, Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health

In a book I wrote with a colleague on organisational failures () the inability of many of them to confront their failures, except to say a meaningless “we’re sorry”, is legend.

We highlighted the many cases of organisations in the private and public sector apologising profusely for a high-profile failure, but not taking any personal or organisational responsibility for it. We concluded, after looking at hundreds of organisational failures, that the very act of apologising is itself in crisis.

Organisations are confused and gripped by a range of anxieties. They worry about the consequences of apologising, including the humiliation that comes with admitting wrongdoing. And their (unfounded) fear of inviting litigation often prevents them from giving apologies when they’re most needed.

Crisis communication is becoming a costly business and often the conclusion is that it’s easier not to apologise at all. When an apology is forthcoming, it happens too late or in a wording so cautious as to be stripped of all meaning for the victims.

And in a multimedia age, the fear of potential damage to an organisation’s image and brand will encourage them to be less open and transparent about their failure.

In the case of the Church of England, there may be a number of additional obstacles which may have inhibited organisation leaders from confronting the appalling behaviour of John Smyth over the years. The now deceased barrister , many of whom he met via his work with the church.

First, the church is meant to be the “moral” role model of the country. So to admit to itself or to the outside world, that this kind of behaviour exists within its own structures may be difficult to acknowledge or to confront.

Second, the church is a highly hierarchical organisation. People further down the hierarchy might want to cover up their failures to protect their career ambitions or to protect the church’s image and reputation. This may help explain why people did not come forward, despite open concerns about Smyth.

Justin Welby has in the wake of a review that found evidence that Smyth’s crimes had been covered up by the church since the 1980s. Welby said he took responsibility for the “conspiracy of silence” within the church since 2013, when police had been notified about the abuse but the allegations were not properly followed up by the church.

But there are practical questions to ask about who was responsible for managing this process to ensure that proper safeguarding was put in place. In other words, who had delegated responsibility for this particular individual and situation? Welby may be morally responsible but that doesn’t quite answer the question of who failed to act at the time. This shows lack of senior leadership by the church, who have a duty of care for those under the guidance of the church.

As Helen-Ann Hartley, the Bishop of Newcastle, has , there appears to be a lack of willingness among many bishops to confront the top leadership of the Church over their accountability for their lack of leadership on this safeguarding issue. This may come down to their personal career concerns or not wanting to rock the proverbial boat.

These organisational shortcomings were highlighted in the review of the church’s response to the Smyth case. The review warned of excessive deference to senior clergy in leadership roles and failures of leadership and accountability in safeguarding.

This will all require a serious culture change programme in the future. But as Machiavelli wrote in the Prince: “It should be borne in mind that there is nothing more difficult to arrange, more doubtful of success and more dangerous to carry through than initiating change. The innovator makes enemies of all those who prospered under the old order, and only lukewarm support is forthcoming from those who would prosper under the new.”

Change will be needed, nonetheless, and this situation has provided the church the opportunity to seriously explore its leadership and organisational culture – a process that should not stop at the resignation of the archbishop.

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Chancellor Rachel Reeves presented in 14 years by promising to put an .

British governments typically see budgets as an opportunity to present policies providing short-term gain in terms of public popularity, even if they do little to improve Britain’s long-term economic prospects. Over the past ten years, governments have adopted and then abandoned , and .

The last Conservative government’s budget contained a range of tax cuts, most notably a 2p cut on National Insurance. Little consideration was given to the medium-term . Labour inherited a funding squeeze, alongside the need to balance the books over a five-year period based on the previous .

This kind of short-termism is a within British economic policymaking. A winner-takes-all, majoritarian electoral system encourages governments to over a longer-term economic strategy.

Here’s how Reeves is taking a different approach in her first budget.

1. Long-term strategy

Reeves has underscored Labour’s commitment to long-termism through various institutional reforms. The government had already announced the creation of to drive a new industrial strategy. This will now be accompanied by a new to provide private investment into infrastructure.

The launch of the will scrutinise spending decisions. And the Office for Budget Responsibility’s role in of capital investments, government policies and departmental spending will be enhanced.

2. Investing for growth

Alongside a few surprises such as an uplift to the minimum wage, increased tax on private jets and the continued freeze on fuel duty, the main theme of the budget was investment-led growth for the long-term.

To that end, Reeves has around debt to enable more headroom for investment. She also raised national insurance contributions for employers to fund this investment wave.

These measures will be used to plough such as engineering, biotechnology and medical science. The chancellor committed £1 billion into the aerospace industry, £2 billion into electric vehicle development, and £500 million into life sciences. In total, the public investment will amount to .

3. Infrastructure projects

Reeves also committed to funding a number of high-profile . On transport, the TransPennine Route upgrade, East West Rail, and HS2’s link into central London were all green lit. She also to build 1.5 million new homes in five years. Additionally, £20.4 billion in R&D funding was also protected in the budget.

4. Regional growth

The budget highlighted the importance of , reflecting Labour’s emphasis on continued devolution . Reeves has committed to providing an extra £6.6 billion to the devolved nations through the .

She also revealed that the would receive integrated financial settlements from 2026-27. These moves indicate some ambition and long-term vision around empowering devolved governments to drive regional economic growth.

5. Public services

Another long-term focus of the government has been “fixing the foundations” of Britain’s . Reeves linked low levels of investment to . As such, she committed to significant spending on education and health, alongside £1.3 billion to address the crisis of .

These measures signpost a renewed interest in an to address Britain’s economic weaknesses and drive growth. Both require a focus on the medium and long-term.

Remaining challenges

Collectively, these measure suggest some long-term thinking by Labour, but do they go far enough and will they stick?

Delivering on a long-term industrial strategy requires greater , especially between the Treasury and the Department for Business and Trade. But other departments too, will be key to driving long-term growth and must be brought on board with Labour’s approach .

And while the integrated financial settlements will empower the West Midlands and Greater 91ֱ��, the approach stops short of fully downloading financial independence to the regions. A focus on selective regions also only adds to in the powers regions have. A systematically thought-out approach that covers the whole UK would go further, but remains remote.

Finally, while the government has spent big on education and health, real departmental funding is only set to . Pre-budget, about the effect tight funding settlements might have for non-protected departments, especially when these cuts come to bite .

The spectre this raises for Labour is that a short-term squeeze on day-to-day departmental spending risks undermining the work it has done to secure long-term investment for growth.

, Research Associate; , Professor of Government Practice; , Professor of Public Policy

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As and a habitable climate teeters, it’s understandable to feel despair.

Some of the world’s top climate scientists at the prospect of reaching 3°C by 2100. This hellish scenario, well in excess of the 1.5°C countries agreed to aim for when they signed the 2015 , would indeed spell disaster for much of life on Earth.

As a lecturer in sustainability, I often hear my anxious students bemoan the impossibility of building a way out of ecological collapse. However, the greatest danger is fatalism, and assuming, as claimed, that “there is no alternative”.

There is a vast ocean of possibility for transforming the planet. Increasingly, cities are in the vanguard of forging more sustainable worlds.

Car-free futures

Since the , the car has afforded a sense of freedom while infringing on the freedoms of .

Cars, particularly , are a major source of air pollution and . Motorways and have transformed Earth’s terrain and monopolised public space. For those of us in industrialised societies, it is difficult to .

Global sales of electric vehicles are projected to . Yet even these supposed solutions to an unsustainable transport sector require a lot of space and materials to make and maintain.

With cities set to host nearly by 2050, space and livability are key concerns. As such, and are beginning to reclaim their streets.

Between 2019 and 2022, the number of low-emissions zones, areas that regulate the most polluting vehicles in order to improve air quality and help to protect public health, in European cities. Research suggests that policies to such as congestion charges and raised parking fees can further discourage their use. However, providing viable and accessible alternatives is also crucial: as such, many cities are also widening walkways, building bike lanes and making public transport cheaper and easier to access.

An estimated 80,000 cars used to pass daily through the centre of , a city in north-west Spain. Mayor Miguel Anxo Fernandez Lores instituted a ban on cars in 1999 and removed on-street parking spaces. The city has since drastically reduced air pollution and hasn’t had a vehicular death in over a decade.

Living cities

Cement and concrete are to make major infrastructure such as roads, bridges, buildings and dams. The cement industry accounts for up to . Moreover, the open-pit quarrying of limestone, a key ingredient in cement, involves removing topsoil and vegetation which and increases flooding risks.

A burgeoning “” movement originated in in 2008 and has removed concrete and asphalt from cities including , and several cities , replacing it with plants and soil.

Depaving is an example of the wider movement which aims to restore natural habitats and expand green spaces in cities for social and ecological wellbeing.

Multispecies coexistence

A new by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) has documented in the abundance of monitored wildlife populations globally since 1970. Despite such unfathomable losses, many cities are being transformed into .

Prized for their fur, beavers were hunted to extinction in the UK by the 16th century. Their create homes for other species such as birds and invertebrates and help prevent flooding. Eurasian beavers have been since their reintroduction in the 1920s and 1960s, respectively.

In 2022, beavers were designated a in England. , London saw its first baby beaver in over 400 years.

Melbourne has launched a project to create in the city by 2028, with at least 20 local plant species for each square metre. An 8-kilometre long is also being created to allow wildlife to travel between 200 interconnected gardens and further help local pollinators flourish.

Living alongside larger predators brings unique challenges. However, as with any functional relationship, respect is key for coexistence. Los Angeles and Mumbai are two major cities that are mountain lions and leopards. Local officials have launched public education initiatives urging people to, for instance, maintain a safe distance from the animals and not walk alone outside at night. In cases where wildlife conflicts occur, such as who have lost livestock, non-lethal methods such as wolf-proof fences and guard dogs have been found to be than culls.

Environmental justice now

Cities, particularly in wealthy countries, are only a small part of the story.

At just over 500 years old, the modern capitalist system, imposed globally through , is a relatively recent development. Despite its influence, the visionary author Ursula K. Le Guin that “any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings”.

numbering 476 million across 90 countries represent thousands of distinct cultures that persist as living proof of the enduring possibilities of radically different ways of living.

tracks 4,189 worldwide. From keeping illegal miners at bay, to countless local communities and resisting the construction of new fossil fuel infrastructure. Over the last few years, these place-based struggles have either stopped, stalled or forced the suspension of at least .

These examples demonstrate hope in action, and suggest that the radical changes required to avert climate and ecological breakdown are often a simple question of will and collective resolve.

Reality, like the future, is never fixed. Whether the world is depends on actions taken today. The terrain ahead will be full of challenges. But, glimmers of a better world are already here.

, Lecturer in Sustainability,
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Mining has a very bad reputation. It is often assumed to be one of the worse land uses – destroying and polluting the environment and creating barren, moon-like landscapes. Where mining occurs in areas of high biodiversity, it is considered a serious threat.

But in the eastern rainforests of Madagascar, over 10,000 people mining for sapphires didn’t cause more damage to the forest than farmers clearing land for agriculture, which remains the most important driver of deforestation in this area.

focuses on quantifying the effects of sapphire mining on the forests of Madagascar. My discoveries challenge some of the preconceptions about the impacts of small-scale mining. I show that, despite being attention-grabbing, some forms of mining can be surprisingly low-impact and less damaging than other land uses.

In October 2016, a valuable deposit of sapphires was discovered by people searching for gold within the protected rainforests of the Ankeniheny-Zahamena corridor in eastern Madagascar. These rainforests are really important for biodiversity as they are home to many unique species , including lemurs such as the indri and black and white ruffed lemur. Word of the sapphire discovery quickly spread. Within weeks from across the island were illegally mining in the Bemainty valley deep within the forest.

Miners used shovels to dig pits between 1m and 3m deep in the valley floor to extract river sediments. They used handmade sieves and water from the stream to sieve the sediment and search for gems. The work was hard, living conditions in the hastily constructed settlements were poor, and the rewards were uncertain.

Unlucky miners left the site poorer than they arrived. Some struck it rich, while others made enough money to survive and perhaps save a little extra to invest in education, land or businesses. This type of mining, termed artisanal and small-scale mining, is not unique to Madagascar. It is widespread, supporting an estimated people around the world.

The mining rush at Bemainty attracted international media attention due to fears over its environmental impacts, with it was causing substantial deforestation and threatening endangered lemur populations. This caused amongst conservationists.

aimed to evaluate the deforestation claims. To properly assess the impact of something, an essential step is to estimate what would have happened without it: the counterfactual. To roughly calculate how much deforestation would have happened at Bemainty without mining, my colleagues and I used the average area of deforestation within a set of control forest areas, chosen to be as similar as possible to Bemainty but crucially, without mining. We then compared deforestation at Bemainty to this counterfactual.

We found that mining at Bemainty did not cause more deforestation than we estimate would have happened anyway from other causes. In this area, the biggest driver of deforestation is shifting agriculture, where people cut and burn patches of forest on slopes to grow rice for a few years in a rotational cycle. We showed that more than 10,000 people mining in the area did not cause more deforestation than several hundred people clearing forest for farming. The impacts of the artisanal gem rush need to be considered within this broader context.

Limited negative effects of mining on deforestation at Bemainty could be for several reasons. First, the sapphires were found within river sediments, confining mining to the valley floor.

Second, much of this area had been cleared for farming decades before when the first settlers arrived. Third, the miners did not use heavy machinery, and sapphire mining does not use toxic chemicals (like the ).

The variability of small-scale mining

More broadly, these results highlight that the environmental impacts of artisanal mining are very variable. They depend on the scale, methods, machinery and chemicals used, and the environmental impact of alternative land uses that people might be doing otherwise, like farming or cutting down trees to make charcoal. Although in some places artisanal and small-scale mining is causing major environmental problems, where mining is small-scale and doesn’t use heavy machinery or chemicals, environmental effects may be similarly limited.

However, in many countries this variability is not considered in policies towards artisanal mining. Policies tend to or otherwise stopping artisanal mining, but often have . I believe that these one-size-fits-all policies are strongly influenced by negative preconceptions about mining and the worst case scenarios, and not necessarily specific evidence, which is lacking for many countries.

