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Democracy - should UMSU try it some time?

Max Earp investigates how democratic and representative University of Manchester Student Union is. [Full Article]

The importance of Twitter to political news and journalism

Download Interview 20-minute documentary featuring interviews with former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, his son David, Conservative blogger Iain Dale and Lib Dem Head of Press Sean Kemp. Gone are the days of the press jumping on the Twitter bandwagon, the days when every other story on the Guardian’s website [Full Article]

Election 2010 : We’ve got an ‘app’ for that?

As the 2010 elections approach, Jessica Brown asks how we can banish voting apathy to the archives Oh, iPhone (or similarly intelligent means of communication by other brand), how did we live without you? Your glossy screen, your beautiful buttons, your clever craftsmanship. Mostly, how did we capably exist without an ‘app’ to determine whether we truly were the perpetrator of stinking breakfasty breath? The rise of reality, ‘app’ based society has been important in the formation of noughties society, leading many influential figures, Simon Cowell in particular, to suggest the formatting of this style of communication within our political life. [Full Article]

Diary of a news reporter: Tony Blair at the Chilcot Inquiry

Tony Blair at the Chilcot Inquiry was always going to be a big deal so I’d asked Keith, Reuters’ UK Chief Correspondent, if I could come down and help cover it, imagining it to be an exciting time to be in their offices. I headed down there for the lunchtime break around half [Full Article]

Diary of a news reporter Part Two: Hunger Strikes Outside the US Embassy

Around 3pm one of the Guardian’s News Editors showed me a press release about a woman who was staging a hunger strike outside the US embassy. She had been for 17 days but had just announced that she would no longer be drinking any fluids as she was being ignored by everyone: the US government, the British government and the media. Not a single media outlet had spoken about her plight. [Full Article]

Diary of a news reporter: Penguins and Parliament

I arrived on a January morning to meet Keith, Reuters’ UK Chief Correspondent, at the company’s offices just off Fleet Street. He immediately suggested I head over to London Zoo for their annual stock take, an opportunity for the Zoological Society of London to invite the media down and show off keepers with pens and clipboards alongside their most interesting animals. [Full Article]

University for all?

We all know what university education does for us as individuals and for that we are willing to invest small fortunes into it. But what is its purpose and how does it function in the wider social structure? And, indeed, is it functioning well toward this purpose? [Full Article]

David Cameron’s poster campaign airbrushes over the cracks

The unveiling of David Cameron’s campaign poster evoked the mirth and derision of many, including some personal jibes from Gordon Brown, usually the most somber of characters. In the PMQs following the leader of the opposition’s campaign launch, Brown repeatedly mocked and ridiculed Cameron, pointing out that even the poster has “better lines on it than those you are giving today.” The Prime Minister here raised several issues, perhaps most alarmingly that the man likely to become the leader of this country is obsessed with his own image, to the point that it foregrounds his entire campaign. [Full Article]

In defence of university Islamic Societies

It is a most unfortunate fact that the beliefs and practices Muslims today eyed with a degree of suspicion that they are understandably not comfortable with, however true these fears might be. The attempted bombing on Boxing Day, of a plane heading from Amsterdam to Detroit, only served to make matters worse. The degree of suspicion has now been increased to an extent that has brought Islamic societies (aka. 'ISOCs') under the microscope- particularly after the revelation that the man who tried to blow up the plane heading for Detroit, Umar Farouq Abdulmutallab, was a former President of his ISOC at one of the world's most reputable academic institutions, University College London (UCL). [Full Article]

Hail Griffin?

Charles Bailey explores the claim that the BNP are a Nazi Party. [Full Article]

Having Faith

A German market has sprung up down the streets of Manchester, a luminous Father Christmas the size of the marshmallow monster from Ghostbusters appeared outside the town hall and first thing in the morning I am allowed to eat chocolate tasting of cardboard. It is hard to escape from the run up to Christmas and the occasional popping up of the question of ‘the real meaning of Christmas’. So what better time to look at the difficult question of how faith and religious groups play a part in politics? [Full Article]

The dangers of continuing politics by other means

We in Britain are lucky that when we talk about politics, we rarely have to mention the army and it is easy to forget how the army relates to the politics that shape it and dictate its actions. We take its absolute subservience and its absence from the political arena for granted but there are some worrying shifts in attitude that may lead to a politicised military. [Full Article]

