Book publishers should prevent E readers from undercutting their books recommended retail price.

Macmillan has won a battle with Amazon, creator of the kindle, on the pricing of its books online. The intent is to try to prevent readers from buying their books online and instead purchase traditional style books. However the lessons of the music industry would seem to imply that in order to p...more...

Does the media portray youths in a negative way?

Young people often feel that they are negatively portrayed by the media. The media gets lots of news stories out of the threat from hoodies, youth knife crime, binge drinking in city centres and ASBOs being slapped on young people. Even some ‘good news’ stories are portrayed negatively such as th...more...

The dodgy dossier did not ‘misrepresent’ the threat from Saddam’s WMD.

In his hearing before the Chilcot inquiry Alastair Campbell has defended every word of the so called ‘dodgy dossier’ that was published as evidence of the need for a pre-emptive war against Iraq due to the threat from Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. This dossier was however known fo...more...

Literacy targets for toddlers are a waste of time.

There is a gender gap between boys and girls even before they enter school. The government is wrong in stating that this must mean more targets. To the rest of us a more sensible approach might be to let children below school age learn at their own pace. Does a gender gap at this stage not matter? more...

Money undermines sport’s values

The more money a sport gains the more it seems to move away from its core values and it seems the more likely there is to be cheats. Of course the more money there is as a reward the greater the incentive is to cheat to get that money. This year there have been numerous cases of cheating being ca...more...

2.6 million minutes spent on Facebook each day - we are wasting our lives!

Facebook, we all know, is the ultimate tool for procrastination, but is it entirely pointless? Don’t we need a period of relaxation in our overly hectic scheduled lives? Or are we all going just a poke too far?more...

Are women superior to men?

Women are 'solely' responsible for the propagation and existence of the human race. Now with the creation of artificial sperm, a man's role in the process is void and unnecessary. Statistically:Women live longer on average. Women deal better with stress.Women perform better in school. Women are...more...

Historical artefacts should be repatriated to their country of origin.

There has been a great deal of controversy surrounding the demands for the return of certain artefacts, most prominently the Elgin Marbles, to their country of origin. In this debate we will explore the social, moral and practical arguments for and against artefact repatriation. We can discuss th...more...

Is the ‘war on terror’ winnable?

The war on terrorism that started after 9/11 is still ongoing, it goes through name changes but the core of the conflict remains the same, we are involved in a conflict against a nebulous group of terrorists. This is not a war in the conventional sense, nor is it winnable in the conventional sens...more...

Book publishers should prevent E readers from undercutting their books recommended retail price.

Macmillan has won a battle with Amazon, creator of the kindle, on the pricing of its books online. The intent is to try to prevent readers from buying their books online and instead purchase traditional style books. However the lessons of the music industry would seem to imply that in order to p...more...

All forms of gambling should be banned

We in Scotland believe that there is one nation that shines out to the world as a beacon of social justice. A nation that truly understands that the people need not just a daddy state, or a mummy state, but also a nanny state. This nation, ladies and gentlemen, is of course, Russia. On July 1...more...

Are women superior to men?

Women are 'solely' responsible for the propagation and existence of the human race. Now with the creation of artificial sperm, a man's role in the process is void and unnecessary. Statistically:Women live longer on average. Women deal better with stress.Women perform better in school. Women are...more...

Violent video games, music and films are resulting in an increase of violent behaviour and crimes...

With the recent release of GTA IV, a role-playing game where players must commit crimes including homicide, car theft and drug dealing, the subject of violence in the media has been flung into the limelight again. Fingers have also been pointed at certain genres of music and films which portray v...more...

Obama one year in.

Voters in the US have had their say for the first time since Obama was elected, in several gubernatorial the democrats went down to defeat. Even in New Jersey, normally core democrat territory the democrats were defeated. While opinion of Obama may have plummeted this is no reason to write off hi...more...

There is a global pandemic of Caligynephobia (Fear of beautiful women.)

Movies, either portray beautiful women as vile evil vixen/vamps Or victims of extreme torture(those even remotely close(oxymoron) to them suffer tremendously. Women are afraid to be beautiful because of a highly plugged non-existent high correlation between looks and rape. Men are afraid to b...more...

Does the Edinburgh Fringe need a re-vamp?

This year, ticket sales are down and there have been calls for radical changes to the traditions of the comedy festival. Should the organisers keep things the way they are, or bring in changes to encourage more sales?more...

China is to blame for the failure at Copenhagen.

There is plenty of blame to go around for the failure to reach much of an agreement on climate change at Copenhagen. AoSIS and the G77 pushed too hard preventing a deal between negotiators. The US would not shift their position. Chavez and other left wing Latin American governments tried to destr...more...

Are NaNoWriMo and similar writing competitions useful to writers?

July is JulNoWriMo - July Novel Writing Month - an unofficial offshoot of NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, an online competition to write 50,000 words in a month. Other variations include ScriptFrenzy, a competition to write a playscript in a month, a comic writer's competition and a l...more...

Should England supporters be made to pay to watch the national side on the Internet?

Football has traditionally been watched in pubs, living rooms and of course Stadia all over Britain. But for the first time an international game is to be only available live over the internet. Football fans will have to pay for the privilege of watching the game. There will also be a limit on th...more...

'Tweeters' at scene of disaster - digital rubberneckers, not citizen journalists!

A plane crash at Amsterdam's Schipol airport has highlighted the way that Twitter users, although often first to 'break' news, could be accused of rubbernecking, gossiping and drawing attention to themselves through the tragic plight of others. Should we leave this sort of thing to the profession...more...