No country has ever changed so fast as China. From the west, we see only the dazzling headline figures – 15% growth in some years. But it’s on the ground, in the huge shifts in the patterns of daily l

Common sense tells us that free-market economies maximise freedom and that planned economies, typically found under socialist governments, curtail it. But what if this is completely the wrong way arou

George Bernard Shaw once joked that the US and the UK are two countries divided by a common language. Can the same be said of their conservatives? As we brace for a joint election year, Eleanor Penn

George Galloway has been elected as a member of parliament for four separate constituencies with only Winston Churchill beating him. Perhaps more remarkably still, he won on three of those occasions

How do mainstream politicians and pundits contribute to the normalisation of far-right ideas, even as they claim to reject racism and populism? Thats one of many vital questions asked by Aaron Winter

In the 00s, animal rights protestors nearly won their battle to ban vivisection in the UK, shutting down multiple breeding farms that were supplying laboratories with cats, dogs and guinea pigs. But

Teresa Thornhill is an author and former child protection lawyer. Throughout her long career, working for both local authorities and advocating on behalf of parents, she has been a first hand witness

The exhortation to read some effing Orwell! is an old chestnut of the online left, whether ironic or sincere, or somewhere in between. But if were looking for a writer whose body of work truly anti

Its not what you know; its what you can prove. For years, Forensic Architecture has exposed state crimes against civilians, nature, and humanity. This week on Downstream, Ash Sarkar meets its direct

A lot of people are saying that fascism is on the rise. But what are we pointing to when we call a system, or a person, fascist? On this Trip, Nadia, Keir and Jem map out a complicated ideology, from