Resources
A library for the curious.
Essays and explainers on world affairs, lifelong learning and policy — plus study notes across every school subject. Browse by topic below.
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Where a Citizen Can Actually Interrupt a Law
A bill passes through more stages than most people realise, and at two of them the door is genuinely open to anyone - including a sixteen-year-old with an argument.
2 min read →How to Read a Government Document Without Being Intimidated
Budget documents, committee reports and draft bills are free, public and almost entirely unread. They are also much easier to use than they look, once you stop trying to read them like a book.
2 min read →How a School Student Writes Their First White Paper
A white paper is not an essay and not a research paper. It is an argument for doing a specific thing. Here is the structure, the common mistakes, and how to pick a question small enough to answer.
2 min read →Why Consensus Is Harder Than Voting
The G20 has no vote, no charter and no power to bind anyone. That is not a weakness in the design - it is the design, and it makes for a far more demanding room than one where you can simply win.
2 min read →How to Argue With Someone You Think Is Wrong
A game theorist set out four rules for criticising an idea. The first three have nothing to do with attacking it, and almost nobody gets past them.
2 min read →The Courage to Be Boring
British Cycling had won a single Olympic gold in nearly a century. Then a new coach started measuring pillows. What changed had nothing to do with talent and everything to do with tolerating dull work.
2 min read →