YES: Kelvin Hopkins has been Labour MP for Luton North since 1997. An economist by training, he is on the Left of the party. Most of his working life has been spent within the trade union movement, including five years at the Trades Union Congress. He is a champion of lifelong learning. During his early years he was a jazz musician.

Should Britain leave the European Union?

Kelvin Hopkins and Caroline Lucas go head to head on the question that will be put to British voters in a referendum in June.

Buy this magazine

NI 492 - Technology justice - May, 2016
YES: Security researcher Meredith L Patterson co-founded the field of language-theoretic security in 2005. Her research examines how errors scale into systemic cascade failures. She is based in Brussels, Belgium.

Is social media doing social harm?

Meredith L Patterson and Deanna Zandt go head to head.

Buy this magazine

NI 487 - Paris climate summit - November, 2015
YES - Simon Fairlie is a founding editor of The Land magazine and author of Meat: A Benign Extravagance (Permanent Publications and Chelsea Green 2010). He keeps dairy cows and pigs at a community in Dorset, England.

Can eating meat and dairy products be sustainable?

Simon Fairlie and James McWilliams go head to head.

Read this article

NI 483 - Fundamentalism - Power, politics and persuasion - June, 2015
YES: Mathew Lawrence (left) is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research, where he works on issues relating to political economy and democratic reform. His most recent publication was De-financialisation: a democratic reformation of finance (2014).

NO: Uri Gordon (right) is a lecturer in Political Theory at Loughborough University and co-convenor of the Anarchist Studies Network. An Israeli-born activist and academic, he authored Anarchy Alive!: Anti-authoritarian Politics from Practice to Theory (Pluto Press, 2008).

Should voting be compulsory?

Mathew Lawrence and Uri Gordon go head to head.

Buy this magazine

NI 481 - Total control - is Monsanto unstoppable? - April, 2015
YES: Anne Hendrixson is the Director of PopDev, a centre for critical thinking, learning and advocacy on peace, population and the environment at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, US.Anne Hendrixson

Argument: If you care about climate change, should you have children?

Professor Anne Hendrixson and journalist Erica Gies go head to head.

Read this article

NI 480 - The great green energy grab - March, 2015
YES: Nayna Patel is the medical director at Akanksha IVF Clinic, Anand, Gujarat, India. More than 825 surrogate babies have been born at her clinic. Her work has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show and on the BBC. She runs the Anand Surrogate Trust for the benefit of the surrogates and their families.

Is surrogacy a legitimate way out of poverty?

Doctors Nayna Patel and Mohan Rao go head to head.

Buy this magazine

NI 477 - Big oil RIP? - November, 2014

Is boycotting Israel the right way to fight for Palestinian rights?

Ilan Pappé and Norman Finkelstein analyze the pros and cons of the BDS movement.

Buy this magazine

NI 476 - Cuba - October, 2014
YES: Adam Ramsay is co-editor of OurKingdom, the UK section of openDemocracy, and author of the forthcoming ebook 42 reasons to support Scottish independence. Before this, he worked for student activist network People & Planet.

Would Scottish independence be good for radical politics?

Writer and activist Adam Ramsay and professor and author Jim Gallagher go head to head.

Buy this magazine

NI 475 - Gold trouble - September, 2014
YES: Danielle Leigh.

Can plastic surgery be liberating?

Feminist blogger Danielle Leigh and filmmaker and former model Susan Hess Logeais go head to head.

Buy this magazine

NI 474 - Feminism fights back - July, 2014
YES: Stephen D’Arcy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Huron University College, in Ontario, Canada. He is author of the book Languages of the Unheard: Why Militant Protest is Good for Democracy, and co-editor of the forthcoming book A Line in the Tar Sands: Struggles for Environmental Justice.

Are riots good for democracy?

Professor and author Stephen D’Arcy and historian and journalist Vijay Prashad go head to head.

Read this article

NI 473 - The politics of language loss - June, 2014
YES: Tony Wardle is Associate Director of Viva! – an animal rights campaigning group that carries out undercover investigations into farming and slaughter. He is also a journalist, writer and award-winning TV filmmaker. Books he has written include The Silent Ark, which exposes the impact of global meat production.

