By Laurie Penny
The people of Britain understand the political potential of the internet like nobody else in the West. We have a ferocious craving for democratic involvement, in part because we have been denied it for so long within our democracy, and electronic engagement offers us a...

By Laurie Penny

My partner suffers from a joint disorder which requires regular operations, paid for by the British NHS. His most recent procedure was performed without anaesthetic by a drunken surgeon wielding a rusty hacksaw. As I forced a mouldy rag between his teeth to stop him...

By Anthony Painter

Asperger's Syndrome is characterized in part by obsessive and compulsive behavior and the failure of the sufferer to empathize with others' emotions, including distress. Much has been written about Gary McKinnon -- the UFO-fanatical British hacker who allegedly caused $500,000 worth of damage to Pentagon and...

By Laurie Pennie

One of the few things that nearly all nations have in common is ideological control over women's bodies as political territory. The French government this week reasserted that control, mounting the latest in its string of socio-sartorial sallies against Muslim female dress, as André Gerin, backed by...

By Laurie Penny

While the rest of the world has been distracted by Susan Boyle, the people of Britain have just sent two representatives of a far-right, white supremacist party to the European Parliament. Yep, you read that right. Almost a million excuses for my fellow countrymen just voted...

By Rowenna Davis

A few months ago a best friend of mine turned up on my doorstep with a bundle of suitcases. She and her husband had been forced to leave their New York home after he was diagnosed with degenerative arthritis. The drugs he needed to keep him...

By Anthony Painter

The British can be pretty slow on the uptake. Never have we been the slower than on the fundamental need to detonate and then rebuild our democracy. The simple fact is that our parliamentary system is a relic; it was out of date the minute the...