Hardeep Matharu
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Journalist. Writer. Speaker. Commentator. Curious explorer of the forces that shape us. Editor in Chief, @BylineTimes.
Contact: hardeep@bylinetimes.com
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Articles by Hardeep Matharu
And Now for Something Real
Editor’s note There was a sentiment Andy Burnham kept returning to when I interviewed him last July at Byline Festival. “Politics has got to get back to fixing the fundamental things that everybody needs for a good life,” he told me.
‘We’re Trying to Normalise Changing One’s Mind’
The Human Interview Rich Logis was as deep into MAGA as a Trump supporter can be. Until he left. He speaks to Hardeep Matharu about the organisation he has created to help others exit the ‘extremist group’ – and to repent ILLUSTRATION: CHRIS BIANCHI Hardeep Matharu: What is your background in life and politics, and how did you end up in Donald Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ movement? Rich Logis: I come from a quintessential middle-class family.
The Two Professors and a ‘War On Ideas’
‘The contrast with the comparatively limited attention afforded to controversies involving James Orr is profound’. Photo: Eyevine/Graeme Robertson/Getty BYLINE TIMES IMPACT: Find out about the changes you made happen Senate House sits at the heart of Cambridge University.
The Two Professors and a ‘War On Ideas’
Senate House sits at the heart of Cambridge University. It’s the place you walk past most days as a student knowing that, when your time comes to put on the gown with the furry hood, it will be in this brilliant white bright building that becoming a graduate of the world-renowned institution will be marked.
‘A Polar Bear on an Iceberg? Here’s This Picture of Catastrophe and You’ve Totally Depoliticised It’
BYLINE TIMES IMPACT: Find out about the changes you made happen AR:I was born in Pakistan and my parents came to the UK as economic migrants. They ended up in the north-west of England, where a lot of people from our part of Pakistan, in the Punjab, were originally brought over to work in the factories and mills. We lived in Burnley, which was one of the places that was experiencing rapid deindustrialisation.
‘A Polar Bear on an Iceberg? Here’s This Picture of Catastrophe and You’ve Totally Depoliticised It’
Fires burn in Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, England this summer. Photo: Cannock Police AR: I was born in Pakistan and my parents came to the UK as economic migrants. They ended up in the north-west of England, where a lot of people from our part of Pakistan, in the Punjab, were originally brought over to work in the factories and mills. We lived in Burnley, which was one of the places that was experiencing rapid deindustrialisation.
There Will Be Another Jason Arday
Jason Arday – referred to as the “nutty professor” and the “gift that keeps on giving” – ended his life on 14 August 2026. Photo: Alamy There will be another Jason Arday. We know this. Because the media knows this. We are told the press ‘isn’t free’ if it lacks the impunity to do anything it likes. It is how power protects itself. By declaring it has none. That is why there will be another Jason Arday.
There Will Be Another Jason Arday
There will be another Jason Arday. We know this. Because the media knows this. The press isn’t free if it lacks the impunity to do anything it likes. It is how power protects itself. By declaring it has none. That is why there will be another Jason Arday. It doesn’t matter that a 41-year-old took his life after days of disproportionate media coverage even after his resignation from Cambridge University.
‘There’s a Value in What We Produce Because We Feel – and an AI Chatbot Can’t Feel’
KD: I’m really interested in people, and how people live with each other and technology. We are all here because someone has had sex. It’s inescapable, and whether we want to or not, it affects our lives. So I was really curious about what happens when you put technology into that mix. And there’s a very, very long cultural history of it – right back to Ancient Greece, where there are stories about creating artificial companions to replace a lost loved one or building the perfect partner.
Palantir Co-Founder Peter Thiel and Reform UK’s Cambridge University Recruitment Pipeline Project Revealed
In January 2026, Peter Thiel delivered four private, invite-only ‘Antichrist’ Lectures in St Catharine’s College, Cambridge University – hosted by James Orr. Photo: James Orr/X BYLINE TIMES IMPACT: Find out about the changes you made happen With luminaries from Erasmus and Isaac Newton to Alan Turing to Stephen Hawking as alumni, Cambridge University has always framed itself as a centre of scientific advance, progress, and the Enlightenment.