Treating all mining as the same needs to stop. Artisanal mining provides income for millions of poor people around the world who, despite the challenges, decide it is their best – and perhaps only – option. Given its importance, policymakers need to rethink their preconceptions. Where mining has a low environmental impact, more open-minded, flexible policies are needed to regulate it in a way which balances the needs of poor communities with biodiversity conservation.

, Postdoctoral Researcher in Sustainable Land Use,
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The UK’s new Labour government has made a bold decision. The new minister for local government, Angela Rayner, has announced that the government would for a new coal mine near Whitehaven in Cumbria, which had been approved two years ago by the then Conservative government.

Rayner’s intervention follows a recent making it harder for new sites of fossil fuel extraction to be approved. Pointing to the implications of the court’s decision, she argued that there had been an “error in law” when Michael Gove, the minister at the time, had given the coal mine the go ahead in 2022.

The mine’s developers still want to go ahead, and a legal challenge by environmental campaigners is being , with a ruling expected later this summer. But, with its decision to withdraw its defence, the government has confirmed that it understands the need to decisively turn away from new fossil fuel extraction. This is good news.

But to rise to the challenge, the government must do much more. It must now show it understands what it means to decisively put the UK on a path towards clean energy while still recognising the importance of economic and social justice.

One of Keir Starmer’s pledges prior to becoming prime minister was to reform planning. He used eye-catching language, promising to the existing planning system to take out (those who say: “not in my back yard”) ostensibly standing in the way of progress.

In Cumbria, the nimbys have a point

But there is an unfortunate irony in how Starmer’s position relates to the Cumbria mine. In Cumbria the ostensible were environmental campaigners pointing out that the mine would add into the atmosphere a year if it got the go ahead. They rightly argued that this would be indefensible in the middle of a climate crisis caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Without their intervention, the mine might already be in operation.

The planning system doesn’t need destroying, as Starmer’s language would suggest. As one of us (Gareth Fearn) , the challenge centres instead on revitalising planning as a public service, such that a new lease of life can be breathed into it.

In recent years, the UK’s planning system has been hollowed out due to austerity. Funding for local government fell by and planning departments shrunk as their work was to private-sector consultants. Meanwhile, the amount of work these departments have been expected to do has, if anything, increased.

This is an untenable situation. To achieve a rapid, just transition the planning system needs to be properly supported so that it can proactively steer the net zero transition, and communities can have a real say on development in their areas.

The alternative is that local areas are left at the mercy of speculative developers who will invest in what is most profitable, rather than what most effectively meets public needs. In a context where green industry often offers less return on capital than or high-end real estate, a deregulatory approach risks forcing local areas to choose between high-carbon speculative development or no development at all, as had happened in Cumbria.

Green policies, resources and community power

We want to see Labour take three steps to get the country on the right path. First, the new government must draw a much clearer connection between decarbonisation and planning policy when it this summer. This would remove ambiguities about new fossil fuel extraction and would mean putting in place strong policies for new, green industries like the government has already done with .

Second, Labour desperately needs to provide more resources to local government so councils and regional mayors can use in house planning expertise, rather than relying on expensive, private-sector consultants. This is at odds with chancellor Rachel Reeves’ approach, which seems to covertly embrace and is reliant on the finance and preferences of the assembled to deliver infrastructure with little public control or ownership.

Third, and most importantly, communities need to be empowered to make genuine choices between alternatives. This is especially important for areas like Cumbria, with its long history of coal mining, or Aberdeen with its offshore oil, where green alternatives are as not as culturally embedded as carbon-intensive industries.

Coal in Cumbria has more than economic value. As one of us (Pancho Lewis) argued in , coal is folded into the area’s history and continues to signal a desirable future for many people. This isn’t because people aren’t concerned about climate change. They are. It’s because coal is a familiar industry which delivered “proper”, reliable jobs in the past and, in the context of proposals for a new mine, promised to continue to do so in the years ahead.

The government must respond by working hand in glove with communities to shape a net zero future that is meaningful to them. This is about delivering reliable jobs that people need and rolling out industry which can provide continuity with the past. Doing this requires forward planning and creative thinking, so that the net zero transition .

The new Labour government’s decision to oppose the mine is good news. But for the energy transition to be successful there need to be opportunities in new industries around the country. This requires a public planning system which is back on its feet and for the public to have meaningful stakes in new projects from local to national government. Labour must rise to the moment.

, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, and , Researcher, Lancaster Environment Centre,

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, and ,

Desert regions in and the have been well studied by archaeologists as the and as routes of along “”. The archaeology of southern Africa’s west coast desert belt has not received the same attention.

The Namib Sand Sea, part of the Namib Desert, is on the west coast of Namibia. It is a hyperarid landscape of towering dunes, occupying about 34,000km² between the towns of Lüderitz in the south and Walvis Bay in the north. However, there are clues that this environment was not always so dry and inhospitable, suggesting that there is more to be learnt about ancient human life here.

We are part of an interdisciplinary research team of physical geographers, archaeologists and geospatial scientists, interested in the long-term history of deserts and human-environmental interactions.

Our provides a timeframe for the presence of a small freshwater lake that once existed in the Namib Sand Sea. This lake was fed by an ancient river and is surrounded by a rich record of stone tools from the (made between about 300,000 years ago and 20,000 years ago), indicating that people ventured into this landscape and used this occasional water source.

Dating the former lake site, Narabeb, makes it clearer when ancient humans would have been able to live here. It draws attention to the Namib Sand Sea as a place archaeologists should study to learn more about far-reaching and deep human connections across southern Africa.

An ancient lake and shifting sand dunes

Today, Narabeb is a landscape dominated by long sand dunes that tower more than 100 metres high over the former lake site. There is no standing water here and the landscape receives little to no rain most years. However, that’s probably not what our ancient ancestors would have seen here. Away from the lake, they might have seen a relatively flat plain, seasonally covered by grasses, beside a river.

The clue is in sediments at the site: mud layers that were laid down by water. To find out how long ago the lake was at Narabeb, we needed to date these layers.

We used a technique called – basically, making sand glow to tell the time. Sand grains release a trapped signal that builds up when sand is buried underground, and is reset when sand is exposed to sunlight. Using this technique, we can date when different layers were last on the surface before they got buried. We dated the sand beneath and above layers of mud that were deposited by water. Our results show that the lake was present at Narabeb at some point between 231,000 ± 20,000 and 223,000 ± 19,000 years ago and again about 135,000 ± 11,000 years ago.

Another clue is the shape of the landscape east of Narabeb. It is dune free, reminding us that ancient humans were not the only things migrating in the Namib Sand Sea. Have the dunes been on the move? For how long? And how quickly?

Drilling to the centre of these dunes to work that out remains logistically impossible. Instead, we used .

The modelling suggests that it would have taken around 210,000 years to accumulate the amount of sand around Narabeb (those 110m high dunes). This number is remarkably close to the oldest age for the lake. This suggests that the dunes may only just have been starting to form and that a river was supplying the lake with fresh water, supporting animals and attracting people. The sediments at Narabeb also clearly tell us that a river once flowed where there are now dunes.

The winds have pushed dunes from the south and west to north and east, creating barriers for the river and hindering movement of people and animals along the water course.

Ancient human presence

At we have found tools from an earlier species of the Homo genus. This is part of a growing body of evidence, adding to research in the Kalahari desert in the centre of southern Africa, that suggests to the story of human evolution and technological innovation than has been supposed.

The artefacts from Narabeb fit into the Middle Stone Age type of stone tool technology. Narabeb is a particularly rich site for stone tools, suggesting people made tools here for a long time and perhaps visited the site over many generations.

This research illustrates the need for a comprehensive study of areas that have not been on the map of the major routes of human and animal migration. These might reveal exciting records of diffusion, innovation and adaptation to marginal and changing environments.

Our results also make us think about the dynamic nature of environmental conditions in one of Earth’s oldest desert regions. It has long been thought that the Namib has been consistently very and not a place capable of containing “green corridors” at the times of interest for archaeologists. Now we can challenge that idea.

Future steps

Recent funding from the will allow us to extend our fieldwork, documenting archaeological sites and dating these “green corridors” across more of this landscape. along the ancient river course has revealed an expansive artefact-littered landscape. We also need to know more about where ancient populations found the materials they used to make stone tools.

This will allow us to piece together a network of archaeological sites and show where human migration might have been possible in this part of southern Africa. Up to now, it’s been a gap in the archaeological map.

More work is also needed to understand the shifts in climate that allowed the rivers to flow into the Namib. This Southern Hemisphere, west coast desert has a very different setting to north Africa and Arabia, which have for understanding their periodic “green corridors”. Ongoing work with the wider scientific community, including climate modellers, may create a clearer picture of the Namib’s “green corridors”.

, Reader in Physical Geography, and , Professor of Archaeology,

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The collection touches on a number of issues of vital importance to towns, cities features over 40 essayists from  across the political spectrum and across different sectors – including education, business, healthcare, local government, think tanks, charities and the arts – who all advocate for universities to have a stronger voice in place-making. Each essay includes policy ideas for the new Government to enable the local civic role to thrive.

Included in this is a contribution from Dr Julian Skyrme and Professor Richard Jones, along with Bev Craig (Leader of Manchester City Council) with . The essay demonstrates the important role universities play in innovation and productivity growth across their regions. 

There is also a on Developing skills and innovation and the importance of universities’ civic roles.

Dr Julian Skyrme, Executive Director of Social Responsibility and Civic Engagement at The University of Manchester said: "Lord Bob Kerslake was one of the most distinguished public servants of his generation and made a critical contribution to the higher education sector with his Civic University Commission. As the original civic university, The University of Manchester has been delighted to contribute to this collection of essays by civic leaders, which has been written with a new government firmly in mind". 

The collection touches on a number of issues of vital importance to towns, cities and regions, including local economic growth, raising educational attainment and opportunity for disadvantaged groups, the local supply of the NHS workforce, improving the local environment, and access to culture and te arts. Following the launch at the National Theatre, the full collection is available from kerslakecollection.org.

Several prominent public figures have also signed an open letter to the new Prime Minister calling for actions including support for the creative sector, investment in the NHS workforce and a review of how the the post-16 educational sector can overcome the current funding crisis effecting it - all of which would continue Bob's legacy.

Among many other leadership roles, Lord Kerslake was Chair of the UPP Foundation Civic University Commission supporting over 70 universities in developing Civic University Agreements and the creation of the Civic University Network. The groundbreaking work championed by Lord Kerslake has transformed the relationship between universities and their local communities across the UK.

This stands as one among many other achievements across a lifetime of public service. As a former head of the civil service, a prominent figure in local government, housing and higher education and a regular media political commentator, Lord Kerslake and his vision for society touched thousands of lives. His impact is reflected in the breadth of the essays brought together in the collection, with reflections on everything from the future of English devolution to the role of universities in tackling homelessness.

Richard Brabner, Director of the UPP Foundation, said: “It has been an honour to orchestrate this collection to celebrate the legacy of our late great friend Bob Kerslake. It was the privilege of my career to work closely with Bob, his passion, insight, and hard work were crucial to the success of our Civic University Commission, and I know that everyone involved in the collection has benefitted from Bob’s wisdom over the years. We hope that this collection provies the inspiration to the new Government to build on Bob’s work to ensure the civic role is truly recognised.

Professor Sir Chris Husbands, Former Vice Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University said: “Bob was one of the most gifted and committed public servants of our time. It's fitting that we launch this collection this evening, just a few days into the new government.  Bob was respected across the political spectrum, but there is no doubt that had he lived he would have been a powerful resource for a progressive government embarking on national renewal. It falls to those of us who remain to rise to the standards he set, to play our part in shaping and doing policy for the common good”.

It’s not controversial to say that contemporary affluent societies do a rather poor job of taking the interests of younger generations into account. This is not only because children can’t vote and the elderly tend to numbers. It’s also because many societies have ageing populations, making them demographically stacked against the youngest.

In Italy, for example, . While the numbers aren’t quite that high in the UK, the phenomenon is still – with pensioners .

The neglect of children and young people in UK politics is evident. . and understaffed, and young people are saddled with high university fees. They also face a difficult and cannot look forward to a decent, safe pension. It’s also much harder for them to , compared with previous generations.

And that’s all without even considering issues related to the climate crisis or how dramatically shrank children’s lives and social circles. What is clear is that children are directly affected by political decisions and policies. But they don’t have a say in elections.

In some places, the voting age for some elections has already been lowered to 16. Research shows that young people are more likely to if they start at 16. Labour now proposes this for .

Many want the voting age to be lowered further, or . But any age higher than 0 leaves millions of child citizens without representation of their interests. That problem can be solved by giving children proxy votes from birth, to be cast by their primary carers. We can combine this with any voting age we deem right.

Proxy voting is when a person delegates their voting rights to another person to vote on their behalf. It is . It could work roughly in the same way with children and their parents or caregivers. Instead of delegation, we would use our registers of who is a child’s primary carer, authorising parents or legal guardians to vote on their behalf, if they are not yet old enough to vote themselves.

Giving children’s interests a voice

The idea of proxy voting for children has been and discussed by politicians for decades, but hasn’t been tried yet.

For some, the idea may be concerning, with fears that primary carers will use the votes in their own interests rather than the children’s. Of course their interests are not exactly identical. But they largely overlap on the policies that matter most – from high quality childcare and schooling to generally improving the life prospects for the young.

For example, if prospects are bad, the young remain economically .

And even if a few carers use proxy votes badly, this is still better than not having children’s interests represented at all. Furthermore, we could restrict the number of possible extra votes per primary carer, so that people with more children did not have more votes.

Perhaps some would still feel that carers getting to exercise more votes somehow shows that society values families more than the childless. But this is a misunderstanding of proxy voting. It is needed simply to give children’s interests appropriate weight in our politics, given our demographics.

