Sean Ash

Border Controls Are Becoming Obsolete in a Digital World – So Why Are We Still Pretending Otherwise? By Sean Ash  Today I took a simple day trip to Calais with my dad and my son. We went to the local Hypermarché, picked up some chocolates, grabbed a few cans of booze, filled some duty-free bags, and headed back toward the UK. As we queued up at passport control, something struck me. The process was so basic: a man checked my passport, looked at my face, then opened a gate. And I couldn’t help but think, why is this even necessary? Why do we still rely on human beings to perform actions that technology can already do more efficiently and securely? Facial recognition can identify us in seconds. AI can match faces to databases, flag anomalies, and authorise passage without a single word exchanged. So why, in an age where technology tracks nearly every movement we make, do we cling to the theatre of border control as though it’s still 1950? That moment made me reflect not only on how m...

  From the top table to the floor, Britain’s post-Brexit trade reality. By Sean Ash  Trump dropped the deal. Starmer picked it up. If that doesn’t sum up the UK–US dynamic in 2025, what does? The clip from the G7 said more in three seconds than three years of post-Brexit spin ever could. The UK, once part of the largest trading bloc in the world, is now left literally collecting the paperwork of a bilateral trade deal that doesn’t come close to what we had inside the European Union. Let’s talk facts. As part of the EU, the UK had access to tariff-free or low-tariff trade with the US across multiple sectors, including cars, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, and agriculture. While the much-hyped TTIP agreement between the EU and US never materialised, many sectors operated under long-standing mutual recognition and regulatory alignment. EU carmakers exporting to the US face just 2.5 percent tariffs. Under this new UK–US deal, British car exports get a so-called win: a reduced 10 perce...

The far right’s obsession with “two tier policing” says more about their own double standards than it does about law enforcement. By Sean Ash                      Image from REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne The phrase “two tier policing” is often thrown around by populists and far-right figures who claim that police treat them more harshly than others. But in truth, the concept of a two tier system did not come from law enforcement, it came from them. It was born not from police policy, but from the far right’s own two tier lens when it comes to crime. Their outrage is not consistent. It is filtered through race, religion, and culture. When Jimmy Savile was exposed as one of Britain’s worst child abusers, the reaction was not riots, protests, or public fury. He became a meme. People wore costumes of him for a laugh. They turned unimaginable crimes into pop culture references. But when a Muslim man is accused of sexual abuse, there is no s...

They claim to honour 1916, to stand for freedom and justice, but you cannot wave the flag of rebellion while rejecting the very people who now face the hunger, exile, and oppression your ancestors once knew. By Sean Ash  In recent months, a growing number of protests have been held across Ireland. The people marching call themselves the “Risen People.” They quote Padraig Pearse. They sing songs about freedom. They say they’ve been betrayed by their government. They speak of revolution, of reclaiming what is theirs. But somewhere along the way, something has gone very wrong. Because this isn’t the Easter Rising. And we need to stop pretending it is. The people who rose up in 1916 were fighting against colonialism. They wanted self-rule, freedom from British oppression, an end to imperial control. They weren’t fighting against hungry children or displaced families. They weren’t storming the streets because someone from Sudan or Syria needed a roof over their head. So when modern-da...