Should halal and kosher methods of slaughter be banned?

Viva! campaigner Tony Wardle and social commentator Mohammed Ansar go head to head.

Buy this magazine

NI 472 - Organ trafficking - May, 2014
YES: Barb Jacobson is co-ordinator of Basic Income UK. A former member of Wages for Housework, she has been active in community organizations since 1991, mainly around housing and health. She works for the Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Association in central London.

Should there be a basic income?

Basic Income UK co-ordinator Barb Jacobson and author and sociologist Francine Mestrum go head to head.

Buy this magazine

NI 471 - The war on whistleblowers - April, 2014
YES: Kitty Stryker is a queer porn performer and lecturer on sex work, consent culture, and intersectionality in sex-positive spaces. Her written work can currently be found in Hot and Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Love, Life and Fashion, and Johns, Marks, Tricks and Chickenhawks.

Can porn be ethical?

Porn performer and lecturer Kitty Stryker and feminist writer and activist Louise Pennington go head to head.

Buy this magazine

NI 470 - Commodities - the pitfalls of resource wealth - March, 2014
YES: Kevin Anderson is Professor of Energy and Climate Change in the School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering at the University of Manchester. He is Deputy Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and has recently been published in Royal Society journals and Nature.

Is flying still beyond the pale?

Climate researcher Kevin Anderson and business adviser Brendan May go head to head.

Buy this magazine

NI 469 - Why are we locking up migrants? - January, 2014
YES: Phil Leech lectures in International Relations and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Liverpool. He is the founder and editor of globalisationcafe.com and a contributing editor for thinkir.co.uk

Is it time to junk the UN Security Council?

Lecturer and writer Phil Leech and researcher Richard Gowan go head to head.

Read this article

NI 468 - Fracking - the gathering storm - December, 2013
YES: MYRIAM FRANCOIS-CERRAH is a writer and academic with a focus on France and the Middle East. She writes for a variety of publications including The Guardian, the Huffington Post and Al Jazeera English. Currently a post-graduate researcher (DPhil) at Oxford University, focusing on Islamic movements in Morocco, she tutors in Middle East politics.

Argument: Has the Arab Spring failed?

Writer and academic Myriam Francois-Cerrah and journalist Noreen Sadik go head-to-head.

Buy this magazine

NI 466 - Where have all the girls gone? - October, 2013
YES: CHANTÉ JOSEPH is the Member of the Youth Parliament for Brent in northwest London, as well as regional secretary. She sits on the Youth Select Committee for transport and is a member of the London Youth Involvement Project. She is 17 and is studying for the International Baccalaureate.

Argument: Should 16-year-olds get the vote?

Politics academic Andrew Mycock and UK Youth Parliament member Chanté Joseph go head-to-head.

Buy this magazine

NI 465 - How the war on pirates became big business - September, 2013
Head in the books: do standardized exams have anything to offer students?Jake Lyell/Alamy

Argument: Are exams bad for children?

Teachers Stephanie Schneider and Matt Christison go head-to-head.

Buy this magazine

NI 464 - Debt - a global scam - July, 2013
Action on Starbucks: Consumer power or homemade protest?Anthony Collins/Alamy

Argument: Can shopping be a form of activism?

Neal Lawson and Ruth Potts, both campaigners and writers, go head-to-head.

Buy this magazine

NI 463 - Argentina's challenge - June, 2013

Articles in this category displayed as a table:

Article title From magazine Publication date
Technology justice May, 2016
Paris climate summit November, 2015
Fundamentalism - Power, politics and persuasion June, 2015
Total control - is Monsanto unstoppable? April, 2015
The great green energy grab March, 2015
NGOs - Do they help? December, 2014
Big oil RIP? November, 2014
Cuba October, 2014
Gold trouble September, 2014
Feminism fights back July, 2014
The politics of language loss June, 2014
Organ trafficking May, 2014
The war on whistleblowers April, 2014
Commodities - the pitfalls of resource wealth March, 2014
Why are we locking up migrants? January, 2014
Fracking - the gathering storm December, 2013
Where have all the girls gone? October, 2013
How the war on pirates became big business September, 2013
Debt - a global scam July, 2013
Argentina's challenge June, 2013
Back