According to philosophers, there are two main reasons for giving people . The first is simply that the vote is a mark of respect for people as free and equal moral agents capable of forming and expressing their own and the common good of their society.

The second relates to the good consequences of voting: giving people the vote avoids many and raises the chances that nobody’s important interests will be overlooked.

Having proxy voting in place would likely make it easier to teach children about politics more effectively from an earlier age, and help them to become active citizens. But the main argument for it is simply that it gives weight to their interests in the electoral process. With millions more potential votes to be gained, we can expect that political parties would compete for these votes by committing to policies that are fairer towards the young.

When faced with the disproportionate political influence of the elderly, some philosophers have toyed with the idea of at least (as the Romans ). But many people think this would be a terrible idea: it would be a form of exclusion from politics. Adding proxy votes for children does not exclude anybody.

In lieu of a proxy voting system, if you’re a parent, this election is a good opportunity to start about the democratic process, the issues you are concerned about and why you vote. You may even want to take them to the ballot box with you. that talking to young people about politics can help them trust in their own ability to effect change.

, Senior Lecturer in Political Theory
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Mauritians will head to the polls and politicians are considering the economic direction of the island country.

For the last two decades, the country’s economic growth has depended heavily on its offshore sector – the provision of financial services by banks to foreign firms.

As an isolated country located in the south-western Indian Ocean, Mauritius has linked itself to global financial sectors by easing the flow of capital into and out of its economy. It has signed double taxation avoidance agreements with other countries, and its capital gains taxes are attractively low.

Through double taxation avoidance agreements, foreign entities can establish funds in locations outside their home countries, to take advantage of lower taxes.

But recent initiatives have dimmed prospects for the offshore sector. For instance, the OECD’s (the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) significantly limits the incentives available under double taxation avoidance agreements.

As a political economist, I take an interdisciplinary approach to studying development challenges in today’s connected world. My work examines how countries with relatively little economic power manage domestic and external forces to achieve economic transformation.

Tax haven strategies have allowed countries such as Mauritius to gain huge amounts of foreign exchange. But in a recent I argue that these strategies may not have the same appeal in years to come. This leaves Mauritius at a crossroads once again.

The Mauritian government has previously found ways to diversify its economy during times of crisis. First, from sugar to industry. Then to tourism. Later to the offshore sector. Now there is talk of investing in the , but there are few signs that a clear strategy has been defined. With offshore revenues threatened, the Mauritian economy may soon struggle to identify new sources of foreign exchange.

Diversified economy

Mauritius is Africa’s most democratic developmental state – held up as a . It transformed itself from a country with a per capita income of US$260 in the 1960s to one with a per capita income of more than $10,000 in 2021.

At independence in 1968, observers had little hope for the Mauritian economy. Nobel Prize winner James Meade a tragic future for the island nation. He cited sugar dependence, population density and diverse ethnic composition as its weak points.

Yet Mauritius has defied pessimistic predictions and conventional economic theory. It has become among the most African economies.

In the 1970s, economic development was largely focused on industrialisation to reduce dependence on imports. While there was minimal growth in exports, manufacturing employment grew from 5% to 20% of the labour force over the decade. But as sugar prices fell in the late 1970s, the Mauritian economy plunged into crisis.

In the early 1980s, Mauritius adopted reforms, adhering to conditions set by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The government decided to go further than simply liberalising its financial sectors and reducing capital controls. Against the advice of multilateral donors and foreign governments, Mauritian politicians decided to build an offshore financial centre.

In the late 1990s and 2000s, Mauritius was widely celebrated for rapid economic growth and diversity. This came from special economic zones (promoting textiles and apparel growth), tourism and the offshore sector.

For decades, African countries have sent government officials on to learn from Mauritian success.

But like most late developing countries (or former colonies), Mauritius is still heavily reliant on imports. Its offshore sector has provided vast amounts of foreign exchange to buy imports. If offshore sector revenues dry up, Mauritius might have to apply to the International Monetary Fund for loans.

Mauritius as a tax haven

In my paper, I describe the evolution of Mauritius as a tax haven. It started with strategic state involvement. The Mauritian government amended its banking legislation to offer lower taxation and exemption from exchange control.

Its tax treaty with India soon became the most significant avenue for the development of Mauritius’ offshore businesses. An increasing number of Indian funds moved their businesses to Mauritius to take advantage of tax benefits.

Similarly, Mauritian entities have been the leading investors in India since 2000. Mauritius-based funds have this century. But things are changing. There are signs that funds are now selecting Singapore (as well as other competitors to Mauritius) as the preferred destination for investments.

India’s response to the OECD’s convention to implement tax related measures has gone further than many other countries. The Indian government agreed to remove the capital gains exemption that entities held in Mauritius had enjoyed over the years. By 2018, Singapore had overtaken Mauritius as the leading investor into India.

In March 2024, India and Mauritius amended their double taxation avoidance agreement to comply with the OECD’s measures. Among the changes, firms do not qualify for tax incentives if the principal purpose of their transaction is simply to avoid tax.

What next for Mauritius?

The new amendments to the double taxation agreement are likely to constrain the growth of Mauritius’ offshore sector. The financial sector has not transformed beyond providing basic services like fund administration. This is unlike other more diversified financial sectors like Singapore, which specialises in capital markets, foreign exchange, commodity trading and corporate banking, aside from fund administration.

With foreign firms recently buying some of Mauritius’ biggest offshore management companies, there are signs that Mauritian banking will be relegated to simply doing basic work for larger financial centres. It is likely that overall revenues and foreign exchange from the sector will reduce.

Focusing resources on a new pillar for Mauritian growth is more urgent than ever.

In the last few years, Mauritian have been characterised by questions over Prime Minister ’s authoritarian turn, as well as accusations of corruption, nepotism and cronyism. The nation will have to reach a new political and economic consensus to avoid future economic difficulties.

, Senior Lecturer in Politics, Governance and Development, Global Development Institute

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With polls predicting huge losses for the Conservatives and huge gains for Labour, the election campaign so far has focused on the battle between the two biggest parties in Westminster. But the parliamentary dynamics are exceptionally fluid this year. Here’s a summary of where every party in Westminster currently stands – and where they are hoping to be after July 4.

Conservatives: 346 seats and everything to lose

Sunak’s Conservatives held 346 seats when he called the election. They started with 365 after the 2019 election but have lost since then. Several other former Conservative MPs have defected to other parties and others have been suspended.

A hefty chunk of the party’s current MPs , leaving newly selected candidates to fight what is likely to be an incredibly difficult campaign for the party.

The Conservatives are almost guaranteed to be sitting on the opposition benches in the next parliament, with one recent poll suggesting they could fall to just 66 seats – their . This could put them in dangerous territory. It would be a humiliation for Sunak if the party performed so poorly that it fell into third place behind the Liberal Democrats.

Against this backdrop, winning 150 seats or more would be a pretty decent showing.

Labour: 205 seats and hoping for 400

The Labour Party won in the 2019 general election under its former leader Jeremy Corbyn. This has increased slightly since then, through a combination of defecting Conservative MPs and byelections. Labour with 205 seats.

The party’s in Blackpool last month, where Chris Webb won 58% of the vote, was the sixth time Labour won a byelection with a swing of more than 20% since 2019. This bodes well for election day, where Starmer will be keen to try to win a comfortable majority and, if recent polling is correct, in the House of Commons.

Scottish National Party: 43 MPs and worried

The SNP have had some spectacular performances in recent general elections, bringing 56 MPs to the House of Commons in 2015, 35 in 2017 and 48 in 2019. But the party has struggled somewhat in the current parliament. It has lost three MPs to defections and the suspensions of Patrick Grady following sexual assault allegations and Margaret Ferrier for COVID rule-breaking shattered the SNP’s previously clean image in Westminster.

The SNP therefore heads into this election with 43 MPs. The party is battling two fronts, with the Alba party threatening to split the nationalist vote and Labour looking to win as many of Scotland’s 57 seats as possible.

Labour won Ferrier’s old seat in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection with a and polling suggests they will from the SNP on July 4.

Liberal Democrats: 15 seats and wanting third place

The Liberal Democrats won 11 seats in the 2019 general election and this has since risen to 15 through four successful byelections. The party performed very strongly in recent local elections, gaining more councillors than Sunak’s Conservatives. Party Leader Ed Davey had a lot of fun over the first week of the campaign and won the party a lot of in the process.

Seats like , where the Liberal Democrats lost out to the Conservatives by just a few hundred votes in 2019, will surely turn yellow. With the SNP predicted to lose many of its Scottish seats, the Lib Dems will be hoping that they can reclaim their position as the official third party at Westminster.

Democratic Unionist Party: seven seats and struggling after scandal

The DUP won eight seats in 2019 but technically lost one when Jeffrey Donaldson resigned . His seat in Lagan Valley has not yet been filled and will be hotly contested, particularly as Donaldson himself is not standing. DUP leader Gavin Robinson will have a tough battle in East Belfast against Alliance party leader Naomi Long.

Sinn Féin: standing aside in key seats

Sinn Féin won seven seats in 2019. However, in line with its abstentionist policy, the party’s elected representatives never took their seats in the House of Commons. The party has already confirmed that it in four of Northern Ireland’s 18 constituencies and will encourage its supporters to vote against Sunak’s Conservatives in those seats. This should work in the Alliance Party’s favour. One of Sinn Féin’s existing MPs – Michelle Gildernew – will also not be standing.

Plaid Cymru: hoping for gains on a new electoral map

Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru won four seats in 2019. They fell to just three MPs in 2020 when Jonathan Edwards . Edwards, who has sat as an independent MP for most of the last parliament, has stood down, as has Hywel Williams, a hard working Plaid MP who has been in the Commons for over 20 years.

Plaid will be hoping to retain Williams’ Arfon seat, alongside those of the party’s Westminster leader Liz Saville-Roberts and Ben Lake, both of whom won with comfortable majorities in 2019 with Conservative candidates in second place.

Boundary changes mean that most constituencies in Wales have changed, but the party will be hoping to win back Edwards’s seat in the new Caerfyrddin constituency and perhaps to add Ynys Môn, held by Conservative MP Virginia Crosbie in 2019 with a relatively slender majority of just under 2000.

Alba: fighting its first election

Former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond’s pro-independence Alba party only formed in 2021, so this is its first ever general election campaign. It did however have two MPs in the last parliament, thanks to defections.

The addition of Alba to Scottish ballot papers threatens to split the nationalist vote and will make the election even more challenging for the SNP.

Social Democratic and Labour Party: aiming to hold two seats

Northern Ireland’s SDLP returned two MPs in 2019 and will hope to retain them. The party has been inconsistent in recent elections, and even lost all its seats in 2017.

The nature of Northern Irish politics and electoral pacts between unionist and nationalist parties makes it difficult to predict what will happen here. The SDLP has, however, committed itself to fielding candidates in . Its leader Colum Eastwood won his Foyle seat at the last election, as did .

Alliance: hoping to take a key DUP seat

The centrist Alliance party, also specific to Northern Ireland, has never had more than one MP in the House of Commons. The party’s deputy leader Stephen Farry won the North Down seat for the party in 2019, though the DUP came a close second. Party leader Naomi Long will be trying to unseat the DUP Leader Gavin Robinson for the third time, having lost by 1,819 votes in 2019. She previously held the seat between 2010 and 2015.

The party has had growing success in the Northern Ireland Assembly, where it became the third largest party in 2022. Translating this into more Westminster seats will be tricky, but returning two MPs would be a good result.

Greens: targeting Bristol and Brighton

The Green Party’s one and only MP, Caroline Lucas, from parliament last year. She was the party’s first ever elected MP, holding her Brighton Pavilion constituency since 2010. The Greens are desperately hoping that former party co-leader Siân Berry can hold Lucas’s old seat.

The Greens are also eying up Bristol Central, where the party’s current co-leader Carla Denyer is standing against Labour’s sitting MP Thangam Debbonaire in what could be a real neck-and-neck fight. The party is already the largest party on Bristol Council. On a national level, it will be hoping to perform even better than the 2019 election, when it received a pretty respectable 860,000 votes. With last month, the Green party could hit 1 million votes this time.

Reform UK: causing trouble for the Tories

Reform UK had one sitting MP in the last Parliament, following from the Conservatives. Defections like this are how most small or new parties end up with House of Commons seats. Anderson won his seat with a 5,000 majority in 2019 and has a high profile thanks to his regular controversial contributions. But retaining his seat under a new party label will be very tricky.

Reform UK is fielding candidates across England, Scotland and Wales. It could take a substantial number of votes from the Conservatives, but the electoral system will probably mean that these votes are not concentrated enough to win more than the odd seat.

Workers Party of Great Britain: taking aim at Labour

This relatively new political party held just one seat in the last parliament, thanks to George Galloway’s Rochdale byelection success in February. Galloway will campaign to hold this seat and the party is hoping to woo Labour voters with its claims that Starmer is from Sunak. With a of candidates for such a new party, it could prove something of an annoyance.

, Senior Lecturer in Politics,
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, and ,

Gypsy and Traveller are among the . There is a of government failures in meeting these groups’ housing needs.

The of sites has resulted in a homelessness problem. Those who do secure pitches on council-managed sites often have to contend with living near potential hazards.

For our recent , we mapped local authority-managed Gypsy and Traveller sites in Great Britain. Of those sites, 39% were within 50 metres of one or more major pollutants and 54% were within 100 metres.

The effect on residents is significant. As one of our interviewees, Sarah (all names have been changed), put it: “You can’t breathe here. A lot of people have asthma. Lots of babies in the community have poor health. A lot of them have skin rashes. Nobody ever lived past about 50 here. Whatever is coming out is killing people. Lots of people are dying of chest, COPD and cancer.”

Worsening conditions

Between 2021 and 2022, we mapped 291 Gypsy and Traveller sites across Great Britain, noting their proximity to environmental hazards. These included motorways, A-roads, railway lines, industrial estates and sewage works.

