Leaders say the police force is 100 years away from reflecting London’s multicultural diversity. I’m disgustedThe question that needs to be asked is not “are the Metropolitan police institutionally racist?”, or “why does black and minority ethnic recruitment for the police still lag so far behind the diversity of London as a whole?” It should simply be: “Why do young black and minority ethnic people reject the Metropolitan police as a career choice?” This week, marking 20 years since the landmark

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

AirAsia is to open an eatery serving its dishes. It seems crackers – who would choose to eat plane fare on terra firma?People harrumph more at 38,000ft. It’s a sort of iron rule of air travel. Fifteen minutes in and you get triple-exclamation-mark observations and everyone’s inner magistrate. Perhaps it is the memory of those kinder days, when flights weren’t pay-per-mile torture and the cabin crew smiled as they thrust the free glass of merlot your way. Who knows? What I do know is that

Deals containing clauses that threaten human rights are being debated in parliament – they must be defeated The government

Is it possible for a people to be so inured to cruelty that they changed, that their acts of sadism could alter their humanity?

There are, in reality, perhaps five main groups and at least some of our current politicians have their feet in more than one

Not even high-profile murder trials, let alone lesser offences, receive proper coverage any more – and that is a threat to justiceIt is 25 years since the remains of the victims of Fred and Rose West were first discovered at their Gloucester home. This week an

There is something seriously wrong with a society failing its citizens to such an extent that they fall prey to this kind of extremist rhetoric and are willing to give up everything to follow it through

More power to revolting MPs in these critical weeks. But the Independent Group will likely break under first-past-the-post Brexit breaks everything it touches, scything through the country, risking the union itself. Now it bites chunks out of

The breakaway party may give the politically homeless something to vote for, but until we have proportional representation, no party can promise the public that their votes will matter

In the event of a vote of no confidence in the government, all the opposition parties and factions can be expected to vote together as a bloc. They are within touching distance of being able to deprive May of power

Words matter when it comes to political declarations. But the prime minister is still claiming that it 'provides for the benefits' of a customs union when it does nothing of the sort

I blamed myself when Rasheed left. I didn't sleep for weeks, constantly thinking about what I could have done differently and how, as a mother, I had failed to protect him from radicalisation

The cold reality is there is no motivation for ministers to address the issue, and little faith that they’re up to the jobIt’s become practically a cliche of current politics to lament the way Brexit has pushed all other tasks off the agenda: leaving pressing issues like homelessness, climate change and social care to fester. What is rarely acknowledged, however, is that this is hardly a new phenomenon. While the European question has undeniably derailed Britain’s domestic agenda, the political class lost sight of the key social and economic issues of our times long ago.

Infantalising financial advice from Barclays won’t wash when young people can only dream of home ownershipYesterday, I was woken with a start by a call from someone who wanted me to talk on the radio about millennials, an age bracket that tops out at 37, and starts in the early 20s: I am not in this range. They had someone who was, but he pulled out, because millennials are

Yes, they’ll enjoy an extended honeymoon. But unlike the SDP in the 80s, this movement has misread the timesIf any breakaway “centrist” party was going to thrive, it was the Social Democratic party. Their founder members were political titans: David Owen, a former foreign secretary at the age of just 38; Shirley Williams, one of Labour’s most prominent women, an education secretary who fronted party political broadcasts; Roy Jenkins, a chancellor, deputy leader, president of the European commission and once a likely future leader. They had gravitas, intellectual heft – Jenkins was a prolific author – and a body of ideas. They received adulation in the media. At the end of 1981,

Confronting and understanding the disorder has been a lifelong journey for me. My memoir, Pure, is just the latest stepDefining obsessive-compulsive disorder is tricky. Redefining it against the grain of

The summit ordered by the pope on the scandal engulfing the Catholic church has find a way to end the cover-upsWhen I got married in 2003 it turned out that my wedding was caught up – unbeknown to me – in the abuse crisis that has engulfed the Catholic church. There were three Benedictine monk-priests there, one as celebrant, two as guests. One of the guests was later tried and acquitted of assaulting a child, although he was banned from living in his monastery. The other, David Pearce, would go on

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 8.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Helvetica; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} No matter what one thinks of the policy itself, Obamacare was politically brilliant. It's time AOC and her ilk took a leaf out of that playbook before it's too late

Britain is split down the middle on Brexit. In response the independent MPs have made a bold breakHeidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston are not the first MPs to

a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2019/feb/20/steve-bell-tory-defectors-independent-group-cartoon">Continue reading...

Michael Meadowcroft, Tony Greaves, Philip G Cerny,

Over 200 Jewish members and supporters of the Labour party sign a letter urging that anyone seeking an end to bigotry and racism should back Labour and CorbynYou report (

Paul Plummer

Investor-state dispute settlement is a threat to human rights, health and the environment, say representatives of trade unions, charities and faith groupsOn Thursday in parliament, MPs will get their

The Vatican should assist the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, says

Until the press become more mature, children will continue to need to have their privacy protected, writes

Manx nation | Hitler’s declaration of war on the US | The Oldham Chronicle | Bus Stop by the Hollies | Sajid JavidIt’s not just museums that are hoarding other peoples’ historical artefacts (

The prime minister has been complicit in her party’s capture by a narrow, hardline factionThe pro-European wing of the Conservative party has traditionally been more loyal to its leaders and more inclined towards compromise than the Eurosceptic faction. That is one reason why Wednesday’s decision by three remain-supporting Tory MPs to

