The scent or aroma of something is inherently intangible, yet its social effects are less so. It can be the reason someone finds themselves enamoured with another. It could be the reason for the tears in your eyes. Alternatively, it could cause stomach-churning disgust and irrational decisions. Something about our sense of smell is primal. The way we can smell concepts like petrichor or even emotions like fear indicates that our sense of smell is connected to a basic instinct

Apoplithorismosphobia is the term coined by Mark Thornton to describe a fear of deflation. Many economists have suffered from Apoplithorismosphobia since Keynes' General Theory, but is this fear justified? I will argue that it is not; that deflation is the process of improving living standards, and that the 'deflationary spiral' is a myth. This essay concerns deflation under a fixed money supply based on 100% reserves, falling prices resulting from increased productivity, not

The United Kingdom has shifted away from the traditional two-party system with new contenders in the race to Number Ten as a result of dissatisfaction with thirteen years of Tory inadequacy and the subsequent Labour Government's incompetence. This has resulted in many turning to the Green Party thanks to the leadership of Zack Polanski, whose charismatic and down-to-earth demeanor has earned him much popularity. However, is the Greens' policy ambition for an anti-nuclear Brit

‘The power of the less powerful begins with honesty’.This is one of several key quotes from the speech Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney gave to the World Economic Forum (Carney, 2026). In a world where great powers use economic integration as a weapon, tariffs as leverage, and financial infrastructure as coercion, what can middle powers like Canada do (Carney, 2026)? Invoking Czech dissident Václav Havel, Carney states that it is time to stop “living within a lie”, that we

The second Trump administration has taken many unprecedented actions since the 47th president came to office. Significantly, they have accelerated the expansion of the executive branch's powers, a process that dates back to the Imperial presidency of Richard Nixon. The current administration has repeatedly invoked a controversial legal interpretation of Article Two of the Constitution dating back to the Reagan era. This is known as the “unitary executive theory” (UET), champi

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney endorsed Finnish President Alexander Stubb’s Value-Based Realism  during his speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos (Carney, 2026). Stubb has developed this as a new international doctrine for middle power  countries that, ostensibly, will enable them to retain both autonomy and their principles in a developing world order which behaves according to the realist national interests of would-be hegemons like the US, China, or Russia

Social media was originally framed as a tool for connection, creativity, and participation, but it has since become an infrastructure that organises attention, identity, and social life (Hassan, 2012; Stallabrass, 2025). Social media has replaced the third space; it is neither home nor work, but where social life now happens, where identities are formed and categorised, culture is engaged with, politics is encountered, and communities are assembled (Henshall, 2021; Rao, 2024)