Burnham Wins in Makerfield: Can the ‘Politics of Place’ Now Offer an Antidote to the Poverty of Possibility?
Andy Burnham has made much of the “politics of place”. By choosing Makerfield as the place of his return to Westminster, what does the constituency and its voters tell us about his likely politics?
Half Man: ‘We’re Beginning to Get a Better, More Nuanced Understanding…Vulnerability is Part of Masculinity Now’
Jamie Bell (left) and Richard Gadd play Niall Kennedy and Ruben Pallister – “brothers from another lover” – in Half Man. Photo: Warner Bros BYLINE TIMES IMPACT: Find out about the changes you made happen Duncan Craig, founder of We Are Survivors Hardeep Matharu: Where do you think society is now at with the conversation on men and masculinity – both in terms of misogyny and violence against women and girls; and understanding vulnerability and abuse as it relates to men and boys?
‘We Can See Beyond the Surface and Understand That This Character, This Person, is Much More Complicated… Theatre Can Give You That’
Our Public House is set in The Albion pub – “somewhere some people feel included and some people don’t feel it’s for them” BYLINE TIMES IMPACT: Find out about the changes you made happen HM: Our Public House is a ‘state of the nation’ musical drama exploring the alienation people feel with politics through the lens of community, identity, change, and grief. How did this timely project come about? JB: I wanted to do a show that explored who we are as a country.
‘We Can See Beyond the Surface and Understand that this Character, this Person, is Much More Complicated… Theatre Can Give You That’
Josephine Burton JB: I wanted to do a show that explored who we are as a country. At Dash Arts, we had been thinking about what it was to be European, and then our gaze turned to Englishness and England and how to create a ‘state of the nation’ piece of theatre.
‘I Hadn’t Anticipated Developing Empathy for Them, But You Can See How the Conspirituality Belief System Also Serves as a Set of Coping Mechanisms’
Tammy Butry became involved in the world of conspiracy following a number of traumatic life experiences. Photo: Page 75 Productions Hardeep Matharu: The Conspiracists follows you both on a road trip across the US, meeting women drawn into the world of conspiracy theories.
‘I Hadn’t Anticipated Developing Empathy for Them, But You Can See How the Conspirituality Belief System Also Serves as a Set of Coping Mechanisms’
Liz Smith (left) and Noelle Cook in The Conspiracists. Photo: Page 75 Productions NC: I ended up going to January 6 to take photos of the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally and to use it to create some kind of comparative anthropology project on the various protest movements that had been going on for the past five or six years in the US. Because I was working in [the field of] women and gender studies, I focused on women and their participation in right-wing movements.
Raoul Peck: ‘Orwell Knew the Moment You Discover that the Other is Also You, a Whole Range of Bullshit Just Drops’
Raoul Peck. Photo: Matthew Avignone Hardeep Matharu: It seems increasingly true to suggest that we live in an Orwellian world. What were the personal origins of Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5? Raoul Peck: I’d read Orwell in school like everybody else.
‘Orwell Knew the Moment You Discover that the Other is Also You, a Whole Range of Bullshit Just Drops’
Raoul Peck. Photo: Matthew Avignone I’d read Orwell in school like everybody else. Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty-Four, but my particular, personal relationship to him was from afar: he was a cultural good, a cultural icon, but in terms of the type of work I needed for my political fight, he was not a priority because I was reading other people like James Baldwin and needed voices that would help guide me in my own reality.
Chaos and Confusion: Trump Goes To War
As the name might suggest, the Byline Times podcast is the podcast of the Byline Times - telling you what the papers DON'T say. As the name might suggest, the Byline Times podcast is the podcast of the Byline Times - telling you what the papers DON'T say.
