The Gorton and Denton by-election has transcended the typical local skirmish to become a high-stakes referendum on the soul of British politics. As voters prepare to head to the polls on 26 February, the constituency has transformed into a laboratory where three distinct political eras are colliding: the entrenched localism of the Greens, the transatlantic…… Continue reading The Gorton and Denton By-Election: A Laboratory of Post-Labour Politics
Author: prof.t.abbas
The Secular Paradox: Why Britain’s Non-Religious Aren’t as Tolerant as You Think
The Hook: A Nation in Transition The prevailing “Progressive Secular Narrative” has long suggested that as the foundations of “Christian Britain” crumble, they are naturally replaced by a more inclusive, tolerant civic identity. The logic is enticingly simple: as religious dogma and “blood and soil” nationalisms fade, the frictions associated with them should vanish. We…… Continue reading The Secular Paradox: Why Britain’s Non-Religious Aren’t as Tolerant as You Think
The Geography of Discontent Revisited
New Publication: The Geography of Discontent RevisitedAccepted at National Identities I’m pleased to share that my latest paper, The Geography of Discontent Revisited: Decoupling Attitudinal Clustering and Affective Intensification in Urban Britain, has been accepted for publication in National Identities. This piece represents several years of work as scientific coordinator for the Horizon 2020 DRIVE…… Continue reading The Geography of Discontent Revisited
Beyond the Neighborhood: 5 Surprising Truths About Islamophobia in Modern Britain
In the wake of the 2024 Southport riots and a 2025 political climate defined by Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s warnings of social fragmentation, a convenient but lazy narrative has taken hold: the idea that multiculturalism has “failed” because of where we live. Political leaders routinely point to segregated neighborhoods and “parallel lives” as the engine…… Continue reading Beyond the Neighborhood: 5 Surprising Truths About Islamophobia in Modern Britain
Immigration Rhetoric and the Politics of ‘Colonisation’ in Modern Britain
The comments from Sir Jim Ratcliffe in relation to the idea that Britain has been colonised by immigrants need careful unpacking. This is a man who lives in Monaco as a tax exile, avoiding £4 billion in taxation; he is arguably Britain’s seventh-richest man and is a part-owner of Manchester United Football Club. These comments…… Continue reading Immigration Rhetoric and the Politics of ‘Colonisation’ in Modern Britain
How I get the best out of ‘free’ AI/LLM tools. I’ve done the research so you don’t have to.
Everyone is using LLMs to help with their work – why wouldn’t you? Well, there is a good answer to that – which is that it is not possible to rely on the outputs it produces when it thinks for itself, even at your request. It literally guesses and often hallucinates. It cannot know enough…… Continue reading How I get the best out of ‘free’ AI/LLM tools. I’ve done the research so you don’t have to.
What a terrible week it’s been for British politics, and I have my own Peter Mandelson story
Some events have the ability to truly shake up our political landscape in ways that have significant and lingering impacts for years, if not decades, ahead. Many are currently talking about a political scandal of this nature. One is related to a certain Peter Mandelson, who, up until very recently, was appointed as the UK…… Continue reading What a terrible week it’s been for British politics, and I have my own Peter Mandelson story
The Granite Mask
Biological Stasis and the Eternal Recurrence of Domination in the Anthropocene On the impossibility of transcendence and the 21st-century perfection of the extractive machine Introduction: The Unchanged Animal The human genome contains a secret that twenty-first-century optimism refuses to acknowledge: we are, biologically, the same creature that emerged from the East African savannah approximately 300,000…… Continue reading The Granite Mask
The Iran I’ve Always Wanted to Visit – and the One That Exists Today
Iran has fascinated me for as long as I can remember thinking about civilisation and culture. It is one of the cradles of civilisation, the home of ancient Babylonians and Persians who fought the Romans and Greeks and created the basis of modern-day civilisations. Their culture, science, art, philosophy, and literature remain as rich and…… Continue reading The Iran I’ve Always Wanted to Visit – and the One That Exists Today
Five Reasons People Distrust the Government
(Hint: It’s Not Just About Money) Introduction: The Widening Chasm of Trust It’s a feeling that’s hard to escape: political trust is at an all-time low and society feels more fragmented than ever. We often assume that when people lose faith in their government, it’s because their wallets are lighter and the economy is struggling.…… Continue reading Five Reasons People Distrust the Government