Opinion

I’m tired. I’m angry. I’m heartbroken. As I sit here at my computer, I genuinely do not know if I have the words to describe the pain I feel right now. Over the last couple of days I’ve done a lot of thinking: About the situation in America; About what it means for us in the UK; And what it means for white people like myself. Now is the time for change. It’s true, I’ll never know the struggles of being black. From the moment I was born, I was granted a privilege I was not aware of. Trying to comprehend the full extent of it is like asking a ‘fish to notice water or a bird to notice air’ (Kendall). It's everywhere. It's a part of our every day lives. After all, what can you expect from a country where students are taught a sanitised version of History in schools? For instance, I'll ...

How do you put an original angle on an environmental article? Hasn’t every ‘be eco-friendlier’ or ‘eat less meat’ variation been done before? Unless you’ve been living off-grid, you’ll know that we’re on the highway to catastrophe if we don’t get our act together, if we don’t start treating the earth like it’s a precious jewel that deserves preservation. But you already know that – that’s environmental toddler talk. I’m not here to strike the fear of God into you or bombard you with Harvard scientist quotes. That’s so abstract, let’s humanise the environment. After all, it is every human’s home sweet home, whether you’re a vegan crusader or a meat-eating ‘it’s all pseudo-science’ flat-earther. Most of us sit somewhere in the middle of those two extremes, though. Bait terms such as...

Let's not shy away from facts, there's a certain stigma surrounding "representation" in the media currently. It's seen, by some, as a social justice warrior tactic to try and erase straight, white, neurotypical men from our amazing television shows, movies, and video games. It's deemed unnecessarily - and inherently - political. "Why bring politics into a good video game!?" cries the offended man, cancelling his pre-order of The Last of Us II for daring to have a lesbian protagonist. "Why bring politics into a fun franchise?" he cries, ripping up his tickets for No Time To Die for even considering having a black woman take over the 007 moniker. But here's the thing, my thoroughly offended brethren: video games, films, and television shows have never been apolitical. And highlighting t...

For anyone who hasn’t watched the news in the last couple of years, Greta Thunberg is a sixteen-year-old activist who gained insane media attention after striking from school to protest the Riksdag’s climate policies . Since then, she’s travelled across the world campaigning for drastic action regarding climate change, inspiring many kids to fight for climate change, and many celebrities to use their privilege and wealth for the benefit of the environment. Last year, she released 'No One Is Too Small To Make A Difference', a compilation of her speeches encompassing her attitude towards climate change. If you’re interested in her opinions, it’s an interesting little book that will only set you back £3. And once you’re finished, you might begin to see why Thunberg is such controversial a fi...

Stage One: Clinging on to that Christmas feeling The early hours of the 26th are upon you… you’re glued to the couch, like you cannot move for fear that your stomach will explode, and an avalanche of chocolate Santas and congealed trifle will escape your stomach. Despite feeling absolutely shattered… like you just came back from a nightclub kind of shattered, you still would rather not sleep on the couch, where your brother is drooling, and your dog is snoring. But leaving doesn’t feel physically possible, plus leaving the living room, the hub of Christmas in your home, would signal the end of yet another Christmas day and you’re not quite ready to break up the festivities yet. Instead, you switch on BBC iPlayer… there may have been some hidden Easter eggs in Gavin and Stacey that you ...

Why would you want to be a journalist? All news is fake news. Isn’t it just depressing reading about all that death and disaster? These are things any journalist, even a student journalist, will be more than familiar with hearing. Ask anyone and they’ll tell you the same. Yes, is the honest answer; sometimes it can be depressing to sit and stare at an endless news feed of death, chaos and crisis after crisis. Sometimes we wonder why the hell we didn’t just sign up to some other society back in Freshers’ week - after all, watching Harry Potter movies or running around campus with nerf guns sounds like a far better way to spend our time. We have enough on our plates as it is trying to achieve a degree, pay our bills and make sure our rooms don’t end up with a Mount Everest of dirty laundry....

The prospect of getting a piece of chocolate every day just because it’s December was exciting and practically luxury as a kid. So now, entering the adult world is just chocolate enough? Is it childish? The commercial world has said no and our consumer culture ate it up like Christmas pudding.  Turning advent calendars, which used to be about advent, in fact, from chocolate to alternative and even luxury daily surprises is pushing Christmas even further towards consumerism. Thus, enter all of the crazy advent calendars we see in all kinds of stores this Christmas. Chocolate is for children, so instead why not fill it with something else? From 24 days of make-up to naughty gifts (better not tell the parents back home about that one!), we are left wondering what retaile...

‘You don’t owe them anything’, ‘You can do so much better’ are along the lines of what every good friend advises when you’re involved with someone and it all goes to s***. The situation is seemingly inextricable at the time. You don’t know if this will ever stop dominating your mind. You feel as though you may just marry this person out of awkwardness. Or tell them you love them when you intended to say, ‘We’re better off as friends, mate’. In University, getting involved with someone involves putting a lot on the line. Royal Holloway has a student body of 10,000. If Plato ran the place that would be 5,000 couples – a utilitarian hellhole of inescapable relationships. Thanks Plato, for making Paul Layzell look progressive. My point is that Royal Holloway is a village of sorts, sheltering ...

Having the right to vote is an issue that affects everyone, of every race, class, gender and beyond. In 21st Century Britain, the majority of the population has the right to vote, as long as you are over 18, (not a criminal) and registered. Voting can make a huge difference to the outcome of a government or a political issue you are passionate about, but you have to be registered with the process to make a change. Particularly at this university, we should have a collective awareness of the importance of voting, resulting from our strong connection with the British suffrage movement; most famously with Holloway alumni Emily Wilding Davidson. As many of you already know, Davidson, a member of the suffragette movement, was killed in her own protest for her right to vote. Her activism combin...