By Jack Emsley, 1828 Editor

Whilst the preparations for this first edition of the 1828 Journal have been the focus of most of the summer months, a print magazine to offer an alternative to the often extreme politics at King’s has been years in the making. Now, it is my pleasure to launch the Journal on an online platform.

In the past two years we’ve been here at this university, Sam and I have seen the consequences of failing to challenge the extreme left. We’ve seen those consequences in the violence against Jewish students during so called “protests” by the Action Palestine Society. We’ve seen the consequences in the vandalism of the King’s campus by King’s College Climate Emergency. We’ve seen the consequences in the dangerous comfort some students have with the erosion of freedom of speech through safe spaces and no platforming. And in seeing all of this, we realised that someone does need to challenge them. Someone does need to stand up for moderate students on campus, who reject the aggressively enforced orthodoxy of an extreme, often  anti-Semitic and almost always anti-free speech clique on campus.

Whilst this journal is nominally affiliated to the Kings College London Conservative Association, it will never be just an alternative safe space for centre-right students. We’ve reached out to students from across the political spectrum for interesting, thought provoking points of view on issues that ordinarily don’t get properly debated in a university atmosphere like King’s. In this edition, we have pieces from social democrats, libertarians, conservatives and liberals, all excited to finally have a platform on campus. So, whether you agree or disagree with the articles and their authors, I really hope this journal will spark debate, challenge orthodoxies and allow everyone to have a voice at King’s.