To do so, we used the Caravan Count 2020, which lists all authorised local authority managed sites in England and Wales and a freedom of information request to the Scottish government, which gave us the names and addresses of all the authorised public sites in Scotland.

The study included in-depth case studies, site visits and interviews with 13 site residents (including repeat interviews with five site residents on two sites).

Local newspapers that reported on the highly contested historical and current planning processes were also analysed. Freedom of information requests were sent to local authorities to obtain planning meeting documents and 11 interviews were conducted with representatives of local and national organisations that work with Gypsy and Traveller communities.

When new Gypsy and Traveller sites are proposed by local authorities near existing residential areas, objections come from three main groups: residents, local politicians and local media outlets.

These objections often result in new sites being pushed further to the margins of towns and cities, in places that other communities would not be expected to live.

As a result, sites are often in isolated areas, quite literally on the wrong side of the tracks. They are nestled in among the infrastructure that services the needs of the local settled communities, from major roads to recycling centres.

One of the sites we visited has been in use since the 1970s, despite the fact that, already then, it was located near a waste transfer station. The intervening five decades have only seen conditions on the site worsen.

A chicken slaughterhouse nearby now burns carcasses regularly. The household waste recycling centre has expanded to allow for recycling and incineration of solid waste from commerce and industry.

Lorries and other vehicles now come in and out in large numbers, just metres away from some of the pitches. Residents experience constant noise and vibrations. Mary, who lives on the site, says the sound of the skips being deposited from 5am every morning is like a bomb going off: “It drops so hard it shakes the chalet.”

The air is always heavy with dust. Residents have to keep their windows closed – even in the summer – to keep out the flies. As Jane, who is the fourth generation of her family to live on the site, puts it: “We are living in an industrial area. It’s the air quality, the sand, the dust, the recycling tip is just behind us. The noise is a big problem. There is an incinerator near the slaughterhouse and that’s really bad. And the smell…” 

Environmental racism

to the World Health Organization, housing is one of the major factors determining health. The physical conditions of a home – including mould, asbestos, cold, damp and noise – are obvious risk factors. So too, are wider environmental factors, from overcrowding and isolation from services to the relative lack of access to green spaces.

The people we spoke with, including site residents and organisational representatives, highlight the harmful health effects of living on many Gypsy and Traveller sites. This chimes with the government’s own , which have found these sites to be unsafe.

Research on health inequalities in the UK bears this out. People from Gypsy and Irish Traveller backgrounds the poorest health and a life expectancy of between ten and 25 years less than the general population. They also have of long-term illness and conditions that limit everyday life and activities.

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 has further constrained Gypsy and Traveller communities by criminalising roadside stopping and forcing people on to transit sites. These are designed for short stays and are often in than permanent sites.

This poses a plain threat to , from travelling in the summer months to fairs and attending religious gatherings.

Thousands of people rely on these local authority-managed sites, located dangerously near the kind of environmental pollutants that are with poor health and premature deaths. The term “environmental racism” is used to refer to how people from minority and low-income communities are to environmental harm.

Yvonne MacNamara is the chief executive of the non-profit advocacy organisation, Traveller Movement. She highlights that the inequalities these communities face are systemic. Local authorities, she says, treat Traveller communities “like second-class citizens”.

To one resident’s mind, attitudes within local government to Gypsy and Traveller social housing are clearly . As she put it: “They wouldn’t expect anyone but a Traveller to live here.”

, Professor of Sociology, and , Royal Literary Fund Fellow, . This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

,

Dressed in a mini skirt and passionate about boys, music, dance and fashion, teenage girl is a pop culture icon, the seeming beneficiary of the ascendancy of in the west and of unprecedented social and cultural changes.

Quite how real women actually experienced – and benefited from – this era of social change is more complex. For the past six years, I have led of girls growing up in Britain between the 1950s and 1970s. In order to understand how this era has shaped women’s experiences and identities in later life, my colleagues and I conducted interviews with 70 women born between 1939 and 1952.

We also data on girlhood from Britain’s first birth cohort study, as well as the .

The current Teenage Kicks exhibition, at the Glasgow Women’s Library and until May 18, delves into eight of our interviewees’ stories. Edinburgh-based artist Candice Purwin has illustrated the striking diversity they relay: growing up in very different circumstances navigated the possibilities and pitfalls of the 1960s and early 1970s in very different ways.

Swinging London

Our interviewees were from different social class backgrounds and across both rural and urban locations. To spark memories, we played music that these women would have listened to when they were young. We talked with them about their personal photos.

One interviewee, Liz, was the epitome of a modern, mobile, young woman. At 17, she was earning an income, travelling to Europe with friends and enjoying the consumerism of . She told us about visiting clubs and shopping in new department stores. At 19, she left to work in the US.

This sense of London as a place of opportunity was a recurrent theme. Andrea embarked on a science degree in London, aged 18. Coming to the capital meant being able to escape village life and the scrutiny of her religious parents.

Andrea found freedom to engage in student politics and to come out as a lesbian. Being gay was a stigmatised identity at the time. She recalled furtive visits to London’s only lesbian club, the Gateway Club. “A crummy place really,” she said, “down in the basement, small, hot and dark.”

Another interviewee, Joyce, grew up in in an overcrowded home in central London. She said she felt like “the bee’s knees” when she started earning money. She described the pair of white boots she was able to buy, to wear when she went out dancing.

Like her peers, though, Joyce mainly spent her leisure time walking the streets with friends and going to cafés. “We sat there all night with one coffee,” she said, “sometimes two, if you were feeling rash.”

In rural areas, girls were often dependent on limited public transport to access leisure venues, shops and cafes in nearby towns. Going to the cinema was a major expedition.

Valerie, who grew up on a farm near Portsmouth on England’s south coast, said: “We couldn’t get there until 6 o’clock and we had to be on the 9 o’clock bus back.” As films were often shown on a continuous loop throughout the day, she said “you’d pick up a film half way through, watch it until the bit that you came in at, and then leave.”

For girls abroad, the capital the opportunities Britain itself promised. One interviewee, Cynthia, migrated from St Kitts, in search of better prospects. “Jobs were easy to find when I came to Britain,” she said.

Cynthia worked as a machinist in a clothing factory by day. By night, she studied typing and administration. These new qualifications helped her secure a better-paid job as a secretary in a solicitor’s office.

Unequal access

We found that access to the widening educational and professional opportunities for girls was uneven. More were going to university and into . Most, however, left school at 15 without qualifications and with limited work prospects.

Joyce thrived at school but left at 15 when her mother became ill. Later, she took evening classes and became a telephonist.

Pamela too was a star pupil but her mother thought it pointless educating a daughter. “She’s only going to get married!”, her mother would say. Once in the workforce, however, Pamela excelled and quickly progressed into management.

Like others whose education was foreshortened due to hardship and sexism, Pamela and Joyce later regretted not having been able to pursue their studies further.

In popular culture, the 1960s are associated with . Most of the women we spoke with, however, said that, as girls, they feared getting pregnant out of wedlock.

became available to married women in 1961. But access for single women until 1974. Even access to basic sex education was limited.

Pamela fell in love at 17 and got pregnant. Her mother insisted that she give up both that relationship and her baby. She eventually started a new relationship and married at 20. This was an abusive marriage. Taking control of her fertility, she went on the pill and by age 24, she had secured a divorce.

The unprecedented trend towards early marriage meant was typically short-lived. In 1965, 40% of brides were under 21. from 1969 proved an important development for many.

Women about aspects of their younger selves having stayed with them in later life. Many live with what we call “”, the feeling that they could have been a different person and had a different life if things had gone differently when they were young.

Some of our interviewees explained that it was not possible to rectify what they missed in their youth. Others spoke about using retirement to make up for missed opportunities. Most advise their own children and grandchildren to make the most of being young.

, Professor of Sociology and History,
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Fintech (financial technology) is everywhere. It’s the catch-all term for technology-enabled financial services innovation.

Even if you haven’t heard of fintech, you’re probably using it for payments, banking or investments. Klarna? ClearPay? Revolut? Monzo? They’re all part of an industry that attracted a staggering (£40.5 billion) of investment globally in 2023.

However, while fintech is flooded with money, it is marked by an absence of women, particularly in leadership roles. , which was published on March 5, reveals the striking underrepresentation of women guiding this booming industry.

Women account for just 4% of CEOs, only 18% of executive committee members, and a mere 7.7% of entrepreneurs within fintech. There is not a single woman on the of the well-known fintech company Revolut.

Fintech sits at the intersection of three sectors: finance, technology and entrepreneurship. Gender inequalities in each of these combine to form what we call a “triple glass ceiling” in the fintech industry. The longstanding male dominance, continued privileging of masculinity, and rigid gender stereotypes in each of these sectors hinder meaningful progress and change in fintech.

So, where are all the women?

The sexist culture still apparent within financial services has been brought into fintech. Our research, which involved interviewing female and male fintech professionals, uncovers stories of recruiters being reluctant to hire women because of assumptions they would get married, have children, and be less committed to the business.

Several interviewees noted that women typically work harder and push more to gain the same result as their male peers. However, ideas that get dismissed when suggested by a woman commonly gain credence when offered by a man. We found that the performance of masculinity, not the quality of the work or idea, is what tends to get valued.

The masculine language in fintech job descriptions – requiring applicants to be a “hunter” and “execute” on strategies – reduces the pool of female candidates. And men are more likely to be hired since they tend to fit the sought after.

Networking can be a powerful way of climbing the career ladder in fintech. It’s not what you know but who. But networking itself is a . Women are often excluded from networking since it typically occurs in informal spaces outside of core working hours. And who is more likely to have caring responsibilities? Women.

Deep-rooted stereotypes mean that girls and women are still not supported or encouraged to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects at school. Thus, technology careers remain .

Only 1.5% of chief technology officers or chief information officers are women – a reflection of the technology glass ceiling. In comparison, 37% of chief marketing officers are women.

Startups also comprise the bulk of fintech, and this is where an entrepreneurial glass ceiling prevails. Few women attempt to access funding, and those who do are less successful than their male counterparts. For example, of venture capital funding went to female-founded companies in Europe in 2023.

Research finds that the venture capital industry is . Since people are more likely to relate to and fund entrepreneurs similar to themselves, male-led ventures are more successful.

Socially constructed gender differences, such as confidence, risk aversion and pitching style, also lead to and expectations of masculine behaviour. Successful entrepreneurs have traditionally been male, leading to a male stereotype of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial success.

What does this mean for you?

Fintech makes of disruption, inclusion and progression. And yet, on a very basic level, how can an industry innovate through sameness? If people build and develop products based on their own frustrations and day-to-day living, innovation can only truly be driven by diverse people with different backgrounds and experiences.

Despite all the hype, fintech is falling short. To recognise the needs of a diverse population, fintech needs more diversity of its producers. Otherwise, it contributes to inequality and wastes potential economic and social benefits.

Our findings should serve as an alarm call to those inside and outside of the industry. Most adults in the UK – even without knowing. If made aware of the gender inequalities in the industry, fintech users can be a voice for change.

Everyone is responsible. Creating a more inclusive and equitable workplace will only occur if the industry receives pressure from all sides. Shattering the triple glass ceiling represents an immense challenge, but we cannot be allowed to fail.

, PhD Researcher, and , Professor of Financial Geography,

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🌳 Trees can make farms more sustainable – here’s how to help farmers plant more.

— The University of Manchester (@OfficialUoM)

Written by , Postgraduate Researcher,

Imagine making one change to a farm field so that as well as producing food, it also generated building materials, fuel and fodder. At the same time, this change would nourish the health of the soil, regulate the micro-climate and support pest-controlling wildlife. In fact, it could even produce a whole other crop.

All these things could be possible by simply planting trees amid crops – and not just trees, but also shrubs, palms and bamboo.

This approach to farming is known as agroforestry, and it could improve the sustainability of agriculture worldwide. On a large scale, it could help mitigate climate change by in land that can still serve other purposes. Countries can even towards their reforestation commitments.

There is for planting trees on farms in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. But a lot of these plots – on average, less than 2 hectares (or two football fields). Any use of space has to really earn it.

So, how do we ensure trees work for farmers and the planet? India, where the last two decades have seen phenomenal changes in agroforestry, offers some insight.

India’s agroforestry experiment

India’s first effort to get more trees on farms started in 1999 with the Lok Vaniki scheme in Madhya Pradesh, a state in central India. The state government started the scheme to help farmers with degraded land secure additional income from timber and provided them with saplings of teak.

The scheme had a troubled start. The Indian supreme court had banned all tree felling except that permitted under the forest working plan three years earlier. Before farmers could sell the timber they grew, their request to fell the tree would need to be approved by the government.

Farmers were apprehensive about planting something they may not get permission to harvest, and teak trees take 20 years to yield timber. A cumbersome process for obtaining permits and high transport costs for small and marginal farmers scuppered the scheme.

The state responded by exempting certain trees from felling regulations. By 2014, India had a national agroforestry policy that offered farmers saplings and simpler procedures for harvesting and transporting trees. Still, the tree cover on farms didn’t budge. In fact, the last decade has seen in trees on farms in India, according to a study I contributed to.

The decline was pronounced among mature trees. Once these gnarled veterans had shaded open wells on farms and kept water from evaporating in the sun’s glare. Now deeper bore wells could be dug, rendering such trees obsolete.

The expansion of mechanised farming put a premium on treeless fields where tractors and farm vehicles could easily manoeuvre. Attacks by fungal parasites claimed other trees.

Some farmers were unsentimental. In interviews, many said they saw few benefits from trees, which could prevent sunlight from reaching crops. But the decline of native trees on farms like neem, mahua and jamun, once prized for their medicinal oils and nutritious fruit, , particularly in the poorest regions.

Trees on farms, not tree farms

While farmland trees dwindled across India, . These are essentially farms growing .

