19 h. ago I thought I was growing up in a racially tolerant Britain. I now realise I was wrong | Rohan Sathyamoorthy

I’ve experienced more racism in the past year than the rest of my life put together – the only answer is for young people to stand up to the far rightSign up for our new weekly newsletter Matters of Opinion, where our columnists and writers will reflect on what they’ve been debating, thinking about, reading and moreWhen my dad went to school in the 1970s, the kids used to pretend he was invisible. Every day he would try to make conversation and play with the other children, and every day he would be ignored. One night it got so bad that my grandma found him crying himself to sleep, unable to process, as an eight-year-old, why no one would want to talk to “the brown kid”. This kind of social exclusion was sadly all too familiar in postwar Britain – my white grandma had endured her own share of abuse ever since she fell in love with my Sri Lankan grandad in 1966, committing the family’s original sin of interracial marriage.When I heard these stories as a child, they felt like terrible...

Politics

4 d. ago Baby goes missing from nursery after grandad 'takes home wrong child'

The grandfather didn't realise he had picked up the wrong child at Bangor's First Steps Learning Academy in Sydney before taking him home

Society

6 d. ago Keir Starmer’s legacy could be electoral reform – or Farage as prime minister | Polly Toynbee

MPs are voting to get rid of first past the post in mayoral elections. Doing the same at a national level would be an antidote to Reform UKWake up to the peril. As MPs return to parliament, they should abandon that self-deluding pretence that it could never happen here in our “moderate” and “tolerant” land. On the contrary, Britain is at more risk of a populist right takeover than many of our European neighbours. With Labour in an electoral slough of despond, and the Tories looking dead already, the reptilian grin of Nigel Farage haunts the political landscape after his satisfactory summer spent stoking division and cynicism.Our first past the post (FPTP) elections make us particularly vulnerable. As Rob Ford, professor of politics at Manchester University, notes: “This is now a Farage-friendly electoral system.” Reform UK has reached the tipping point where winning as little as 30% support in our corkscrewed lottery of a voting system could propel him into No 10, however much that ...

Politics

8 d. ago 'My son was diagnosed with rare disease after I saw something odd in his mouth'

Myles Hughes, 6, suffers from a rare disease that only impacts around five other children in the UK - his mum shared the symptom that made her realise something was wrong

Politics

2 w. ago Pokemon fans are just realising they've been saying legendary monster's name wrong

There are now over 1,000 creatures in the Pokémon franchise, and it turns out most fans have been pronouncing one of the most popular ones incorrectly for 23 years

Politics

3 w. ago 'I glamped at Boomtown 2025 and realised I've done festivals wrong my whole life'

Boomtown 2025 was one for the history books but this year a huge change to our camping experience has permanently altered how we rave for the rest of our lives...

Politics

last month Too much tolerance risks violence and anarchy. Britain's turning somersaults to accommodate cultures whose values are opposite to our own: ROBERT TOMBS

The great essayist Michel de Montaigne, writing a few decades after Columbus discovered the West Indies, was fascinated by reports of what the indigenous people ate there.

Events