Welcome to ‘Byline Times Substack’
When Byline Supplement launched in November 2022, Byline Times became the first major UK publication to have a real presence on Substack. More than three years on, we have attracted 31,000 subscribers to our emails and 50,000 followers across email and the Substack app, with our posts reaching an average of half a million people a month. Byline Times is completely reader funded.
Naz Shah MP on Gorton and Denton Claims: ‘How Do Supposedly “Sectarian Muslims” End Up Voting for a Radically Progressive Party with a Gay Jewish Leader?’
Gorton and Denton’s new Green MP Hannah Spencer celebrates her win. Photo: Andy Kelvin/PA This article first appeared on Byline Times’news website Labour MP Naz Shah has criticised claims by Reform UK that the legitimacy of the Gorton and Denton by-election – won by the Greens’ Hannah Spencer – was undermined by “family voting” and “Muslim sectarianism” in the Manchester constituency.
Naz Shah MP on Gorton and Denton Claims: ‘How Do Supposedly “Sectarian Muslims” End Up Voting for a Radically Progressive Party with a Gay Jewish Leader?’ - Byline Times
Labour MP Naz Shah has criticised claims by Reform UK that the legitimacy of the Gorton and Denton by-election – won by the Greens’ Hannah Spencer – was undermined by “family voting” and “Muslim sectarianism” in the Manchester constituency. Shah, the MP for Bradford West – whose party’s candidate came third in a seat Labour won with a 13,400 majority in 2024 – told Byline Times that the claims by Reform’s candidate Matt Goodwin and his party leader Nigel Farage “demean” voters.
Reform Attacks Byline Times For ‘Attempting to Derail a Democratic Election’ - Before Blaming ‘Family Voting’ and ‘Muslim Sectarianism’ for Gorton and Denton Defeat - Byline Times
Reform UK accused Byline Times of “attempting to derail a democratic election” for reporting on Matt Goodwin’s academic ties to organisations linked to discredited pseudoscientific race ideology – just days before the candidate lost the Gorton and Denton by-election, claiming this as evidence of “a dangerous Muslim sectarianism” and calling into question whether it was a “free, fair, and democratic election”.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor: How Power Protects Itself Through Contempt
This editorial appears in the latest monthly print edition of Byline Times The former prince was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal on 19 February 2026. Photo: PA/Alamy Does he really think we’ll believe it?
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor: How Power Protects Itself Through Contempt
Does he really think we’ll believe it? It was the question that sat in our heads as we watched the then Prince Andrew give his fateful interview to Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis on his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein in 2019, months after the sex offender and trafficker was found dead in a New York prison. Does he really think we’ll believe that he couldn’t have danced with a 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre in Tramp nightclub in London because he lost the ability to sweat during the Falklands War?
The future of truth
In a world of mass information, and misinformation, truth seems both easier and harder to find than ever before. As trust in traditional media erodes and social media blurs the line between fact and fiction, with authoritarian regimes weaponising disinformation and post-truth world leaders taking centre stage, how do we defend and promote knowledge, evidence and informed debate? In a world of mass information, and misinformation, truth seems both easier and harder to find than ever before.
The future of the BBC
Image credit: Getty Images, George Clerk From debates over impartiality and political pressure to digital consumption habits and culture-war narratives, this Great Room discussion brings together leading voices to examine what a renewed, resilient BBC could become.
Andy Burnham: These Dangerous, Alienating Times Call for Radical Change of Our Politics
Andy Burnham at the 2025 Byline Festival. Photo: ashleygrebphoto Andy Burnham is Labour’s Greater Manchester Mayor. He was the Labour MP for Leigh from 2001 to 2017, and served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Culture Secretary, and Health Secretary in Gordon Brown’s Cabinet. He sat down for an interview at the 2025 Byline Festival with Hardeep Matharu, Editor-in-Chief of Byline Times Hardeep Matharu: You have had an interesting political journey.
Editors' Editor Vote 2025 — BSME
You cannot vote for yourself or a colleague from your own brand/title. The vote will close on Sunday 26 October at 6pm. Any votes made after this deadline will not be included. You must be a current BSME member, committee member, ambassador or 2025 award entrant to vote. There is no fee to vote.
