On the 19th of November, Sia released the trailer for her first cinematic experience: ‘Music’. This film claims to portray the experiences of a non-verbal autistic girl, indeed, the unifying experience of life with autism – a claim which Sia no doubt expected praise for attempting. On a surface level, the best of ‘Music’ can…
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You didn’t fail your exams, exams failed you
The UK government has just announced a series of measures to make GCSEs and A-levels easier next year, as a result of teaching lost due to COVID. These include more generous grading, advance notice of topics to aid revision, and the option of sitting exams in July if they are missed for illness or self-isolating….
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Digital censorship threatens personal liberty
Being critical online of one’s state, of one’s government, and of one’s national leadership is perhaps something we Brits take for granted. A quick scroll through Twitter under #UKPolitics (or anything remotely adjacent) will find seemingly infinite opinions of the Johnson ministry, ranging from left-wing criticism to right-wing praise. Similarly, searching for #Labour will return…
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Is it unfair to lift lockdown for Christmas?
It’s Christmas Eve 2020: A glistening tree decorated with tinsel and fully working lights (miracle!) stands tall and bushy, hiding carefully wrapped gifts underneath and filling the living room with festive joy where countless Christmas movies will soon be watched with family. Arrangements have been made to visit grandparents and other family members you haven’t…
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Uni students need to be able to go home
I am not normally one to praise our current government, which is why it somewhat pains me to admit when Universities Minister Michelle Donelan was making TV appearances to discuss the government’s plan to get students home for Christmas, I was impressed. While I did not agree with everything she said, here was someone who…
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Questions of dependency: government or charity?
The UK has never faced a major natural disaster. Unlike countries around the ring of fire, nature does not play a huge part in our town planning, government budget, or psyche. What we have discovered with Covid-19 is we are out of our depth. Let me use the example of a tsunami. Tsunamis are caused…
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Harmless entertainment or bang out of order?
With lockdown’s cancellation of organised public displays over Halloween and Bonfire Night bringing a rise in home use, concerns over the government’s unwillingness to reform the current legal regulations for purchasing pyrotechnics have manifested into a parliamentary e-petition with over 200,000 signatures to date. As the law stands, anyone over 18 can purchase fireworks through…
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Manchester: representing the North-South power struggle
The government has a track record of mistreating Manchester, from Margaret Thatcher’s conscious policy to destroy the city’s heavy industries, to the limited assistance the city received in 2010 when the Multiple Deprivation Index announced it had the fourth most deprived local council in the country, the government has always played a role in how…
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JK Rowling is not a “private citizen” in the public arena
On October 1st, the president of Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment Inc., David Haddad, held a company Q&A with his employees to address some of their recent concerns. Unsurprisingly, given Warner Bros own and oversee the global Harry Potter franchise, which includes the upcoming video game, Hogwarts Legacy, a particularly controversial topic reared its ugly head:…
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