Policy@Manchester Articles

Placing citizens at the heart of citizen science

By Michelle Kilfoyle and Hayley Birch Filed Under: Science and Technology Posted: January 22, 2014

Citizen science isn’t new, but new mobile technologies open up huge potential benefits for science, society and the environment, write Michelle Kilfoyle and Hayley Birch. It seems our modern addiction to smartphones, tablets and gaming is not just providing us with new means of communicating and killing time. It is also providing scientists with innovative ways in […]

Polling Observatory 32: running down the clock

By Rob Ford Filed Under: Featured, Polling Observatory Posted: January 21, 2014

This blog post, by Dr Robert Ford, Dr Will Jennings and Dr Mark Pickup is the thirty-second 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 […]

Policy Agendas in British Politics

By Francesca Gains Filed Under: Featured Posted: January 20, 2014

How do Governments arrive at policy decisions in the United Kingdom? There has been a great deal of commentary on the apparent disconnect between Westminster and voters, with priorities not necessarily shared between the two. This book by Peter John, Anthony Bertelli, Will Jennings and Shaun Bevan, will help illuminate the reader on how these policy agendas are shaped, […]

Tough on crime? Lie-detector tests don’t hold all the answers for sex offender management

By Andrew Balmer Filed Under: Featured, Science and Technology Posted: January 15, 2014

The Coalition has decided to drop the privatisation of polygraph, or ‘lie-detector’ tests for sex offenders. But Dr Andrew Balmer believes that the continued use of this flawed technology within the probation service is misguided and the whole programme should be scrapped. Since the Offender Management Act was changed in 2007 to allow for the […]

Behind the headlines, a nation divided over immigration

By Rob Ford Filed Under: Featured, Westminster Watch Posted: January 14, 2014

Immigration is seldom out of the news, but the past month has seen attention spike to new highs as the removal of transitional controls on migration from Romania and Bulgaria has sparked furious debate, writes Rob Ford. Many headlines suggest the British public is implacably opposed to migration, and demand radical action from the government to bring […]

Police are the real stop and search offenders

By Juanjo Medina Filed Under: Featured Posted: January 13, 2014

Most police forces don’t understand how to use their powers of stop and search, writes Dr Juan Medina-Ariza. Black people are seven times as likely to be stopped and searched than whites in modern, multi-ethnic Britain – and this risks undermining the public’s faith in the police. The publication of HMIC’s report on the use […]

Do we need a ‘new settlement’ with Europe – or just a better sausage factory?

By Clive Bates Filed Under: Featured, Science and Technology Posted: January 10, 2014

In seeking a ‘new settlement’ with the European Union (EU), the UK government is ignoring the existing rules and procedures that should already govern law making, argues Clive Bates. Here he focuses on a current example, the regulation of e-cigarettes, highlights the broader faults in the current process and offers some solutions. Otto Von Bismark […]

A halt to prosecutions in Northern Ireland – but what does this mean for miscarriages of justice?

By Hannah Quirk Filed Under: Featured Posted: January 9, 2014

Throughout Northern Ireland’s many efforts to deal with its turbulent past Dr Hannah Quirk believes that one group has been overlooked – the victims of conflict-related miscarriages of justice. For her, the Attorney General’s recent suggestion that there should be no more prosecutions for conflict-related crimes highlights the need for a bespoke solution for these […]

UK science is under threat – from English higher education policy

By Kieron Flanagan Filed Under: Featured, Science and Technology Posted: January 8, 2014

The UK science base must be protected from poorly thought out and badly implemented English higher education reforms, writes Dr Kieron Flanagan. The UK science community has reacted with dismay to the news, leaked to the Guardian, that the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (which makes science policy for the UK and provides funds for the UK wide […]

Zero hours firms should pay price for flexible demands

By Jill Rubery Filed Under: Featured Posted: January 6, 2014

During Manchester Policy Week 2013, Professor Jill Rubery joined IPPR North and members of the public to discuss the increasing use of zero hours contracts. In this article she explores some of the issues that arose from that event, and argues the key policy issue is how to get employers to accept more responsibility for […]