Signs of the Time
Hardeep Matharu is shortlisted for the Editors’ Editor 2025 Award by the British Society of Magazine Editors. I became a journalist because I am curious about the forces that shape us. The artist Paul Klee once said that art does not represent what we see, but makes us see. And I quickly learned the same is true of journalism: far from being a neutral arbiter of information, it has the same power to craft the ideas we think with, not just the ideas we think about.
Clive Lewis MP: ‘I Never Thought I’d Hear Myself Say I Think My Party is Making this Country Weaker in Preparation for an Authoritarian-Right Government’
PJ: Your party has been in power for a year now. What’s your personal reading of the temperature of where the country is at? There are so many factors involved. But, generally speaking, as a student of history, I’m aware that so many of us walk through life assuming that the kind of the world we see around us, the mundanity of it, is the way it will always be. That democracy is an inevitability, that it will always be there, rather than understanding that it has to be fought for.
The Cost of Lies: Why We Identify With Deadly Misinformation
In the first wave of the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, I interviewed an NHS nurse who told me that “people are being taken into hospitals and murdered”. Those in her profession were running “death camps” that were “no different” to those of “the Third Reich”, Kate Shemirani said. “When I liken this to Auschwitz and the cattle trucks, you tell me the difference? I am science-led and I am law-led… I call it genocide”.
The future of truth
LSE Player is home to the latest films and podcasts from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Here you can watch videos on cutting edge research, find the award-winning LSE IQ podcast, and listen to more than 5,000 public event recordings featuring some of the world’s leading thinkers.
Byline Live: Starmer Steps Back From ‘Island of Strangers’ - with Hardeep Matharu, Adam Bienkov & Peter Jukes
Watch the full video of our live discussion this afternoon between Byline Times Founding Editor , our Editor in Chief and our Political and Online Editor . We talked about Starmer’s U-Turns, the shifting political strategy of his Government and how social media is radicalising the right in dangerous ways. We also take a look at our new print edition, which you can now buy in shops or access online on our new subscription site. This Substack is reader-supported.
LIVE NOW: Byline Live: Starmer Steps Back From ‘Island of Strangers’
Byline Supplement, Hardeep Matharu, Adam Bienkov Byline Supplement, Byline Supplement, Folded with Adam Bienkov
How Our Politicians Created an ‘Island of Strangers’ So They Don’t Have to Make Our Lives Any Better
‘Today, I feel like I’ve woken up a stranger in this country’. I was discussing the “shock vote” for Brexit with another remainer on the afternoon after the EU Referendum. Immediately described by the commentariat as a “protest”, one newspaper noted that, after years of people ‘waking up and feeling like strangers in their own country’, those who voted to leave had finally demanded to be heard.
How Our Politicians Created an ‘Island of Strangers’ So They Don’t Have to Make Our Lives Any Better
‘Today, I feel like I’ve woken up a stranger in this country’. I was discussing the “shock vote” for Brexit with another remainer on the afternoon after the EU Referendum. Immediately described by the commentariat as a “protest”, one newspaper noted that, after years of people ‘waking up and feeling like strangers in their own country’, those who voted to leave had finally demanded to be heard.
Vote Labour - Get Reform UK?
Adrian Goldberg talks to former refugee Kolbassia Haoussou, from Freedom From Torture, about UK government guidance stating that any asylum seeker who arrives in the country on a 'dangerous journey' (eg via a dinghy crossing the Channel or stowed away on a truck) will be permanently denied citizenship. That's despite the fact that Britain is a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, which says asylum seekers and refugees should not be penalised for illegal entry to a country.
"Stabbed In The Back"
Donald Trump’s latest foray into protectionism is a 25% tax on all imports of steel and aluminium into the United States… The last time Trump imposed steel tariffs in 2018, the UK had a limited exemption, but there’s no suggestion that we’ll be spared this time, so bad news for British exporters… It’s even worse, though, for America’s closest neighbours Canada and Mexico.