These plantations largely comprise exotic and fast-growing trees like eucalyptus, poplar and casuarina, which are all exempt from felling regulations. Enticed by the prospect of generating carbon credits on the international carbon market, and by demand for pulpwood for making paper, farmers with some of the smallest plots in India tried switching their crops to block plantations.

When the price of carbon credits dropped with the of the UN’s clean development mechanism in 2012, these small farmers were left with little to show for it. later confirmed that many would have been better off keeping their land for agriculture.

Although there is for pulpwood and timber in India, it is likely to favour farmers who can plant in large areas, cover harvest and transit costs, and wait for returns from plantations – a situation small and marginal farmers can ill afford.

These exotic plantations are either. For instance, eucalyptus consumes a lot of water and soil nutrients, leaving the land less fertile for future cultivation. Its leaves and flowers are less useful to birds than many native trees.

There is a rush globally to plant more trees on farms without considering what farmers will do with the tree in 20 years, or how it may interfere with crop production. This problem is not unique to India and has been noted elsewhere, .

Trees should still be encouraged on farms; preferably native trees that are beneficial for local diets and medicine. So far, though, the trend in India and elsewhere has been towards block plantations of exotic trees – a phenomenon largely driven by the lure of carbon credits.

The focus should be on supporting small and marginal farmers to grow native trees sustainably. Scattered trees of many species on small farms have bigger benefits for farmers and the environment than single-species plantations.

For that to happen, though, there has to be some way of financing this process. If carbon credit mechanisms can recognise this model of agroforestry and help small farmers add trees to their cropland, it would be a big shift in the right direction.

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Almost immediately after being appointed as foreign secretary, David Cameron’s ties with China generated difficult headlines for Rishi Sunak’s government. Cameron’s warmth towards China during his own time as prime minister prompted Luke de Pulford, the director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, to argue that Sunak had scored an own goal in appointing him.

Cameron’s time in office has been described as a “golden era” for UK-China relations. But now, in a very different political climate, de Pulford has accused the new foreign secretary of “”. Catherine West, Labour’s shadow minister for Asia and the Pacific, has also said Cameron has questions to answer over what role he has played since leaving office in a Chinese .

Cameron’s position on China during his tenure as prime minister evolved from ambivalence to active embrace. Looking back, 2015-16 in particular was an active period in UK-China relations. A state visit by President Xi Jinping in 2015 not only provided Cameron with a chance to take him to his but gave a clear signal of just how valued China was as a partner for the UK.

The implications of this for the UK now, in an era of considerably cooled relations, will be complex for the government and others to navigate. As foreign secretary, Cameron is in a position of considerable formal power when it comes to foreign policy, yet his party takes a very different view on China than it did during his time in office.

Sunak has leant into that position, for example, by removing China’s role in the , which is to be constructed in Suffolk.

The ups and downs of UK-China relations

When the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition came to power in 2010, its opening offer on foreign policy, the , and , did not spend all that much time dwelling on China. The policies merely noted China’s continuing economic rise and argued that the UK should engage with it to resolve common problems.

China was bundled into a broad, rather vague category of “rising powers” that the UK would aim to engage with more closely. It was important, but not so important as to warrant its own category.

This “bundling in” may also go some way to explain the first seminal moment of Cameron’s relationship with China – in London.

By hosting the Tibetan leader, Cameron triggered great upset in Beijing, which placed relations with the UK in a “deep freeze” for nearly 18 months. Cameron would ultimately relent, shifting his position on Tibet to more closely align with Beijing’s. He publicly rejected the idea of Tibetan independence and .

Warming up

By November 2013, relations between China and the UK had opened up again and a rapid convergence between the two countries was in evidence. This peaked in the autumn of 2015 when Xi made his state visit to the UK.

At a , Cameron declared that China and the UK shared strong economic, diplomatic, and “people-to-people” links. He advocated for deeper cooperation on areas such as health, climate change and extremism and opened formal ties with China on infrastructure spending. He declared that the UK and China “share an interest in a stable and ordered rule” in international affairs.

Within a month, the Cameron government had published an , which was much more expansive than the 2010 document had been on UK-China relations. It declared that it was the government’s “ambition for the UK to be China’s leading partner in the West”.

This would be achieved through a close economic relationship in particular, but also deeper diplomatic and security ties between the two countries.

Cooling down

Ultimately, this developing relationship would be derailed by the EU referendum of June 2016, and Cameron’s exit from office. Subsequent governments led by Theresa May and Boris Johnson were focused on handling Brexit, but were also seemingly more sceptical of relations with China than Cameron had been.

Several issues, including the question of democracy in Hong Kong, human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and Chinese espionage activity in the UK, have caused Conservative MPs to increasingly embrace a hawkish perspective on China. While Liz Truss was more clearly China-sceptic than Sunak, none of the prime ministers who have followed Cameron in office have been close to his level of dovishness on the topic.

The risks to the UK government, then, are twofold. Cameron’s ties with China have the potential to aggravate tensions with backbench MPs who are already restive. His party is currently divided over any number of other issues and primed to fall out over any number of others. The possibility of a dispute over the new foreign secretary’s position on China adding further inflaming tensions in the Conservative party are high.

Meanwhile, a noticeable gap in intentions between senior members of the government risks sending confusing signals to China. This is a problem for slower burning issues such as the being incurred by countries that have accepted Chinese investment via the belt and road initiative.

Cameron’s own advocacy for projects in countries like Sri Lanka, now dealing with the legacy of the initiative, may muddle messages. There is also the possibility of confusing messaging if a major crisis erupts – over the upcoming Taiwanese election, for example.

Beijing may now expect a softer approach where none is on offer. Cameron may appear to signal a less assertive response to a crisis where it was not intended. Miscalculation is always a risk in international crises and if Beijing perceives its western backers as internally divided, it may seek to capitalise for its own geopolitical gain.

Together, then, the legacy of Cameron’s relationship with China in office poses significant risks for both the Conservative Party, and for UK-China relations. Navigating these risks will be a challenge for all concerned.

For his part, greater clarity from Cameron on what he thinks UK-China relations should look like may provide some breathing space – but that may also simply serve to highlight these divisions. Ultimately, it will be up to Cameron’s current boss, Rishi Sunak, to try and resolve these tensions – ideally, before a major crisis breaks.

, Lecturer in British Politics and Public Policy,

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Way back in February 2020, before most of us really knew anything about COVID, for The Conversation about “leaveism” and its impact on flexible working. Barely a month later, the world was bracing for a pandemic that would inadvertently create the largest (forced) working experiment of all time.

This was a great opportunity for researchers like us to watch how working from home solved or exacerbated the workload problems that employees and managers had been dealing with face to face in the years before COVID. For many, the “workplace” was now the kitchen table or spare bedroom. The difference was there was no supervisory physical presence.

So, when the pandemic presented people with a golden opportunity to work remotely – and to some extent flexibly – it was fascinating to observe how the workforce responded. What we found was that working from home didn’t solve any problems, it merely moved them to a different location.

We first coined the term “” in 2013 to explain some previously undescribed workplace practices:

• using allocated time off such as annual leave entitlements, flexi hours banked, re-rostered rest days and so on, to take time off when they are in fact unwell
• using these leave entitlements to look after dependents, including children or elderly relatives (rather than for rest and recuperation)
• taking work home that cannot be completed in normal working hours (due to excessive workload)
• working while not at work, on leave or holiday to catch up (or keep up!).

As you can probably imagine, the pandemic and related lockdowns and restrictions to working practices had a significant impact on all of these practices. It also affected those ascribed to “”, which is when you go into work but aren’t operating at your full potential because you’re unwell.

Finding a new normal

Now, as we emerge from the dark days of the pandemic, most companies are trying to decide what the new working “normal” will be: hybrid, remote or calling everyone back to the office five days a week? Many firms will find that the most suitable option is highly idiosyncratic, depending on the organisation, its employees, industry and many other individual factors. But those choices are also likely to make a big difference to levels of sickness absence, presenteeism and leaveism in today’s organisations.

Indeed, the speculations we made about taking work home in February 2020 are all pretty much the norm now, according to . These changes were triggered in an unexpected way, but nevertheless taking work home, and juggling work and home life are now pretty much everyday business for most.

Our , written during COVID lockdowns, documented perspectives from a number of different organisational settings. They all largely came to the same conclusions around homeworking during that time: there are advantages but also some negative aspects of home working and flexible working. For example, employees may find there are huge financial benefits in working just from home, saving on time and travel costs. Downsides may include inadequate space in the home to work, limitations with internet or other technological blockers.

Our latest study, explained in our book , examined the effects of lockdown on workplaces and how the balance has tilted from sickness absenteeism to sharp rises in presenteeism and leaveism. Other also shows that, despite much more homeworking during and after pandemic lockdowns, 43% of people still experience presenteeism and slightly more (47%) leaveism.

How to help people be happy at work

But managers are now far more conscious, or should be, of the effects of these phenomena in the workplace. And there are ways to help negate the impacts of these practices, both on the workforce and on businesses. Whether a line manager works in the same physical space as their employee or not, good leadership is key.

Crucially, line managers need good emotional intelligence. That is, to understand how their employees are feeling and thinking about things that have an impact on their lives. Managers who have high levels of this (known as EQ) tend to have better relationships with their teams, which can lead to high levels of commitment and effort from them.

Developing such vital “soft” skills helps managers find out what they need to know about the circumstances of their team members without making unwanted intrusions into their private lives. This seems like a difficult line to decipher, but for those who are adept at navigating it, the rewards are huge.

New working patterns

Research shows that can make the difference between having great days at work and having a miserable time. When the latter occurs, you may witness the emergence of leaveism and presenteeism. These are tell-tale signs that people may not be happy, feel uncomfortable or are indeed thinking of leaving (usually measured as intentions to quit).

Having said all of this, employees are facing extraordinary challenges during this uncertain period for working lives. Organisations are managing shifts in policy in respect of remote versus office working. And the perfect combination is as yet unclear, but depends on a host of personal circumstances.

In this environment, opportunities for constructive development of employees can seem few and far between. But managers must think about the sustainability of their teams and invest wherever possible in things that will help create more good days at work than bad for everyone.

, Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health, and , Project Support, National Health & Wellbeing Forum,

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What’s changed since 1997?

The mid-1990s saw a wave of protests . Immediately before the 1997 election, they produced their iconic figure, , who stayed for a week in an underground tunnel to prevent diggers from accessing the construction site.

In the lead-up to 2023, there has similarly been a lot of direct action by protesters against cars. The first Extinction Rebellion protest entailed . and have blocked motorways.

Then, as now, a Conservative government lurching from crisis to crisis has sought popular issues to revive its fortunes. In 1997, the Tories were embroiled in a series of corruption scandals and nurturing an internal war over the EU. The parallels with their situation today require no explanation.

But there are important differences. It’s striking how little reinforcement of the “voters as car drivers” rhetoric there has been since 1997. Both parties have introduced and promoted steadily more ambitious action on climate change, in ways that have had knock-on effects for explicitly pro-car strategies.

Successive governments (both Labour and Conservative) have introduced:

• , then emissions, charging, first in London, then in
• in most towns and cities
• changes to that favour pedestrians and cyclists
• regenerated in some cities
• , now the object of much opposition, including from Sunak.

Because of these changes, Sunak’s championing of motorists today works differently to the Mondeo man appeal in 1997. Then, both major parties agreed on the social and economic value of the car and sought to sideline and undermine the road protest campaigns. Both shored up this pro-car ideology and competed over who could best serve it.

Two pro-car parties

In practice, there remains little difference between the two parties on the question of cars. Both assume that society will continue to be dominated by cars, but both have introduced enough (modest) policies to limit car use and promote alternatives. To actively promote cars now requires a clearer affirmation and creates the possibility of using it as a wedge issue to attack the opposition with.

These attempts are largely ridiculous. Labour is more or less still as pro-car as the Tories (hence the absurdity of trying to claim Labour is on the side of ), and partly because many of the initiatives now being attacked by Sunak were themselves developed and promoted by the Conservatives, most notably the ultra low emissions zone, which was .

Sunak’s pro-car rhetoric is explicitly nostalgic. To reclaim the Conservatives as the party of motorists, Sunak must return to Margaret Thatcher and sit in her Rover, recalling a golden age that must be restored.

This rhetoric also borrows from populists undermining climate policy more generally, because the political logic of promoting cars is now one of backlash which claims “the people” have lost out from the various anti-car initiatives of both parties. Sunak takes his cues from the Net Zero Scrutiny Group and the All Party Parliamentary Group on Fair Fuel, coalitions of MPs that climate action in UK politics.

If the Conservatives continue with this line of attack against Labour through to the next election, that poll will be about the future of Britain’s climate strategy. After all, more ambitious climate action demands .

It is not clear if Sunak’s pro-car nostalgia will work. But whether or not it does will reveal a lot about the necessary conditions for attaining more aggressive climate action, which will inevitably involve changes in how people live their lives – from the transport they use and how often, as well as in many other areas.

, Professor of International Politics,

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The 1953 coup d'etat in Iran ushered in a period of exploitation and oppression that has continued – despite a subsequent revolution that led to huge changes – for 70 years. Each year on August 19, the anniversary of the coup, millions of Iranians ask themselves what would have happened if the US and UK had not conspired all those years ago to overthrow Iran’s democratically elected leader.

Iran, the Middle East and, arguably, the whole world may well have been profoundly different. Apart from rewriting the destiny of Iran and its neighbours, the coup paved the way for a series of imperialist interventions and the toppling of democratically elected governments across the global south. Perhaps Washington might have thought twice before plotting coups in , or , if they’d been unable to overthrow Iran’s prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh, so easily and profitably.

As the democratically elected leader of Iran from 1951 to 1953, Mosaddegh championed nationalisation of Iran’s oil industry. This had previously been in the hands of the – a British company, founded in 1909 after the discovery of a large oil field in Iran, which would later become BP.

