Current Affairs
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Drug Death Prevention in Scotland
It is no secret to anyone that Scotland has a major addiction problem that has ruined countless lives. Alcohol, as well as both legal and illegal drugs, lie at the heart of an epidemic that has formed a visible crack in Scottish society. A recent announcement from Nicola Sturgeon has seen the creation of a…
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Food poverty is an outrage enabled by ignorance.
You’ve probably seen the photos by now. The measly portion of cheese; the tuna bunched up in a plastic bag. Whole peppers have been halved and carrots divvied up into stubs. There’s something deeply sickening about it. It can sometimes be difficult to summon up the motivation to stay consistently informed and angry about UK…
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(We need to talk about) flights.
It seems like a lifetime ago now, but there was a time back in January of this year where coronavirus was merely a distant blip on our radars: subject to only a passing, casual mention on the nightly news. Instead of images of face masks and microscopic pathogens our attention was turned toward the Land…
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Aberdeen: Post-COVID Homelessness
After months of isolation and varying lockdowns the recent news of a vaccine with almost 95% effective that could be rolled out relatively soon came as a welcome sign that things may just get better. Life has changed incalculably for billions of people all over the planet. The pandemic has undoubtably been the largest worldwide…
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End the Hostile Environment – #stoptheplane
For anyone unaware, these ‘recent actions’ are in fact a mass deportation of people who have spent their entire adult lives living in the UK. The Home Office have arranged the deportation of 50 of these people to Jamaica, a country which many of the individuals have no real tie to. The repercussions to both…
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Trump is a mould that can’t be so easily scrubbed away.
If you’re a political nerd like me, elections are always an exciting affair: they’re an excuse to pull an all-nighter and hunker down in the living room, splitting your attention between the holy trinity of the television, laptop and phone. This year didn’t quite go to plan. I settled in on the settee and cracked…
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Aberdeen’s high street is withering on the vine.
On my last count walking down the length of Union Street, I tallied 30 empty retail units. With their whitewashed windows and big, imposing ‘TO LET’ signs protruding above them, taken together they tell a story of a high street that has taken a proper hammering. Junk mail collects behind their dusty glass doors. ‘MAY…
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Media Manipulation and the Migrant Crisis
The BBC and Sky News have reached a new low last week, preying on migrants crossing the English Channel in the hunt for a news story. In the footage posted by both outlets there is a clear cat and mouse scenario that is played out with a complete absence of self awareness on the parts…
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Memory Boxes
Back in June a cancelled graduation had me packing up all of the possessions that I’d accumulated during my time at university, as I waved goodbye to my King Street flat and solemnly boxed up all the posters, gig tickets and other wee trinkets that I had hoarded to remind me of my years as…
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Lockdown 2.0: Aberdeen
I recently experienced a phenomenon that I cannot recall ever previously occurring in all of my life. This past week I heard Aberdeen, my lifelong love-hate affair, referred to during BBC Newsbeat on Radio 1. As menial as this may seem it did catch me off guard as usually to hear mention of Aberdeen on…
inertia 