hair. I came to bury this show but I am enchanted. The revolution is unfolding nightly on the BBC’s new Scotland channel, launched three months ago amid industry pessimism and the

Its success reveals how Labour and the Tories have failed votersWill British politics be upended in the

Blame government edicts, not teachers, for the demise of play in schoolsAlex Clark concludes her paean to playtime by calling on “teacher” to “leave those kids alone” (“