It is both amusing and revealing to watch Suella Braverman talk about race, identity, belonging and citizenship. Her comments can be dumbfounding, not least because they confuse the issues, subvert reality and reflect a completely disjointed understanding of what is indeed a complex matter, yet also a relatively straightforward one. The old adage that you…… Continue reading Englishness Is Not an Ethnicity
Tag: Nationalism
Can We Unite the Kingdom? Class, grievance and the politics of division: reflections from Birmingham
On the evening of 23 September 2026, the Dialogue Society held the third in its series of conversations on polarisation and extremism at BRIG Café on Allison Street in Birmingham. The title was “Can we unite the Kingdom when money and class continue to divide us?” The panel brought together Dr Nathan Kerrigan, Cherie-Louise Waddingham…… Continue reading Can We Unite the Kingdom? Class, grievance and the politics of division: reflections from Birmingham
A Journey into Bosnia’s Wounds
I’ve taken my notebook with me on this four-day trip to Bosnia. A visit to a country that I have been wanting to see for years is finally happening, as I take part in the group visit organised by a local charity that aims to enhance cross-cultural and interreligious dialogue and engagement – a worthy…… Continue reading A Journey into Bosnia’s Wounds
Who Gets to Be British? The Far Right’s Dangerous Conflation
Imagine standing in a crowded town square, watching a mob chant about “taking our country back”, while a young man of South Asian descent clutches his dark blue passport — a document that legally declares “British Citizen” but is treated by the rioters as a worthless piece of paper. I am keen to explore the…… Continue reading Who Gets to Be British? The Far Right’s Dangerous Conflation
Reading the Tables, Not the Headlines: What Britain Under Strain Leaves Out
The UK Extremism and Democratic Resilience Centre has launched with an inaugural report, Britain Under Strain, authored by Dame Sara Khan and Dr Matthew Godwin. It arrives with the grammar of alarm already fixed: a broken social contract, a collapsed cordon sanitaire, the mainstreaming of extremism, and a nation whose foundational bargain is failing. Much…… Continue reading Reading the Tables, Not the Headlines: What Britain Under Strain Leaves Out
When Tolerance Fractures: How Everyday Exclusion Fuels Political Violence in the Netherlands
The Myth That Cracked For decades, the Netherlands wore its reputation for tolerance like a badge of honour. Amsterdam’s canals, the country’s liberal social policies, and its historical embrace of multiculturalism created an image of a nation that had solved the puzzle of living together across difference. Yet scratch beneath this polished surface, and a…… Continue reading When Tolerance Fractures: How Everyday Exclusion Fuels Political Violence in the Netherlands
The Weaponisation of Racial Inequality: How the Far Right Sells Working-Class Communities a Lie
There is a dangerous fiction taking hold in British politics, and it is being sold hardest to those who have the least. Across the airwaves, in manifestos, and through social media channels, the far right and populist radical right are pushing a single, seductive message: that diversity, inclusion and equity initiatives are themselves a source…… Continue reading The Weaponisation of Racial Inequality: How the Far Right Sells Working-Class Communities a Lie
From Tragedy to Backlash: How the Henry Nowak Murder Became a Flashpoint for Racism, Islamophobia, and the Sikh Community
On 3 December 2025, an 18-year-old accountancy student named Henry Nowak was walking home from a night out in Southampton when he encountered Vickrum Digwa, a 23-year-old Sikh man. What followed was a brutal altercation that ended with Nowak stabbed five times – once fatally through the heart – with an eight-inch ceremonial blade. Digwa…… Continue reading From Tragedy to Backlash: How the Henry Nowak Murder Became a Flashpoint for Racism, Islamophobia, and the Sikh Community
Nothing in the Middle: Makerfield and the Unravelling of Britain
There is a road south-west of Wigan where the old order is quietly dying. On 18 June, the towns of the Makerfield constituency — Ashton-in-Makerfield, Bryn, Hindley, and Abram — will choose a new MP, and what looks on paper like a routine by-election is really a referendum on whether Britain still has a recognisable…… Continue reading Nothing in the Middle: Makerfield and the Unravelling of Britain
The Three Lives of Faragism: How British Populism Reinvented Itself – and Built Its Own Trap
When the UK voted to leave the European Union in 2016, many commentators assumed Nigel Farage’s political story had reached its final chapter. After all, what use is an anti-EU insurgency once the country has actually left the EU? The assumption was simple: Faragism was a single-issue fever, and the fever would break as soon…… Continue reading The Three Lives of Faragism: How British Populism Reinvented Itself – and Built Its Own Trap