In March 1951, Iran’s parliament . This caused consternation in the west – most notably in Britain, where the prospect of nationalisation was seen as potentially hugely damaging to the economy. Furthermore, it would have undermined Britain’s influence in the Middle East. Plotting to depose Mosaddegh began in earnest.

In the event, the coup – named – was a joint venture between the CIA and MI6. The shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had recently fled the country after an earlier plot to remove Mossadegh had failed, returned to Iran.

Within a short period, he had tightened his grip on the country’s security services and imposed a dictatorial regime which ruled through brutality and fear. Pahlavi banned all opposition political parties, and many of the activists who participated in the movement for nationalisation of oil were arrested or fled the country.

Government by fear

In 1957, the shah established an internal security service, (Savak), which essentially ran Iran at the shah’s bidding. From then until 1975, only two major political parties were allowed to operate, the People’s Party (Ḥezb-e Mardom) and the New Iran Party (Ḥezb-e Iran-e Novin), and all parliamentary candidates had to be approved by Savak.

Both parties in reality were wholly under the shah’s control. The parliament only existed to rubber-stamp his decisions, as did the prime minister – who the shah appointed.

In 1975, the shah took his domination of Iranian politics further, , the Party of Resurrection of the Iranian Nation (Hezb-e Rastakhiz), which all Iranians were obliged to join. By 1979, when Iran , it was a virtual absolute monarchy, with the shah’s will enforced by the dreaded Savak secret police.

Within months of the revolution, though, Iran’s religious authorities took control under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The Islamic Republic quickly – Sazman-e Ettelaat Va Amniat Meli Iran – which used many of the same brutal methods as Savak.

‘Woman, Life, Freedom’

This week, Iranians will recall the 1953 coup as they prepare protests ahead of the anniversary of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising. This movement began in September 2022 after the at the hands of the morality police – which enforcing the laws on Islamic dress code in public – for the “crime” of not wearing her hijab (headscarf) in the approved manner.

The resulting explosion of unrest has posed the most serious challenge to the Islamic Republic in its history. Although the state tried to from the beginning, the police brutality and the prospect of severe punishment, which included public executions and at the hands of the security forces.

At the same time as battling the oppression of their own state apparatus, ordinary Iranians are also suffering under the brutal US-imposed regime of sanctions. In the past five years, these sanctions – reimposed by Donald Trump after he unilaterally pulled the US out of the Iran Nuclear Deal, which had been signed by his predecessor Barack Obama in 2015 – have devastated the Iranian economy. Soaring inflation and devaluation of the national currency have caused for ordinary Iranians.

As they , Iranians clearly grasp how, 70 years after the coup snuffed out their fledgling democracy, their internal struggles are still being influenced by foreign powers.

And they ask themselves if Mahsa Amini, and also and – two other women beaten to death by members of the state apparatus for protesting – as well as hundreds of other young Iranians, would still be paying with their lives in Iran’s struggle for basic rights today if the 1953 coup had not happened.

, Senior Lecturer in Sociology,

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Maybe you have one bin or many boxes. You might even have a compost caddy. Whatever your setup, chances are that at some point you’ve been left wondering what should go where and if a particular item is indeed recyclable or if it should just go in the main dustbin.

Research from Wrap, a climate action charity, has found that 82% of UK households regularly add at least one item to their recycling collection that’s not accepted locally. And data from recycling facilities shows that .

This can include electrical goods, nappies and food, though it more commonly involves packaging caked in remnants of what was – still covered in peanut butter or jam, toothpaste tubes, juice cartons, greasy takeaway packaging, damp cardboard and glittery birthday cards. Plastic pots, tubs, trays and bottle tops along with metal lids may also count as contaminants – depending on where you live.

And that’s a big part of the problem. Because what is and isn’t recyclable varies a lot from area to area. In the UK, there are 39 different bin collection regimes across . Rules aren’t aligned in terms of what is and isn’t collected for recycling or how items should be prepared: washed or rinsed, crushed or not, lids on or off. It’s different everywhere.

Our into the complexities of the UK’s found all these different rules and requirements have created a lot of confusion in terms of what should and shouldn’t be recycled. In some instances, this confusion can even result in people to recycle at all.

Breaking it down

We’re also now confronted with lots of multi-material packaging – those envelopes with plastic windows and also cake boxes and .

While some might try and “unengineer” such items to try and separate the different material components, others make a judgement based on what something is mostly made of, meaning items can then end up in the wrong bins. If indeed you even have to separate your recyclables by type where you are. Told you it was confusing.

Then there’s also the fact that many large retailers and organisations now provide collection points to recycle certain types of plastics, such as bread bags, crisp packets and pet food pouches, (which can’t usually go in household recycling bins).

Though in principle these schemes are good, they can lead to confusion, with people thinking that if these items are collected for recycling elsewhere, they can go in the recycling bin at home.

Crackdown on confusion

In response to the issue of contaminated recycling, the UK government has plans to crack down on “” by asking people to be more careful about what they put in their bins. Wishcycling is when people optimistically stick items in the recycling bin hoping they can be collected when in reality they can’t.

This forms part of a wider review of England’s recycling collection based on a consultation which was launched in 2021 by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) on how to improve the consistency of recycling in both homes and businesses.

Defra has said it wants to make recycling easier and more consistent so that all councils collect the same materials. This is to be welcomed, as our research has found that across all regions alongside that people can understand would make it easier for householders to know they are doing the right thing.

We also found that people want a simpler system as they want to recycle more. As part of our research, we heard from people who held back plastic milk bottle tops to donate to schemes that promised to recycle them as they were not collected by their local authority. Others were storing plastic fruit netting for fear of it not being appropriately dealt with and ending up causing environmental harm.

Some were driving bin bags full of plastics out of their local authority areas to other locations where family members and friends could feed them into their household recycling collections. All of this indicates that there is clearly a thirst to recycle, limit environmental harm and live more sustainably.

Tackling the confusion around what can and can’t be recycled is also needed because it’s adding to plastics’ bad reputation. Waste professionals we’ve worked with have told us that negative consumer perceptions and the move away from plastics aren’t always helpful because alternatives can carry larger environmental footprints. Though a contentious point, it’s recognised that .

Sorting out our broken recycling system is an important step if we really want to be a greener and more environmentally conscious society.

, Research Associate, Sustainable Consumption Institute and Sustainable Innovation Hub, ; , Senior Lecturer in Sociology, , and , Post Doctoral Research Associate, Materials Engineering,

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Darfur’s toxic legacy

In 2013, as a Special Representative of the , in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan state the scorched-earth policies of its governor, Ahmed Harun. He was a close associate of Bashir. Even though Harun had been in 2007, he carried out new ethnically targeted crimes against black Africans of the Nuba and in Blue Nile state. His tactics were further of what he had deployed in Darfur a decade earlier.

Bashir and Harun effected the original Darfur genocide through their militia, alongside the Sudanese Armed Forces. The Janjaweed were then formalised into the Rapid Support Forces. They were strengthened through for border control to stem refugee flows into Europe. They gained further combat experience and money by being recruited to fight in .

The international community’s pragmatic Sudan policy has favoured quick fixes rather than systematically tackling underlying problems. are also in play as nations vie for access to ���ܻ岹��’s, and riches. And so, deal-making trumped principles to boost the perpetrators instead of demanding their accountability.

���ܻ岹��’s military elites triumphed further when the international community undermined the popular pro-democracy uprising that led to . In a massive policy error, the UN, US and EU pushed for a that left Bashir’s military successors in control: Chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan for the Sudanese Armed Forces, and Commander General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo – aka Hemedti – for the Rapid Support Forces.

The violent power competition between these two generals is the immediate trigger to ���ܻ岹��’s current conflict. There are consequences amid that repeatedly fail.

Making peace

Peacemaking is never easy, but conflicts hallmarked by war crimes and crimes against humanity are impossible to end without restorative justice. Extraordinary hurts necessitate through grieving, forgiving and healing. That requires acknowledging wrongs done, penalising wrongdoers, compensating victims and their suffering through monuments that become places of pilgrimage to educate future generations.

That is how the helped post-Nazi Germany and Europe to move on. And how the strove to heal the Balkans from the 1995 genocide.

Justice is best served closest to the people who suffer but, at the same time, crimes against humanity in one place are crimes against all humanity everywhere. So, the whole world must be part of legal processes that ensure transparency and fairness, provide lessons and reset global norms. The tribunals for the 1970s and 1994 genocides did that with hybrid domestic and international mechanisms.

Where this does not happen, old wounds fester, even ancient ones such as those from the genocide a century ago or the 1930s genocide of Ukrainians. More recently, the unrectified genocides of the , and , and in continue to cause turmoil and encourage impunity. That is why “never again” is happening “again and again”.

Shabby peace deals

 There is no shortage of mediators for ���ܻ岹��’s current crisis. But their impatient peace panaceas underestimate the impact of the generation-long Darfur genocide and its direct connection to current events. Shabby deals for short-term gains – appeasing the generals and further consolidating their power at the cost of civilian democracy – will unravel.

The bulk of the Sudanese at the centre, by an Arabic elite – authorities, intelligentsia, rich – ignored the generation-long inhumanities at the peripheries of their vast land. But, sooner or later, there is no alternative to the path to peace in Sudan that is walked hand-in-hand by all its diverse peoples.

This will be a long journey. Short-changing justice and accountability will make it longer still. The handover of Bashir and other indictees to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity in Darfur should be integral to all peace negotiations, and a condition for aiding recovery. Furthermore, fresh crimes being committed in the current conflict must not go unpunished.

���ܻ岹��’s stakeholders in Africa, the Middle East and globally serve the nation best – and also their own self-interests – by not standing in the way of peace through justice.

, Professor Emeritus in Global Health & Humanitarian Affairs,

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Water companies in England have in wastewater treatment and sewerage infrastructure to keep pace with increasing populations and more intense rainfall. To take pressure off their sewer networks, companies allow huge volumes of untreated wastewater and sewage to be dumped into our rivers and coastal waters.

In the absence of effective regulation since the Environment Agency’s monitoring just over a decade ago, dumping sewage in rivers has contributed to a spectacularly profitable business model. Sewage pollution incidents – many of which were legal – increased over five years and countless urban rivers are now effectively extensions of the sewerage network. Our rivers are running out of time.

Only 14% of rivers in England have “good” ecological status and this figure could fall to just 6% by 2027. In February 2023, campaigns to save Britain’s rivers were launched by , and .

Water companies are under unprecedented scrutiny from the media, politicians, activists, university researchers like me and the wider public. Politicians know the sewage dumping scandal could cost seats at the next general election.

This is why is now demanding “every company comes back with a clear plan for what they are doing on every storm overflow, prioritising those near sites where people swim and our most precious habitats”.

Mapping sewage

Thames Water recently launched an interactive of 468 sewer overflow locations. The map updates every ten minutes, and shows in near real time where the company is discharging untreated wastewater and sewage to rivers.

In the middle of January 2023, after rainfall, about one third of the Thames Water sewer outfalls were discharging and another third had done so within the previous 48 hours. The map has also confirmed that many sewage discharges take place during dry weather.

The Thames Water sewage discharge map for Sunday 15 January 2023. Red shows an overflow that has polluted a river within the previous 48 hours. Orange shows an overflow that is currently discharging. A green tick indicates no current discharge.

Thames Water is the first water company to make such data across its entire region available to the public. The map highlights the staggering scale of the pollution problem and adds to a growing body of evidence showing that water companies are routinely using overflows to and other pollutants such as as an alternative to treatment.

We know when sewage was dumped – but not how much

But as a geographer and geomorphologist who specialises in rivers and has taken a , I know there is something missing in the data. Sewage discharges to rivers are recorded by sensors known as event duration monitors. These measure the of any flow, but are rarely set up to measure the volume of that flow.

This leaves the data open to manipulation. Was an “event” 100 litres or 1 billion litres? 1 billion might sound far-fetched, but next to Twickenham Stadium discharged over 1 billion litres of sewage directly into the River Thames on each of two days in October 2021.

So a water company could in theory reduce the duration and frequency of discharge events – turning the above map from red to green – but still increase the total amount of sewage dumped into rivers.

The absence of reliable baseline data on sewage dumping is a major problem and research has shown that water companies have not reported the .

The Environment Agency has a poor record of sewage pollution data scrutiny and several water companies are now routinely declining environmental information requests. How can we address the biodiversity crisis and make rivers safe for recreation if we don’t have reliable data on the volumes of pollutants pumped into them?

People need accurate information on what is happening to their local rivers so they can identify the and hold water companies to account. The Thames map is therefore a welcome step towards increasing transparency in the water industry and rebuilding trust, but it does not go far enough.

We need sewage volume data

In July 2022, United Utilities, which serves north-west England, announced a to upgrade wastewater treatment infrastructure on several rivers by 2025. The company states this will reduce the discharge of untreated wastewater and sewage into the region’s rivers by “more than 10 million tonnes a year – the equivalent of 4,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools”.

This is a remarkable admission of sustained sewage dumping on a colossal scale. It appears water companies can provide volumes when it suits them.

Water companies in England have been unwilling to calibrate their event duration monitoring sites to estimate sewage volumes. Yet they routinely collect very accurate data on the volumes of drinking water supplied to millions of homes, in order to calculate water bills.

The 2021 Environment Act requires them to make near real-time data about the frequency and duration of sewage discharges publicly available no later than 2025. But if the government’s plans to reduce sewage dumping are to be realised, we still need to know wastewater discharge volumes.

The Environmental Audit Committee made such a recommendation in its landmark , but the government argued it was too expensive. If Thérèse Coffey is serious about tackling this scandal, she must reverse that decision.

, Professor of Physical Geography,

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When Prince Harry with ITV journalist Tom Bradby for a conversation about his marriage, his estrangement from the royal family and his tell-all memoir, Spare, one particular segment stood out. Bradby said that Harry had accused some members of his family of racism, but Harry shook his head firmly.

