All posts – Page 62

Polling Observatory #43: Stability returns with race close to dead heat

By Rob Ford, Will Jennings, Mark Pickup and Christopher Wlezien Filed Under: All posts, Polling Observatory Posted: December 17, 2014

This is the forty-third in a series of posts that report on the state of the parties as measured by opinion polls. By pooling together all the available polling evidence we can reduce the impact of the random variation each individual survey inevitably produces. Most of the short term advances and setbacks in party polling […]

The Criminal Law and Policing Pregnancy

By Alexandra Mullock Filed Under: All posts, Featured Posted: December 15, 2014

The contentious question of whether drinking excessively during pregnancy should be regarded as a criminal offence has recently been considered by the Court of Appeal. Earlier this month the court delivered its verdict in the case of CP v CICA, a case that has attracted significant media interest because of the implications of criminalising pregnant […]

Are all lives valued equally?

By Roisin Read Filed Under: All posts, Featured Posted: December 10, 2014

On World Human Rights day, Dr. Róisín Read, of the Humanitarian Conflict Response Institute at The University of Manchester, writes about the ethics and issues surrounding humanitarian aid. As the 64th World Human Rights Day is marked today, it is worth taking this opportunity to think about the relationship between human rights and humanitarianism, as some of […]

After the ‘No’: Constitutional Reform must not be by the Elites for the Elites

By Martin Smith, Sandra León and Dave Richards Filed Under: All posts Posted: September 24, 2014

The constitutional debate unleashed by the Scottish Independence Referendum has revealed many of the contradictions and problems of the British political system. The result effectively undermines the notion of the Westminster model and the underlying principle of Parliamentary (in realty Executive) Sovereignty. The Westminster model is based on an idea of indivisible sovereignty, accompanied by […]

After the ‘No’: Dynamics of Scottish Nationalism?

By Colin Talbot Filed Under: All posts Posted: September 19, 2014

This is the first of what will hopefully be a series of short posts examining various constitutional, policy and political consequences of the ‘No’ vote in the Scottish referendum. Where will the SNP go now? They can hardly go for “business as usual” approach, now independence is off the agenda for an unspecified period. There are […]

Why (Smart) Aid Matters

By David Hulme Filed Under: All posts Posted: September 16, 2014

It looks, thankfully, like DFID has survived the brunt of austerity savings made since the financial crash of 2008. While backroom costs have been cut, the government has stuck to its commitment to earmark 0.7% of Gross National Income for Official Development Assistance. Though critics instinctively point to the development budget in suggesting where we […]

The burning issue of health inequality in our cities

By Arpana Verma Filed Under: All posts, Featured Posted: August 4, 2014

For the first time in human history more people now live in cities than don’t. Yet urban areas continue to be characterised by what are often extreme and stark variations in economic and social health, says Dr Arpana Verma. It is no surprise that the juxtaposition of the urban rich living right next to the […]

Snakes and Ladders: the challenge of regularising immigration status

By Claire Fox Filed Under: All posts, Featured Posted: July 16, 2014

Anti-immigration parties gained support in the European elections, but politicians’ real challenge is to reform a system that treats undocumented migrants unfairly, argues Dr Claire Fox. Despite the election rhetoric and growing support for anti-immigration politicians, the number of undocumented, ‘irregular’, migrants in the UK probably fell in recent years. Increasingly tough immigration policies and […]

Liverpool could sue Suarez

By Hannah Quirk and Elaine Dewhurst Filed Under: All posts, Featured Posted: July 4, 2014

Following the four month ban issued to Luis Suarez by FIFA, Dr Hannah Quirk and Dr Elaine Dewhurst from The University of Manchester’s School of Law look at some of the legal consequences. FIFA, football’s world governing body, has banned the Uruguayan footballer Luis Suarez for four months and nine internationals for biting Italy defender […]

Nomination of Mr Juncker – A tentative step forward for European democracy?

By Georgios Papanagnou Filed Under: All posts, Europe, Featured Posted: July 1, 2014

David Cameron failed to block Jean Claude Juncker from being nominated by the European Council for the post of European Commission President. Dr. Georgios Papanagnou takes a look at some of the weaknesses in the campaigns by Cameron and the British media. In the end “this time was not so much different” – Jean Claude […]