As I was leaving a poker game at the School of African and Oriental Studies a week ago I saw some bloke removing a flyer from one of the trees outside. It was a manifesto for Clare Solomon’s election campaign for presidency of the University of London Union. Upon my questioning him he said something [...]
Guest post by Ben Lyons
What do Blue Peter and John Bercow have in common? Neither of them pay their interns. With an increasingly competitive employment market, getting a job today often relies less on your interview skills than your ability to intern for free. An article in the New Statesman this week highlights this problem, [...]
This is a guest post by Francesca Rose Lewis.
Much has been written recently on the malaise (if not quite death) of feminism. In 2006 Ariel Levy’s Female Chauvinist Pigs bemoaned the desire of women to become sex objects in a perverse re-reading of female power. Germaine Greer went on Celebrity Big Brother, and, in the [...]
This week the identity of one of the internet’s most infamous bloggers was revealed. Belle de Jour, who wrote anonymously about her life as a highly paid call girl turned out to be Dr Brook Magnanti, 34, a research scientist in Bristol. Cue moral outrage and titillation – the favourite combination of the right-wing press.
“By [...]
The recession seems to have become a pantomime this week. At every opportunity the Chancellor tells us: “it’s behind you”, then the Office of National Statistics (ONS) yell: “Oh no it isn’t!” So are we in recession or aren’t we? There’s an easy answer to this – some of us are and some of us [...]
For all of you unionists out there, there’s an interesting-looking free conference on in London this Saturday called by SOAS UCU, SOAS Unison, and SOAS Students’ Union.
“Hands off my Workmate Conference
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Saturday 17th October 2009
10am to 5.30pm
On the 12th June this year, the School of Oriental and African [...]
The left are keen on talking about theory and praxis. And often we end up talking about them in such general terms that what we say can become meaningless. The concepts of both theory and praxis are used as if we are talking about completely nebulous objects, or we talk in such abstraction that associating [...]
Pay audits are a start – but the real way to end gender inequality would be to increase paternity leave
I’m getting to that age now where friends of mine are starting to have children on purpose. Personally, I don’t want them. Certainly not at the moment – my flat is so tiny they would have [...]
Lately there has been much hoo har about the government’s new scheme for preventing unsuitable people coming into contact with kids. Under rules that go into force next year, millions of adults – including authors who visit schools, and parents who drive kids around for sports clubs – will need to register with the Independent [...]
For a long time now, I have been meaning to sit down and have a long and proper look at the money I give to charity. Alas, a lack full-time permanent employment has been a steady defence of my inability to act upon this until this now. This can’t go on indefinitely – its time to make some decisions. But there are a lot of tricky questions to consider.
