Cameron must be pressed on Britain’s involvement in Yemen
Yemen, at present, is in the midst of a civil war which, since it started last March, has cost nearly 6,000 lives and brought about a humanitarian crisis in what…
Supporting Sanders can be a feminist choice
‘There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t support each other’ says Madeleine Albright, former American politician and the first woman to serve as the US Secretary of…
Do history months promote recognition or exclusion?
This month is LGBTQ+ History month, and over twenty events are taking place at Sussex, making it the university’s biggest LGBTQ+ History Month to date. This annual observance has only…
Should controversial personalities be muted by petitions? A lesson for Trump and Roosh V
Over the past few years online petitions have gained great popularity within the UK. The scheme of collecting signatures in order to achieve change and justice has proven successful on…
Reinventing the Barbie
Josie Mortimer, Jessica Kraft and Ludovica Fioravanti analyse the reinvention of the Barbie doll. Since her conception in 1959, Barbie has ruled girl-world, and has long been considered the standard…
Dry January: ‘a secular penance’?
Since time immemorial, our partially evolved and imperfect species have marked and charted the passing of our days not simply by the cycles of the moon, or the changing of…
Cameron and Brussels: progress or hot air?
Mr Cameron’s latest round of diplomacy in Brussels has confirmed once again that nothing is straight-forward in the city of compromise. Cameron has been offered a hybrid version of the…
Cecil Rhodes: Erase history or contextualise it?
Last week Oriel College at the University of Oxford released a statement asserting that the statue of politician, colonialist and benefactor Cecil Rhodes will remain on the building’s high street…
Howard Pilott: “The environment will force the hand of the world”
It doesn’t feel like the setting for talk of revolution. It’s a rainy day in Lewes, and I’m sat in Howard Pilott’s large open plan kitchen as he stands distractedly…
Declassified information from a ‘Co-operative’
As I stand wearily, staring into the infinite abyss of misery and dread, I ask myself ‘how did I get into this situation?’ I attempt to fathom what sins I…
Terrorism and temporary profile pictures
So another wave of “change your profile picture to show ” has erupted over Facebook in the last week. Around half of my current friends list have placed an overlay…
Facebook’s French flags: an act of solidarity or Eurocentric bias?
On the evening of Friday 13th November my friends and I sat in a darkened bar hunched over a phone, pints abandoned, furiously trying to follow the barrage of tweets…
Champagne socialist: An origin story
The term ‘champagne socialist’ has fascinated me for a long time. The term is used, usually as an insult, to describe someone who is middle class and acknowledge themselves to…
The Big Debate: Should “Jihadi John” have been given a fair trial?
Yes Is bombing the hell out of an executioner really the ‘right thing to do’? An executioner only acts on orders, and this (unconfirmed) killing won’t stop or even slow…
Silencing the student voice: London free education demo
The Free Education Demonstration, which took place in London last Wednesday, attracted a large turnout of student protesters – around 10,000, including many Sussex students – all there for different…
Tuition fee protesters are betraying poor students
Barely a month goes by now, when swathes of central London are not shut down for another mass protest by the eternally entitled hordes of middle-class students who have taken…
Catcalling: Why no-one is ever asking for it
It’s 2pm on a fairly warm afternoon in June, I’m on my way to the station, meeting friends in Brixton for a rooftop day party. I’m wearing black jeans, a…
We need to talk about depression and suicide
It has been more than ten years since I first started suffering from depression, when I was first engulfed by the ‘black cloud’. After having my self-esteem ripped away by…
Is violent protest ever acceptable?
Violence talks. Let’s face it, when people sit in streets, hold their banners and shout, a nice newspaper might write an article about them but no one will seriously listen.…
Peace for Paris
Trying to write about something like this is difficult, because words just cannot capture the scale or scope of emotion: horror, despair, fear; these are felt, not read; experienced, not…