Expert insight, analysis and comment on key public policy issues
By Michelle Custodio Filed Under: Featured Posted:
The Government aims to build one million more homes by 2020, the Prime Minister has announced. Michelle Custodio puts the need for more homes in perspective. How many more homes does the UK need? Back in May last year, the then business secretary Vince Cable argued that the UK should build an extra 300,000 a […]
By Kevin Anderson Filed Under: All posts Posted:
Professor Kevin Anderson, Deputy Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, will be attending the Climate Change Conference in Paris this December. He has a stark warning about the future of our climate. In July 2015 scientists attended a major climate conference as a prelude to the political negotiations in Paris in December. After […]
By Jill Rubery Filed Under: Featured, Westminster Watch, Whitehall Watch Posted:
Jill Rubery makes a passionate case for retaining unsocial hours compensation for trainee doctors. A recent BBC Newsnight item on the current contract dispute for trainee doctors began by asking why trainee doctors should be compensated for weekend working when Saturday was ‘just another working day’. This immediately took me back to a research project […]
By Ingrid Storm Filed Under: Ethnicity, Europe, Featured Posted:
Dr Ingrid Storm argues that economic concerns about immigration are related to financial insecurity. In the wake of the Syrian refugee crisis immigration is high on the political agenda throughout Europe, sharply dividing public opinion. Anti-immigration rhetoric often paints a picture of immigrants as “stealing jobs” or “scrounging” on the welfare system, arguments that can […]
By Ferdi De Ville and Gabriel Siles-Brügge Filed Under: All posts Posted:
On Saturday, a number of demonstrations were held across Europe to protest against TTIP and other trade agreements (notably the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement [CETA], the Trans-Pacific Partnership [TPP] and the Trade in Services Agreement [TiSA]). Next week, EU and US officials will return to the negotiating table in Miami for the 11th […]
By Bertrand Taithe Filed Under: All posts Posted:
Last Friday, October 3, the US airforce bombed a hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz. Bertrand Taithe says such actions are likely to be counter-productive in the long run. The attack in Kunduz destroyed the hospital and killed 12 Médecins sans Frontières staff and about 10 of their patients. The US military soon recognized their responsibility for […]
By Omonigho Otanocha Filed Under: All posts Posted:
Omonigho Otanocho looks at the little known problem of crude oil theft, which costs lives and contributes to global terrorism. Crude oil theft, otherwise known as ‘illegal crude oil bunkering’, is global challenge especially for oil exporting countries like Nigeria. According to reports available at the Chatham House website, “Nigerian crude oil is being stolen […]
By Diane Coyle Filed Under: All posts Posted:
Diane Coyle asks if our use of economic statistics is distorting policy and making it focused on the short-term. When the same question crops up in some very different places, it is a signal of the importance of the issue. In two events recently, participants have challenged the role of the media in the economy. […]
By Peter Gatrell Filed Under: All posts Posted:
Peter Gatrell teaches a course on refugees in modern world history and is author of “The Making of the Modern Refugee”. Here he makes a few observations about what history can teach today’s policy makers. Never has this subject seemed timelier or more troubling than in 2015. Here I reflect on two questions: what might […]
By David Hulme Filed Under: All posts Posted:
In the final part of our series on the Sustainable Development Goals which have just been agreed in New York, David Hulme analyses what it all means…. The UN has been setting goals to combat poverty for the last 50 or 60 years, but this gathered pace since 1990, following the end of the Cold […]