Last year the recruitment figures were billed as a success: more than 700 Nigerians recruited into UK prisons, accounting for nearly one-third of overseas applications into the service and a 12 % share of hires. The headline read well. But the picture today is very different—and hugely worrying. Because while the service faced deep staffing…
Child Imprisonment in England and Wales: The Case for Abolition By Jodie Hodgson England and Wales imprison more children than any other country in Western Europe despite overwhelming evidence that custody harms rather than helps. The average child custody population in 2023–24 was 430, with nearly half held on remand. These children, often already traumatised,…
On 13 November 2025, the Government announced that the role of elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) will be abolished before the end of this Parliament. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood described the system as a “failed experiment” and promised that its removal would save £100 million over the next few years. The current 41 commissioners…
After the traumatic removal of her children, Amy Van Zyl turned her pain into purpose. Through Her Circle, the organisation she founded in 2020, Amy now supports women facing what she calls “complex motherhood”, those experiencing overlapping challenges such as domestic abuse, poverty, addiction, and poor mental health. “I had a mental health breakdown, and…
Claudia Sheinbaum, the first female President of Mexico, has been sexually assaulted in the middle of the street, in broad daylight. A video circling on social media shows a visibly drunken man coming up behind the President as she is greeting a group of citizens on Tuesday 4th of November. He embraces her from behind,…
Sodexo began by serving lunch and now it runs prisons where people have died in their cells. Founded in Marseille in 1966 as a modest catering business, the company has expanded into a global services empire, managing everything from hospital meals to justice and probation services. But behind the glossy rhetoric of “quality of life”…
Shein has hit the Parisian highstreet, opening their first physical store in the Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville (BHV) shopping centre amid a child sex doll scandal and cries of outrage from French public and politicians alike. The online marketplace has long been acknowledged as the epitome of the fashion industry’s worst aspects: over-consumerism, environmental…
On the 11th of November 2025, veteran labour MP Barry Gardiner appeared on Newsnight and delivered a line that has since echoed across political circles: “The race between Keir Starmer PM and Wes Streeting is like a race between a Narcissist and his reflection.” It was a moment of brutal clarity in a party that…
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is one of the most severe forms of gender-based violence, yet it remains shrouded in silence across much of the world. Despite legal bans, millions of girls continue to be cut every year. At the heart of the movement to end this practice is The Vavengers, a UK-based, survivor-led charity turning…
Every day across India, millions of flowers are offered at temples, weddings, and festivals — only to be discarded hours later. This “sacred waste” often clogs rivers, fills landfills, and releases harmful gases. But a growing movement is transforming what was once pollution into purpose. In Turning Petals into Purpose, writer Jhanvi Kaur explores how…