“The difference between racism and unconscious bias,” he said, “the two things are different.” He went on to argue that unconscious bias could become racism if it was pointed out to the perpetrator and left unchecked.

The exchange between Harry and Bradby has prompted widespread debate. In , on , and on , people have rightly questioned whether Harry’s family members really were unaware of their own biases, whether it mattered, and whether their views could be disconnected from racism.

When a person expresses racial bias, then that bias, conscious or not, is racism. But racism won’t be overcome simply by pointing out unconscious bias. Instead, anti-racism means challenging the systems and institutions that have made racism “common sense”.

Testing for unconscious bias

This is not the first time Harry has appealed to the concept of unconscious bias in order to explain individual behaviour. In September 2019, he that “the way that you’ve been brought up, the environment you’ve been brought up in, suggests that you have this point of view – unconscious point of view – where naturally you will look at someone in a different way”.

Harry isn’t the first to claim that unconscious bias can be challenged, either. From the Labour Party leader to accountancy firm , prominent people and institutions routinely respond to charges of racism by pledging to combat unconscious bias.

The concept of unconscious bias has its origins in psychology. In 1995, US psychologists Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald that unconscious attitudes and stereotypes shaped people’s understandings and, in turn, their actions. They said that a child growing up in a racist society – with racially segregated neighbourhoods and schools, racist depictions in the media and parents and teachers propagating racial stereotypes – will internalise racism without realising it. They would then go on to express racist views unconsciously.

Building on this idea, in 1998, Banaji and Greenwald worked with social-cognitive psychologist Brian Nosek to develop the implicit association test (IAT). This has since become a popular tool in classrooms and corporate diversity . On the IAT , users can test their unconscious bias with regard to a wide array of categories, ranging from race and gender to ability and nationality.

The concept has gained further traction in the fields of , and .

What unconscious bias doesn’t tell us

The appeal of the IAT and the concept itself lies in its simple design. As a tool, it demonstrates just how widely held racist attitudes are –- particularly among people who are not conscious of holding them.

It is, however, precisely this simplicity that makes the concept inadequate. The IAT presents users with a succession of words and images, including the names and faces of Black and white people, and asks them to categorise them as “good” or “bad”, as quickly as possible. The user then receives a score, which shows their level of unconscious bias.

Left out of this test is any analysis of where users’ associations might have originated. Research has long shown that pervades society at every level, from and the to the and systems.

When Harry states that members of his family hold unconscious bias, he does not situate this within the larger context of institutional racism. This is particularly concerning when we consider who, exactly, he is talking about.

The royal family is the institution at the heart of power in Britain. Members of this family derive their and from political and social institutions that are the product of racism and colonialism. But ascribing only unconscious bias to these family members ignores these institutional roots. It reduces racial prejudice to the conscious, deliberate attitudes of individuals.

Further, for people on the sharp end of racist violence, it matters little whether the people responsible were conscious of their attitudes and actions or not. Unconscious bias only makes sense from the vantage point of the perpetrator. Black people face the same detrimental consequences, regardless of whether the perpetrators of racism are conscious of their bias or not.

prescribe fewer painkillers to Black patients than to white patients, even though they report similar levels of pain. hand down custodial sentences for Black and Asian offenders that are 1.5 times longer than for white offenders. are twice as likely to deny compensation to Black fraud victims as they are to white victims.

Unconscious bias is useful as a tool for helping people who think racism is irrelevant to them – that is, people who hold power in a racist society – to understand that their biases are the product of institutional racism. But suggesting that unconscious bias is somehow less harmful than racism posits the latter as something only to be overcome at the individual level. The institutions that made racism possible, and, crucially, the people on the sharp end of its effects, remain invisible.

, Presidential Fellow in Ethnicity and Inequalities,

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The UK government recently launched “”, a campaign aimed at providing “simple, low or no-cost actions that households can take to immediately cut energy use and save money”. The campaign speaks to persistent calls to increase the assistance provided to households across the UK.

Rapid energy price rises have pushed millions into fuel poverty, with an estimated . For many, independent advice on safely reducing energy use and accessing financial assistance can make a vital difference in confronting the combined cost of living and energy crises.

Trustworthy advice goes far beyond a few short-term behavioural “hacks” – some of which have been – to also include deeper measures to upgrade the UK’s .

To meet its climate change targets and protect households from rising energy costs, the UK must rapidly insulate millions of homes and . But installing such measures is often complicated and there is limited information, guidance or support. The UK can’t decarbonise its energy system without increasing the help available to households from trained energy experts.

Reducing the UK’s carbon emissions should go hand-in-hand with tackling fuel poverty. housing, heating systems and appliances are key drivers of fuel poverty, and people living in well-insulated, low-carbon homes are more likely to have affordable energy bills. While advice alone will never solve fuel poverty, when combined with other measures it can make a . Advisers can point people towards appropriate government aid and or help arrange debt repayment plans, or insulation and heating upgrades.

We know what works

Academic and policy experts, , have undertaken extensive research on integrated energy advice in the UK and beyond. Numerous across the UK and similar countries provide a useful testbed for understanding what works.

Research has shown there are , such as how energy advice is communicated, who is providing it, and how it is framed. The most effective forms of energy advice are those that are , primarily via in-person, community-based and context-sensitive work.

Yet energy advice provision in the UK remains fragmented and insufficient, with across the country. Organisations such as Citizens Advice do brilliant work, but they don’t have the resources to provide widespread, personalised advice.

NEAS to meet you

One thing that might help is the establishment of a National Energy Advice Service. Akin to the efforts involved in building the UK’s National Health Service back in the 1940s, it could provide widely accessible, free support for anyone who needs it. With dedicated funding from utilities or government, the service could help integrate , it could reduce skills shortages and help address both fuel poverty and the transition to net zero.

What does this mean in practice? People wanting to improve the energy performance of their home would be able to access a single advice line, or a website. This could either lead to an adviser visit, or advice could be provided remotely if more appropriate. The advice would allow a household to identify the best options in light of its budget and other circumstances, and any support or subsidy schemes that might be available. Perhaps most importantly, people could be pointed towards certified sellers and installers of relevant materials.

The advice service could also work directly with government agencies, the NHS and community groups to seek out and approach those who might benefit from energy efficiency upgrades. This could be done at the neighbourhood scale, through area-based targeting, community retrofit coordinators, , or other local initiatives. Any households or businesses who sign up would be advised on support schemes and energy upgrade options.

Everyone should have access to state-of-the-art energy measures, regardless of their income or other forms of disadvantage. The service must not be restricted to those with the confidence and resources to take the initiative.

So there is a strong case that this would promote energy justice. By integrating financial subsidies, and working with trustworthy installers and companies, a national-level advice service could help promote equitable access to low-carbon energy for all.

, Professor of Human Geography, ; , PhD Candidate, Low-Carbon Energy Transitions, , and , Senior Lecturer in Geography,

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implemented since 2010 have not been substantially reversed or retracted in recent years. In fact, they have often been levelled at the most marginalised social groups.

In 2019, cuts in total expenditure on welfare and benefit payments alone were expected to total . And now, growing numbers of people in the UK are struggling with everyday costs of living, while a further of cuts to public funding were announced in the government’s November 2022 budget.

All of this shows how keenly economic policies are , in the mundane: eating, heating, caring, shopping and travelling. And perpetual and cumulative cuts like those we have seen made in recent years to welfare, education, social and healthcare services shape daily lives and social relationships. The effects continue, across time and generations. They also worsen existing relating to , race, class, age and disability.

My during the 2008-09 UK economic recession revealed how memories and intergenerational relationships are key to understanding what it means to get by in times of recession and crisis. For instance, upbringing, living through previous recessions, debt and hardship are central to how people respond to economic downturns. These experiences, family histories and memories are often shared across generations in a way that influences younger people about financial issues.

Policies that aim to tackle poverty and economic inequality need to go beyond a focus on “the household” because this is not the only (or even the predominant) framework for how social relationships are built. Instead, people live within and across households that intersect based on kinship, friendship, intimacy and more. These are the main mechanisms that people use to .

Further research shows how austerity can be experienced as a “”, affecting the things people can do, afford and dream about, including having security at home and work. It even extends to whether or not people are able to make decisions about . Suffice it to say, economic policies have more than momentary effects, they ripple across people’s lives – and that of their children – even if their circumstances improve.

A life of its own

Taking this further, shows how austerity policies also have their own life. In the UK, this started with the early dismantling of the welfare state alongside diminished investment in deprived and post-industrial areas from the 1980s onwards. have of the UK. So, while the current era of austerity arose from the recession following the global financial crisis 14 years ago, it is more deeply embedded in certain parts of the country.

We can get an idea of by listening to their stories. Yusuf, for example, spoke to me about the instabilities he currently faces at work and how that has affected his life choices. “There’s no job security or stability,” he says. “There’s not enough trade [as a mechanic] anymore like there used to be years ago.” As a result, Yusuf does not think he could afford to have children.

Employment opportunities and local industries across northern England (where my research was carried out), had already been hit hard by years of . But adding austerity to the mix meant these factors culminated in multi-faceted forms of insecurity and uncertainty for Yusuf. His lack of job security is then linked to being unable to afford to have children – a to the one he had imagined.

Even if austerity cuts were reversed today, the long-term effects for Yusuf and countless others could continue for generations. Economic policies should be implemented alongside forecasts of what their effects will be for future generations. Researching these future outcomes, as well as past and current experiences, will highlight the unevenness of austerity measures. This will help to ensure that austerity policies and the devastation they cause do not become normalised, condemning many more generations to their long-term negative effects.

, Professor in Human Geography,

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Most obviously, the face of Bond has changed over the years, with six actors – seven if you include David Niven in the first Casino Royale – playing the coveted role. All these actors have been white – leading to discussion over whether a future Bond could be . However, while Bond’s race or even gender might change in the future, there is one aspect of his portrayal that I believe will be : his accent.

Granted, there is some degree of accent diversity with the various Bond actors. Sean Connery’s Scottish tones occasionally creep through, for instance. But overall, these are brief moments. All the actors who have played Bond used an upper-class British “” (RP) accent – whether more “pure”, such as that of Roger Moore and Daniel Craig, or one which went to lengths to remove regional features, such as Connery’s.

James Bond’s accent used in an RP language tutorial.

Sean Connery had been advised to “get rid” of his Scottish accent, and the Australian George Lazenby to prepare for his role as Bond. It is unlikely that Bond would ever use a more regional accent, one which might suggest a working-class hero.

The character of James Bond , and – – studied at Cambridge. He served as an officer in the Royal Navy before working for the British Secret Service. He knows his wines (and sherries and brandies), speaks several languages, enjoys fine cuisine and luxury hotels, and has travelled the world. He owns a mansion and family estate in Scotland.

Member of the elite

This all invokes a member of society who is part of the societal elite. Given RP’s and those with societal power, it is a fitting accent for a character whose background indeed belongs to a member of this exclusive group. This does not mean Bond must be portrayed as an aristocrat and use a variety of RP that suggests landed gentry, but the character must speak with an accent that nonetheless still represents the cultural capital he embodies.

RP does not have the same as it once did – it is no longer the , for instance. But it remains an accent which is both associated with the upper classes and is difficult to pinpoint to a specific geographical region. A nondescript accent like this means there is less potential to . A Bond with a broad regional accent risks – in Britain at least – being associated with the potential negative imagery that such accents.

The trailer for the most recent Bond film, No Time to Die.

Britain may be ready for a regionally accented Bond, precisely as a reflection of the more diverse society in which we live. “BBC English” is no longer synonymous with RP. And we must not forget the camaraderie – and pride – that speakers with broad regional accents can share.

But Bond inherits the connotations of his RP accent, which to this day are still mostly positive in terms of suggested societal prestige and power. And, for a character who embodies power, sophistication and dominance, an accent which reflects this is entirely necessary.

In the most recent Bond film, No Time to Die, actor portrays a double-O MI6 agent who is black, female – and speaks with an RP accent. Regardless of how the character changes in the 2020s and beyond, it seems highly likely that the cinematic Bond will retain an accent which does not fall too far from RP, with only a hint of regionality here and there, if at all.

, Lecturer in English Language,
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T-levels are intended to offer 16-19-year-olds a into either employment, higher technical apprenticeships, .

T-levels were to improve on previous offers to 16-19 year olds. They are , but grades are also partly based on exams – which the the most academically rigorous assessment method. One T-level is the equivalent of three A-levels, meaning that T-level students focus on one specialism.

However, the first cycle of T-levels has been beset with issues over exam marking and confusion over whether they are an acceptable route to university. Questions around just how relevant these highly specialised routes are for students finishing their GCSEs.

T-levels will replace many BTECs (diplomas provided by the Business and Technology Education Council) and other by 2024, becoming the to employment or further education for students who do not wish to take A-levels.

T-levels are very similar to their BTEC predecessors, but offer a longer industry placement. Additionally, not all BTECs include externally-assessed testing.

Like A-levels, T-levels are assessed at points by exams. Unlike A-levels, they place a bigger emphasis on on-the-job learning. All T-level students complete an industry placement which makes up 20% of their final grade.

Teething problems

The government has explicitly positioned T-levels as being equivalent to A-levels. However, a historical divide exists between vocational qualifications and those perceived as being more academic. A-levels are seen as the gold standard among post-16 qualifications and as the more obvious route into higher education.

Despite the stated intentions behind T-levels, there are concerns from students, teachers and parents as to whether universities will consider T-levels as equivalent to A-levels in practice. Almost half of Russell Group universities in the UK T-level students for admission in the 2022-23 academic year.

What’s more, an took place in summer 2022. Ofqual, the exams watchdog, found in exam papers on the health and science T-level. More than 1,200 people signed a petition calling for grades to be adjusted.

A new has found that some teachers did not have enough training to teach T-levels and also did not have adequate access to resources such as textbooks.

Further education is from the consequences of austerity, funding cuts and the pandemic. is struggling to staff who can teach the highly specialised components demanded by each T-level.