The hasty decision to take away the rights of a high-profile Isis recruit is likely to face a legal challenge. Whether or not it was lawful, it was wrongThe shocking and shameful decision to strip

The president continues to drive out elements of the GOP which are critical to its success in the future. Those who are hanging on to the president's current strategy and behaving as though it is a recipe for future success are kidding themselves

He wants to defend national security and impress a public understandably appalled by Begum. Yet she may be a larger threat to western security as a stateless figure at large

The Independent Group seems to want to return to a politics in which David Cameron and Ed Miliband were on the same side – it never happened

The campaign for a Final Say referendum needs to build up its momentum – if I can use the word – with Leave voters, not merely making passionate pro-Europeans to feel ever more aggrieved

The level of scrutiny the Duchess of Sussex receives is devoid of human feeling. This vilification must end Last month

a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/feb/15/dr-julian-pratt-obituary" title="">Julian Pratt

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

The far-right has a long history of pretending to be friends with LGBT+ people — at the end of the day, this neo-colonialist effort will only serve to bolster Trump's hardline Republicans and alienate developing countries

Without women like her taking a stand, it's likely that we'll have the sullied careers of many more men foisted upon us in the near future

Institutions need to be transparent about their legacies of imperialism and theft – and confront the issue of repatriationMuseums are in crisis. In the past, their social role has been taken for granted – they’re spaces for preserving objects and educating the deferential public that comes to admire them. It’s a tidy, completist dream: wouldn’t it be nice to see the whole of human history, free and open to all?

Bernie 2020 is not a protest campaign. It is a campaign which generated $3.3m in its first 12 hours. In 2016, Bernie told me he didn't expect to become president — now everything is different

Members of the queer community across the world use social media as an escape from the constraints of life in a country where they are unable to live freely

The government's reporting rules only require businesses to admit they have a problem. That doesn't mean they'll feel compelled to do anything about it

The change we're requesting is so small as far as government policy is concerned – we're asking for the UK to catch up with the rest of the western world

Many British black people are targeted on the basis of their hair, but now there is a precedent for dealing with thisNew York City’s new legal guidance on discrimination

How did three unaccompanied teenage girls board a plane to Turkey? Because we do not have effective border checks at our ports and airports

If party leaders keep Labour and Conservative firmly at the hard left and right of British politics, then the next election will be very interesting indeed for a newcomer

The Conservatives cannot afford to decline into a sect which drives out its moderate wingIf the resignation of

Egypt tried to rehabilitate returning jihadis from Afghanistan and Chechnya – and it paid a terrible price for believing their views could be changed

If they are serious about fixing ‘broken politics’, they should join us in backing a fairer voting system

The Tory breakaway is remarkably similar to the Labour one in that its cause is something that happened some time ago

Some have already begun reporting that they've received islamophobic abuse in public following Begum's plea to return

The home secretary’s political ambitions are shamefully exposed by this playing to the galleryPolitics has always, to some extent, been the art of combining doing what’s right with doing what’s in one’s own political interests. It would be naive to pretend otherwise. But in recent months – with a weak prime minister desperately trying to cling on to power, and senior Tories hungrily eyeing the top job – it feels like naked political ambition is shaping real-world outcomes more than ever before. Nowhere is that more evident than in Sajid Javid’s

If we want to make progress with FGM, we need to first tackle our outdated, misogynistic views on sex The

We know precisely what US multinationals want because they told us last month: a range of standard-slashing policies that would undermine our rights and protections, as well as the livelihoods of many workers, farmers and citizens

Workers in UK plants like Swindon should be at the forefront of the global shift to building cleaner vehiclesHonda’s announcement that it is closing

Despite the advances made towards gender equality, mothers are still too often seen as the primary caregivers, and their children's schooling, emotional wellbeing and behaviours still largely regarded as their jurisdiction

The government's decision is lazy, illiberal and sets a bad precedent

Defence contractors are in Abu Dhabi this week for the Middle East’s biggest arms fair – supported to the hilt by UK ministers A Khaleeji bagpipe band, a colourful aircraft display, a performance by the Armenian Military Orchestra and a big show of support from the Emirate royal families. These were some of the touches at Sunday’s

I have been a Labour Party member for nearly 60 years and I have no intention of moving on anywhere else. I do, however, want to see the party shifting its focus to getting back into power

I went cold turkey on buying clothes – and learned that it will take more than taxes to slow the march of fast fashionI’ve always thought of myself as someone who cares about the environment. I’ve recycled for as long as I can remember, I’m on my way to having a plastic-free kitchen and I always try to take public transport instead of driving. But until last year I was guilty of unknowingly contributing to 1m tonnes of waste a year, more carbon emissions than the shipping and aviation industries combined, and microplastics ending up in the ocean – just by buying new clothes. A cross-party report has found that people today buy and discard clothes faster than ever, and it means we get rid of more than 1m tonnes of clothes a year, with £140m worth going to landfill every year. The implications of this are so bad that there have been

Courage and conviction may not be enough – that’s something I learned from other movements’ failuresThis one has to succeed. It is not just that the

Leaving the EU is costing us billions – and this drain will continue until business gets some clarity on trading conditionsThe news from Honda that it will be closing its Swindon factory in 2022