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I have written various stories for Our NHS, part of Open Democracy, a progressive news site dedicated to preserving democracy and fighting for social justice. These can be viewed here: Labour’s Andy Burnham moves to strike out “Hospital Closure Clause” Benedict Cooper 7 March 2014 Labour confirmed yesterday that it would be staging a last ditch attempt in parliament on Tuesday to strike out the deeply unpopular “Hospital Closure Clause”. Government brushes aside NHS Free Trade Treaty Concerns Benedict Cooper 27 February 2014 MPs raise concerns about the impact the forthcoming trade treaty, TTIP, will have on the NHS – but Minster Without Portfolio KenRead More →

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WHEN DANNY took out his first payday loan he had no idea what a terrible cycle he had just stepped into. A cycle that would see him make repeated suicide attempts as he got deeper and deeper into debt and found himself eventually struggling with a sickening 30 different loans at once. Danny is no stranger to suffering. Growing up family life was so dangerous that at the age of 12 he was taken into care, and placed in the tough new environment of a boy’s care home. “I had nobody there to support me,” he tells me. “I didn’t have much family support. ItRead More →

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Update: this piece was featured on the Huffington Post UK, here. The police were on alert. Above hearts-and-minds grins, vigilant eyes followed a disparate procession as it streamed into the community hall on a still, pale evening in May. A week before, almost to the hour, a young soldier’s death had sickened a nation. But he had not bitten the dust of the Helmand desert. Lee Rigby fell on a far more ominous corner of the world, a hard grey London street, mowed down and hacked to death in broad daylight by two men wielding carving knives. Almost as soon as the news had hit,Read More →

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The tensions in the UK over the past two weeks, and the subsequent backlash against Muslims in Britain is distressing, but, as sobering reading of an article I wrote in 2006 shows, it’s hardly new….     A year on from 7/7 07/07/2006 Ben Cooper examines the effects of 7 July 2005 a year on…   Twelve months ago four young men plunged an entire faith into turmoil. Since the London bombings Islam has been thrust into centre stage to face scrutiny, persecution and rage. Fear, intolerance, extremism, and terrorism are the most lasting images of Islam reflected in the national media, which at timesRead More →

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The grey skies over Britain were a fitting tribute to Maggie as she sucked a final helping of Britain’s resources down with her into the darkness. It was a gratuitous day that wrapped up a fortnight of a very modern, cynical type of grief. In reality her death changed nothing: the Lady was long gone, but it said so much more. About the world she has shuffled off, the grey she leaves behind. Those who still revere Thatcher choose only to look at what came before her, the rest of us see what has followed.Read More →

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Three men stand on a pavement in London looking reluctantly at the scene in front of them. A pile of maybe 20 bulging sacks of waste sit festering at the edge of the Occupy camp off City Road, stewing in the morning sun. Not that these men are dismayed about them being there. It is after all their job to take them away, and a job they do day in day out all around the city. These council workers aren’t annoyed they’re there; it is that once again the protestors have welched on the deal. The agreement is, they told me: we give you theRead More →

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It was the usual haughty performance from the Prime Minister at PMQs. Cameron looked delighted at his own ability to deftly avoid questions on child poverty and public sector suffering, as his party and the liberal democrats next to them chortled and brayed at every witty evasion. There were even a few heart-warming jokes about honourable members’ facial hair grown for Movember. Top fun! Has there even been a more potent example of being out of touch? The anger from Ed Miliband and the Labour opposition, an inoculation-strength dose of the real bad blood that has been let all over the UK, was rejected, ignored,Read More →

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Perhaps it was because a Friday afternoon coffee had turned into a beer, or perhaps it was because I was on my way out of my job as a reporter, that a contact was being unusually honest. As we sank our pints and rued the barren economic climate that had cost this senior property agent his big-bonus lifestyle and me, in part, my job, he volunteered a very simple truth in honest language. “Ben,” he said resignedly, “our system exists in one of only two states: fear or greed”. Speaking for himself and his Mayfair colleagues, he explained how when things are good the industryRead More →

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If there was any doubt in my mind about which way to vote on AV, the ‘no’ campaign has helped clear up the matter. The patronising force-feeding of crudely couched untruths and malevolent over-simplifications instead of presenting us with a well thought-out list of arguments and cogent analysis shows the present system up for all of its flaws. Is it because they think we wouldn’t get our feeble heads around their elevated and lofty arguments? Is it because they don’t know why they are against it themselves they just know that they don’t want change? Is it because they know that if they tried toRead More →