Behold, the true ruler of this great nation

Back in 2007 it was reported that for every £7 spent in the UK, £1 of that was spent at Tesco, making them a tidy profit of £2.5 billion. It now stands at approximately £1 in £10, leaving Tesco boss Phillip Clarke angry that profits have started falling (only by a few £million, mind you).

It was uncovered that workers at a farm in Costa Rica, which was growing bananas for Tesco, earned only 33p an hour. This forced them to work long hours and even during dangerous pesticide sprays.

During Tesco's biggest period of expansion it was estimated that 50 independent retailers a week were closing down across the country as they simply could not compete with the commercial superpower setting up stores right on their doorstep. 260 stores have been opened in the UK this year alone.

Chances are with the almost 3000 stores and 38,592,000 square feet of land Tesco owns in the UK alone, you won't have to walk very far to find one.

The chances are, too, that you have no option but to shop there. Unless you pop down to your nearest One Stop. Oh, wait, that's owned by Tesco too.

This means Tesco will continue to grow, continue to make unimaginable profit, continue to underpay its suppliers and continue to leave small business owners with no option but to close up shop.

Let's all take a moment to pay homage to the true power in this country.

And we still think the free market is such a great idea?

Man love rules, ok?

Gay marriage should have been made legal decades ago.

I think it's a travesty and an absolute insult to the 3.6 million gay people in this country that it's not.

I can't entirely get my head around why people are still, in this day and age, against equal rights. 

Most of the arguments against gay marriage come from the church and religion. Many say that the bible defines marriage as between one man and one woman (but that's only as long as we ignore all the polygamy in the old testament). So, we're focusing on the new testament here, I see. Oh, the bible says homosexuality is a sin? But the new testament doesn't even mention homosexuality? Ah you're referring to the passage in the old testament calling gay sex an abomination? ...But I thought we were ignoring the old testament? ... See my point?

I'm sick and tired of people picking and choosing the parts of the bible they agree with and ignoring the parts they don't. They're using their religion to cover up their own prejudices and as a weapon to take away other people's rights. The truth of the matter is that they find gay people icky. Well, that's their problem.

If you don't want a gay marriage, don't have one.

The other arguments I've seen have been bigoted statements such as 'It will devalue conventional marriages' and 'It'll lead to polygamy and marrying your dog becoming legal'. I've even heard things such as 'It'll make children more likely to be gay'

With great arguments such as this it's no wonder the government  is hesitant to give gay people equal rights.

  Love is love no matter who it's between. Gay couples deserve to celebrate their love just as much as straight couples. And that's all this argument should come down to. 

Just a quick note:

Just so you don't think I'm one of those crazy, hate preaching atheists which prowls around the interwebs, let me just explain one thing. I am not against religion. People have the right to believe what they want. I am, however a secularist. Religious beliefs should be kept out of political policy and not infringe on people's rights,That's all.

Welcome to capitalism, please leave all humaity at the door

Capitalist society is so just and fair, isn't it?

Look at how many apps are available on android and the app store. 
Not got a smartphone? Don't worry, someone in Vodafone or 02 will find you a great deal.

Remember, you're not really a person unless you have one.

Oh, you're only earning £50,000 a year? How can you cope? I know, only having two bathrooms in your house makes life so inconvenient. 

You need to earn more money. You need to work harder. You want lots of nice shiny new things. 

Oh whoops, that evil government's trying to tax your multimillion pound company. Better think of a loophole to get out of that. It's not like they'll use the money for anything important anyway.

People on benefits are lazy. You've worked really hard monopolising the industry. You've crushed all competition. You deserve this.

What's that? You work three jobs but still have to choose between food and heating? 

Stop complaining. Get another job. Try harder.

No. I don't have any spare change. If you had made an effort in life you would have a roof over your head. 

You deserve this.

Why does it take a death to cause change?

I was disgusted to read recently about the death of Savita Halappanavar, a woman who was denied an abortion in Ireland, even though she was suffering a miscarriage, and died as a result of septicemia.

The reason the doctors gave her as to why they wouldn't abort her baby?: 'This is a catholic country'.

I'm sorry but when did religion come before the Hippocratic oath? It was clear the baby was dying and Savita was in danger but since the foetus still had a faint heartbeat the doctors didn't do anything.
What about Savita's heartbeat? The doctors blind obedience to their faith has led to two deaths instead of one.

I guess there is a silver lining here as this story has caused international uproar and pressure on the Irish government to change the law, and if not, make their abortion laws clearer.

But the main thing this story shows is that religion needs to stay far away from the realm of politics. I mean, a few galaxies away. Abortions are against your faith? Great- don't get one. But don't legislate so that no one else is allowed one either. Women should have the choice.

Did we really need a martyr to exemplify this point?

If Savita had suffered this miscarriage in the UK, for example, just a few miles away, she would still be alive. Ireland needs to escape from the middle ages and abort its ridiculous abortion laws.

Why we're failing our children

When I was 16 I made a decision which changed my life forever.

I decided to study politics.

I didn't know anything about politics. At all. I didn't understand our system at all. I didn't understand elections at all. I didn't know any of the political parties in this country's views or policies. I knew my Dad voted for the Tories and if it wasn't for that one crazy, impulsive decision I made back when I was 16 I would probably be voting Tory as well. What a scary thought.

Then all of a sudden in a year my eyes were opened. I realised that what I thought was a democracy is actually a joke. I learned that the way we elect our leaders means that they don't have as much legitimacy as they should and I was shown ways that this could be changed so that everyone received fairer representation. It was suddenly clear that the three main parties in this country are all, apart from a few small things, exactly the same. My teachers didn't push me to feel this way- in fact they were very neutral. They showed us the facts and we drew up our own conclusions.

I can promise you, most of the people in my class felt the same way.

Why is it that I only learned about politics when I went to college and chose to? I think this is one of the biggest failings in this country. at school we get taught how to solve long equations, recite Shakespeare and even how to put on a condom but we don't get taught how to vote. We don't get given even the most basic understanding of our political system and the parties within it.

Recently me and a friend from my course had an assignment to go out and ask the general public a question on a subject of our choice. We chose lowering the voting age to 16. We asked a few students from our uni and do you know what many of them said? 'I'm 18 and I don't know who to vote for' that or 'oh, I don't really have an opinion on that'. Democracy in action people.

Maybe the government hasn't made teaching politics in school mandatory yet because they don't want the UK's teenagers to know how undemocratic and one sided our political system is. They would rather they just voted how their parents vote. No questions asked.

This country would become a so much more ideologically vibrant place if only we showed our young people that there is more than just one way to think and to see the world.