Reading for Battle

Battle Readings is a regularly updated compilation of articles, essays, and opinion pieces relevant to the themes of the Battle of Ideas.

Choose a theme from the listing on the left to narrow your search, or view all readings.

Politics & Ideology

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Islamophobia: Why we have to get over our fears
Are we conflating run of the mill prejudice that a few may encounter with a national epidemic of irrational hatred against Muslims? Or is the cry of ‘Islamophobia’ simply a way of deflecting legitimate criticism of certain backward ideas associated with religion in general; and conservative Islam in particular? When we talk about Islamophobia, what is it we are really talking about?
Rania Hafez, Independent, 7 November 2011

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Dreaming spires for all? Only if we face up to some hard truths
There’s a fundamental problem at the heart of our education system: private schools educate around 7% of students yet account for 44.6% of students at Oxford.
Jacob Reynolds, Independent, 5 November 2011

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Fat tax: Does obesity really cost society a fortune?
The regular calls for a fat tax – whether on the ‘wrong’ foods or on fat people themselves – are symptomatic of two regressive trends in society.
Rob Lyons, Independent, 3 November 2011

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Charities should accept their game is up
The Big Society, while profoundly irritating for many in the charity sector, was the culmination of an ever more intimate relationship between state and the so-called civil-society sector. Consequently, far from making us more free, it has only further ingrained a long-standing relationship of dependence.
Dave Clements, Independent, 1 November 2011

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A world of seven billion people like you
When the world’s population reaches seven billion in late October it should be a cause for immense celebration. Not only has the population increased seven-fold since 1800 but we have become enormously better off through economic growth and technological innovation.
Daniel Ben-Ami, Independent, 31 October 2011

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Corporate Social Responsibility – more harm than good
The purpose of CSR today is to act on behalf of governments that can’t be trusted and for people who don’t know what’s good for them.
Bill Durodie, Independent, 31 October 2011

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Why so-called corporate social responsibility is not the answer to our problems
One need not be a capitalist die-hard, announcing that “the business of business is business”, or suggesting that anything other than enhancing shareholder value is an aberration, to note a few problems and inconsistencies with CSR.
Bill Durodie, City AM, 24 October 2011

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Should we learn to be happy with the crumbs that fall to us?
It is amazing that today we can imagine Karl Marx warning us not to envy the social position of the ruling class. In fact, he was cautioning that we should never be content with the crumbs that fall to us.
Ashley Frawley, Independent, 21 October 2011

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Would aliens prove that humans are nothing special?
Richard Swan and Sandy Starr debate the significance that finding alien life would have on humanity.
Richard Swan and Sandy Starr, InDebate, October 2011

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Cameron's a lizard, Miliband's a robot, Winston Churchill would kill his own mother. Political insults aren't new
Charlie Brooker, as is his way, spent several paragraphs explaining in considerable detail that David Cameron, the Prime Minister, is in fact a large venomous lizard which eats horses. Graeme Archer described this as symptomatic of "the tragedy of the modern Left": a tendency to demonise and dehumanise its opponents.
Tom Chivers, Daily Telegraph, 17 October 2011

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