'Sergei and the Westminster Spy Ring'
Adrian Goldberg discusses the hit podcast Sergei and the Westminster Spy Ring with two of its creators, Sergei Cristo - who blew the whistle on attempted Russian interference in British politics - and Peter Jukes, executive editor of Byline Times. Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg Harvey White.
The Cosy and Comfortable Liberal-Democratic Political-Media Class and the Darkness Ahead
In November, I was invited to speak to Cambridge University’s Varsity newspaper about why Byline Times is a necessary addition to Britain’s media landscape. That evening, I discussed values – something the students said no one ever mentioned when it comes to journalism. Why do we become journalists? What are the ideals that propel us into a career so competitive and precarious? And who are the journalists we go on to become?
The Psycho-Social-Techno Politics of ‘MAGA’ Trumps Democracy - And The Liberal Left Needs an Answer
The following article is an exclusive free preview taken from the upcoming print edition of Byline Times. Subscribe to be among the first to get your copy A year before the American election, I sat down in a succession of New York City taxis. The story was always the same. The drivers didn’t much like Donald Trump, and weren’t always comfortable with his approach. But they were all leaning towards voting for him against Joe Biden. “He’s a businessman,” one said.
The Psycho-Social-Techno Politics of ‘MAGA’ Trumps Democracy – And The Left Has No Answer
Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on ‘what the papers don’t say’ – without fear or favour . To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis. Driving Towards Donald Trump A year before the American election, I sat down in a succession of New York City taxis. The story was always the same.
The Psycho-Social-Techno Politics of ‘MAGA’ Trumps Democracy - And The Left Has No Answer
Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on ‘what the papers don’t say’ – without fear or favour. To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis. A year before the American election, I sat down in a succession of New York City taxis. The story was always the same.
Are You Being Served?
The following editorial is taken from the upcoming print edition of Byline Times, featuring more exclusive reports and columns by Sangita Myska, Peter Oborne, Sonia Purnell, Rosie Holt, Russ Jones, Bonnie Greer, Mic Wright, Josiah Mortimer, Adam Bienkov and much more. You can get your copy by subscribing below, or picking up a copy in all good supermarkets and newsagents from next Tuesday.
Are You Being Served?
The following editorial is taken from the upcoming print edition of Byline Times, featuring more exclusive reports and columns by Sangita Myska, Peter Oborne, Sonia Purnell, Rosie Holt, Russ Jones, Bonnie Greer, Mic Wright, Josiah Mortimer, Adam Bienkov and much more. You can get your copy by subscribing below, or picking up a copy in all good supermarkets and newsagents from next Tuesday.
Unspinning the Spin Room: VoteWatch24 Live
The Byline Times team with their regular commentary on the General Election campaigns. Watch us live on Byline.TV this Friday at 5pm or listen anytime you like to the edited podcast on Byline Times Live. And support our VoteWatch24 campaign - either with tip-offs (VoteWatch24@BylineTimes.com) or if you can with our crowdfunder,
'Politics Isn't About Politics for the Overwhelming Majority of People'
“The overwhelming majority of people do not think about policy at all, and this is something that people who work in politics – and especially on the political left – have just completely missed,” political scientist Brian Klaas tells the June print edition of Byline Times.
The Journey
Stimulated by oral histories from some of Southampton’s first generation South Asian heritage communities, national and local speakers will discuss how the experience of migration has shaped migrants, their descendants and the city and society that they joined. While the background to these stories includes the British empire and the experience of racism and discrimination, these are also personal stories of challenge, ambition, and achievement.
'The Normalisation of Politically Expedient Racism: Rishi Sunak Cannot Call Out Something He Has Been Complicit In' – Byline Times
Subscribe to our newsletter for exclusive editorial emails from the Byline Times Team. The Prime Minister’s response to claims by his party’s former vice-chair that “Islamists” are now “in charge” of the Muslim Mayor of London has been to refuse to acknowledge the racism of his comments. Instead, he repeated a well-worn statement: that the UK is the “most successful multi-ethnic democracy in the world”.
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