The Politics of Art and the Art of Politics

Last week I retreated to the tranquil Yorkshire village where my parents live to blitz through an essay. Despite replacing the Manchester sirens with birds and having a full stomach of homemade soup I was in a very bad mood. As I stomped down to the kitchen to refill my hot Ribena the thought came upon me that listening to Nightwish for the entire afternoon might not be the best way to a peaceful and balanced mind. [Full Article]

A very European date

If Europe is to have these positions, we should a least go at them all guns blazing rather than with a women who like ‘quiet diplomacy’ and a man whose most noticeable attribute is that his name sounds suspiciously like ‘Rumpy Pumpy’. [Full Article]

The politician’s Catch 22

Have you ever been left weak at the knees by a politician? Do you have a shrine to a cabinet minister next to your mirror? No? Well, I think it would be safe to say you are in the same boat as most of the country [Full Article]

Sad times for Labour

Labour’s by-election victory in safe seat Glasgow should do little to settle Brown’s sleepless nights [Full Article]

The scandal of Nuttgate

Our Government seems to think that the facts of the case can be changed if they don't fit their preferred narrative, but they can't. [Full Article]

Labour: 'Backing young Britain'?

Last fortnight 15 graduates and final year students met with Liam Byrne MP, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury (as well as a former Communications Officer of the University of Manchester Students’ Union no less) and Lucy Powell, Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Manchester Withington, to discuss the problems they’re facing in an increasingly closed down graduate employment market. [Full Article]

Caution Political line: The End of History

The proclamation 20 years ago that ‘the end of history’ had been reached did not mean, disappointingly, an end to learning timelines about the British textile industry. It was stated by a rather over zealous American academic who thought that the dominance of the West after the Cold War meant that the peak of human state organisation had been reached with liberal democracy. [Full Article]

Caution Political Line: Trust me, I’m a journalist

With the nights drawing in and the pavements crisping up with frost it can mean only one thing; the return of audience participation driven reality shows, giving magazines and newspapers something cheap, easy and lucrative to write about. An interesting aspect of shows like X-Factor is that, contrary to what is often believed, those who are slated by the media and the judges can often prove to be the most popular – just take this year’s twins in shiny suits and the popularity of John Sergeant dragging his dance partner across the floor last year. [Full Article]

Focus on focus group politics

WHAT LINKS terrorists, thugs and paedophiles? No it's not a joke, it's politics - ID cards, ASBOs and CRB (Criminal Record and Background) checks. The three issues provoke, deep controversy, yet the government has been determined to muscle them through. How could the government misread public sentiment so spectacularly? Before we take the easy, conspiratorial option and claim it's the government trying to gain more control over our everyday lives, we must look closer at how this type of legislation comes about. [Full Article]

Caution Political Line: Don’t mention the F-word

In a second year politics lecture on development I learnt that if you wanted to kill an idea dead in the water before it could be explained you name part of it ‘radical’ and the other ‘feminism’. [Full Article]

Caution Political Line: Do a little dance...

I took my first salsa lesson the other day. I was extremely excited to have found something enjoyable to count as my weekly exercise. And then my partner and I struck a problem. Someone had to lead. It is impossible in dancing (and I checked with several people) not to have a leader - one of you thinks and the other follows (granted with a sexy sway of the hips rather than demurely, but the image still didn’t sit well with me). Plus, there were certain conundrums which I had difficulty understanding; Why is it necessarily the man? Do you still follow if they forget the steps? The Vice-President of the Dance Society answered that custom dictates that it is the man who leads as they tend to be taller and are the base for the fancy steps, if they forget those steps, you just keep following them into impending disaster. With the answers to these questions burning in my guts, we took to the floor. [Full Article]

60 years of China as we know it

Andrew Speke sends a special report from Beijing on the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China Thursday October 1 marked the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and, unsurprisingly, the celebrations were major international news. As has been well documented this consisted of a grand military parade, fireworks, mass student participation – and only 30,000 invited guests able to view the parade in person. Great focus in particular was placed on the weather and the government’s decision to do its utmost to control it, in order to prevent storms from hampering the big day. This indeed worked a treat and two days later, as I write this, the sun is still shining boldly over Beijing. [Full Article]