Expert insight, analysis and comment on key public policy issues
By Martin Stanley Filed Under: All posts, Whitehall Watch Posted:
In the second of our series of posts exploring the corridors of power in Whitehall, former senior civil servant and public sector chief executive Martin Stanley discusses how we are governed and the tensions between the needs of Ministers, MPs and the wider public. The electorate clearly believe that ‘the Westminster Village’ is incompetent and/or […]
By Michael Donmall Filed Under: All posts, Featured Posted:
After four people are suspected to have been killed by tablets that may have been thought to be ecstasy over the festive season, Michael Donmall, of the National Drug Evidence Centre at The University of Manchester writes about the dangers of keeping recreational drugs illegal and calls for controlled availability of tested products. Recent deaths […]
By Michael Dawson Filed Under: All posts, Featured Posted:
Last month Metropolitan Police commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe called for fewer police forces in the UK as cuts in public spending change the way that out services have to operate . Here Michael Dawson, of devolution campaign group Campaign for the North says the region should have a single police force; There are many merits to Bernard Hogan-Howe’s recent […]
By Rob Ford, Will Jennings, Mark Pickup and Christopher Wlezien Filed Under: All posts, Polling Observatory Posted:
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 […]
By Alexandra Mullock Filed Under: All posts, Featured Posted:
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 […]
By Roisin Read Filed Under: All posts, Featured Posted:
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 […]
By Martin Smith, Sandra León and Dave Richards Filed Under: All posts Posted:
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 […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: All posts Posted:
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 […]
By David Hulme Filed Under: All posts Posted:
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 […]
By Arpana Verma Filed Under: All posts, Featured Posted:
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 […]