Impact on students

The  in September 2015 means that all learners in England must stay in some form of education or training until the age of 18, rather than being able to leave school at 16 as previously.

For learners in Year 11 considering their study options after GCSEs, the choices are in practice quite limited.  schools or sixth form colleges offer the International Baccalaureate, and the majority of these are in the independent sector. Apprenticeships  since enrolment targets were first introduced by the government in 2015-16, although  suggest apprentice numbers are recovering slightly after the pandemic.

A-levels remain overwhelmingly the most popular option for post-16 study, with  as many A-levels as vocational and technical qualifications awarded in 2021.

However, the A-level route is simply not the best route for some learners.  by one of us (Elizabeth Gregory) at a college of further education found that BTEC students expressed  at encountering a new type of study programme where examination was no longer the only method of assessment.

It remains to be seen whether T-levels can offer a genuinely equivalent alternative to A-level study – or whether they will be both too academic for students looking for a vocational course and too vocational for university admissions departments.

, Senior Tutor in Education and , PhD Candidate in Education, . This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

Acknowledgement and thanks to the Barrow Cadbury Trust for supporting this comment piece. The views are the author’s own.

Filling the basket

So how are these inflationary measures created? Every year, a group of statisticians and market experts meet at the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) to pick a “basket” of goods and services that will help them measure the increase in prices over time – also known as inflation. By tracking changes in the price of popular products such as pasta, power drills and package holidays, the government can monitor the impact on people’s ability to buy the things they need and want, providing a key measure of economic health.

The products and services that are picked for the basket, therefore, represent both consumer habits and overall pricing trends, and they change over time based on how households are spending their hard-earned cash.

There are no hard and fast rules about which items are selected as representative but, with millions to choose from, it makes sense to limit the size of the basket. Even so, this is usually set at around 700 goods and services. When total UK household expenditure on a certain product or service hits £400 million (based on the ), it qualifies for representation in the basket. On the other hand, when expenditure drops below £100 million, an item is generally seen by the ONS as too niche to be in the basket. That’s why the basket has repeatedly contained flour and pyjamas, but not, for example, scuba diving gear, which not many people tend to buy.

Items in the basket are sorted into categories such as food, transport services and home appliances. These categories are weighted according to aggregate consumption (except at the lowest level of expenditure), based on the ONS . This ensures more commonly purchased items have more of an impact on the final figure for inflation.

Buying behaviour 
 

The products included in the basket, as well as the weighting of each category, provide interesting insights into consumer behaviour, particularly when we look at changes to the basket over time. For example, while spending on decreased to levels not seen since 1992 in the 2022 weighting, is on the rise. This reflects the fact that many UK households have been forced to spend less in certain areas to be able to as the cost of living continues to rise.

Unsurprisingly, the pandemic has also had a huge impact on the basket in recent years. In addition to antibacterial wipes, the ditched suits, a longtime staple of the working wardrobe. Instead, more casual clothing and even sports bras have been added to the basket, as people followed to remain active during lockdowns. The staying power of these new items versus suits could reveal a lot about the success of attempts by UK minister and Tesla CEO to bring workers back into the office.

Looking at differences in the over longer stretches of time also shows how UK life has changed since the 1950s. Music lovers, for example, have witnessed various formats move into and out of the basket over the years as technology has developed – from vinyl and cassettes, to the brief reign of the compact disc from 1995 until 2006. Of course such physical products have been replaced by streaming service subscriptions in . It’s also difficult to imagine anyone in 1947 understanding the addition of in 2011, or tablets the .

Remember these? CDs are one of several music formats that have gone into the basket over the years, only to be displaced by new technology. Image from Kyoshino/iStock

Such long-term insights are possible because the longest-running measure of price changes in the UK, the Retail Price Index (), was first introduced in 1947. It was the main UK inflation measure until it was challenged by the Consumer Prices Index () in 1996. Since then, the CPI has gradually become the UK’s preferred measure of inflation, however in recent years a version that includes owner-occupiers’ housing costs () has also gained prominence. Confusingly, these indices are all used publicly and are all calculated in different ways. RPI calculations are than the CPI results, partly because it includes housing costs in the form of mortgage interest payments.

Over the years, the differences between indices have led to “inflation shopping”. During industrial disputes, for example, employers might prefer to increase wages based on the CPI, while unions want to base negotiations on the higher RPI measure. To simplify the system, the government wants to in 2030. The importance of housing to UK consumers means it will be replaced with the CPIH.

Making sense of inflation measures can be difficult, even for the most committed economists, and the minutiae of measurement can seem dry and uninspiring. But examining what we are buying can tell us a lot about how we live our lives on a daily basis. In 1967, the UK Ministry of Labour the index cover meals eaten outside of the home, reflecting a rise in dining out across the UK. It now seems only a matter of time before inflationary baskets will include delivery fees for apps like Deliveroo and Just Eat.

, Teaching Focused Lecturer in Econometrics,

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For these two sides making it to the final means that other powerful teams were knocked out along the way. There is no 91ֱ�� City, a club for the lavish resources it receives from the Abu Dhabi governnment. There is no Paris St-Germain, which is funded by the vast .

No sign of Chelsea either, the defending European champions, who enjoyed the financial backing of a billionaire with strong connections to Russian leaders and Russian gas.

So perhaps this year’s Champions League final is indeed a victory for football purists – a chance to support traditional clubs, untainted by the vast wealth and questionable politics of their rivals.

But before a wave of nostalgia washes over anyone, it is worth remembering that Liverpool versus Real Madrid is not a simple matter of old fashioned sporting values lifting up the beautiful game.

For a start, both clubs have traditionally had strong political associations; the Reds with and Los Blancos with .

And the two sides have openly embraced free market ideology, making them among the wealthiest clubs in the world. In the 2022 ranking of , Real Madrid (which has topped the list 12 times in the last 25 years) ranks second, with earnings of €640.1 million (£544.2 million), while Liverpool are seventh with €550.4 million (£467.9 million).

Both teams, then, earn and spend vast amounts of money. For instance, Liverpool has one of football’s most kit deals (with Nike), while Real Madrid still has an appetite for spending vast sums on .

And it would be naive to think that the clubs are uninterested in becoming even wealthier. Indeed, just over a year ago, Liverpool and Real Madrid were among the eight football clubs which to form a European Super League.

This was clearly designed to accelerate the flow of revenues into already rich clubs, at the expense of other sides across Europe.

Liverpool’s owners eventually stepped back from the proposal, at least for the time being. Real Madrid president Florentino Perez however, intent on getting his way and launching a breakaway league.

So while it is true that neither of this year’s Champions League finalists are fuelled by oil and gas revenues, they remain prime examples of free market football, and the cash it brings in.

Moneyball

The graphics below allow us to take an overall view of the investments and sponsorship surrounding both clubs, all of which are in the public domain. Each circle represents an economic “actor” (a club, a business or an individual), while each connecting line represents a significant economic transaction.

A closer look at Liverpool’s most lucrative commercial deals reveals that the club’s owner, , which also boasts the Boston Red Sox in its portfolio, has assembled a sizeable network of entertainment businesses and properties in the US.

This includes , a “high-profile dealmaker” in the professional sports world, and RedBall Acquisition Corp, spearheaded by Billy Beane (of fame) and Gerry Cardinale, the co-founder of the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network.

Another business of note is SpringHill Company, an entertainment development and production firm headed by basketball star LeBron James, which has tennis player on the board of directors. James is also a of Liverpool FC.

Liverpool FC’s financial links. Paul Widdop/Simon Chadwick, Author provided

Though not overtly political, Liverpool’s private ownership and US focused operations embody a free market ideology that has become increasingly prominent across European football over the last two decades.

Real fortunes

At first glance, Real Madrid would appear to be a very different beast. The club is owned by its members – known as “socios” – who get to vote club officials into and out of office.

But the graphic of its commercial deals and relationship shows how closely linked to foreign wealth it has become. There are connections with , an entertainment “mega-project” under construction in Saudi Arabia, and with a Chinese bank which issues a Real Madrid branded credit card.

There are also commercial relationships with Abu Dhabi Bank and Emirates Airline in the UAE, Sela Sports, an event management company based in Saudi Arabia, and technology firms in South Korea and China.

Real Madrid’s business connections. Paul Widdop/Simon Chadwick, Author provided

Overall, there’s a lot of money invested in the two sides playing for the trophy. And the political side of the game is arguably more obvious than ever.

This year’s Champions League tournament started out with Russian energy giant Gazprom as a principal sponsor, with the final due to be held in Vladimir Putin’s hometown of Saint Petersburg.

After the invasion of Ukraine, the final was , and the deal with Gazprom terminated. So despite being sanitised of Russia’s influence and of fortunes made through oil and gas, the match still represents two of the key players in the modern game: politics and business.

, Global Professor of Sport | Director of Eurasian Sport, and , Researcher of Sport Business,

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Instead, doing nothing when witnessing bullying. But why is this the case and what consequences does it have? Our recent research gives important clues.

Workplace bullying occurs when an employee is subjected to repeated behaviour that harass, exclude, or negatively affect someone’s work. This may range from obvious acts of physical violence to more ambiguous behaviour, such as mocking, insulting or socially excluding someone.

Bullying can seriously affect , with extreme cases leading to self-harm or suicide. On average, workplace bullying affects around , though some sectors, such as healthcare and higher education, report higher rates.

The impact of doing nothing

Workplace bullying has traditionally been seen as an issue just between the victim and bully – and dealt with accordingly. But bullying often occurs in front of others. in some organisations report witnessing bullying at work.

This is troubling. Witnessing bullying may harm , stimulating fear of how they might be treated in the future.

But how bystanders respond can either help or worsen the situation for victims. In our , we asked employees at a large university to answer questions about their experiences of bullying, as a victim or a bystander.

We showed bullying victims suffered less damage when they had helpful bystanders who actively intervened. Conversely, victims in groups with bystanders who did nothing experienced greater detriments.

We suggest that this is because victims in these situations must not only deal with bullying, but also understanding why others did not respond, which is more added stress. It seems to us bystanders are key in helping create an anti-bullying workplace culture.

that bystander responses to workplace bullying can be categorised in two ways: active versus passive, and constructive versus destructive. The former describes how proactive the response is in addressing the bullying situation, while the latter shows whether the response is intended to improve or worsen the situation for targets.

This gives four types of bystanders. There are active-constructive bystanders, who proactively and directly seek to improve the bullying situation by, for example, reporting the bully or confronting them. There are also passive-constructive bystanders who don’t directly “solve” the bullying, but listen to or sympathise with the target.
Passive-destructive bystanders, on the other hand, typically avoid the bullying and “do nothing”. While this may sound benign to some, targets may view passivity as . Finally, active destructive-bystanders actively worsen the bullying situation, for example, by openly siding with the bully or setting up situations where the bully can pick on people. They effectively become secondary bullies.

The psychology behind bystanding

Why do so many people fail to intervene when witnessing something they know is wrong or harmful? The most famous theory to explain the phenomenon, known as the , was inspired by the murder of . Kitty was a young woman in 1960s New York who was stabbed to death outside her apartment building while 38 residents watched from their windows. Initially, it was reported that not a single person intervened or called the police, showing passive-destructive responses – though this story and the theory itself .

That said, the effect , such as bullying, that don’t amount to a medical emergency. The bystander effect explains their actions by proposing that individuals are less likely to help when there are other people present. This makes us feel less personally responsible to act, especially in ambiguous situations.

, we tried to delve deeper into the psychological processes underlying bystander behaviour. Bullying is often subjective, with people interpreting the same situation differently. So, we were interested in understanding what interpretations lead to active-constructive responses, which are the most helpful.

For active-constructive responses to occur, employees must perceive that the incident is severe enough to warrant intervention. This can be ambiguous – is that offhand remark just a joke or something more?

Next, employees must perceive that the victim does not deserve what is happening to them. Work relationships are complex and in certain cases, such as when group performance is key, employees may not approve of others making mistakes or inconveniencing them and may perceive mistreatment as justified.

Finally, employees must perceive that they are able to intervene effectively. There are many cases where employees wish to act but don’t feel able to, such as if the bully is a supervisor, or if previous attempts to intervene have failed.

Taking action

While there is no one-size-fits-all solution to encourage bystander intervention, there are things you can try to help you better understand a target’s situation and, hopefully, become an active constructive bystander. Research suggests that perspective taking, or trying to see things through another point of view, can be beneficial.

that participants who are asked to take a perpetrator’s perspective are more likely to agree that misconduct has taken place, while participants who are asked to take the victim’s perspective don’t.

Organisations have a key part to play in stopping bullying and, ideally, should have anti-bullying policies that are easily accessible by employees. These policies should clearly and have transparent, confidential processes for reporting incidents that are either directly experienced or witnessed.

Policies and anti-bullying initiatives should have buy-in from senior management. This would ultimately help employees feel safe in speaking out.

Importantly, organisations should try to find the root causes of bullying and if there is anything they can change to reduce it. For example, high workload and poor communication may contribute to a bullying culture.

Organisations whose members can reflect on problem areas can then take appropriate actions to tackle them. Not only could this reduce bullying, but it can also improve overall workplace wellbeing.

, Presidential Fellow in Organisational Psychology, and , Professor of Organisational Psychology, . This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

Khan had made little headway in resolving the Kashmir conflict, despite to do so. Under the partition plan provided by the Indian Independence Act in 1947, Kashmir was given the right to accede to either . has been a source of tension between India and Pakistan since even before both countries became independent in 1947.

Significantly, Pakistan’s newly-appointed prime minister Shehbaz Sharif raised Kashmir in his and urged India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, to join him in addressing this issue. Sharif said that a peaceful settlement was .

He said it was Kashmiris who are suffering the most and that the Kashmir Valley “”.

It is unlikely this is a meaningful pledge but more of a standard narrative of prime ministers in Pakistan. Perhaps Sharif wants to get the difficult conversation out of the way in order to focus on reducing rates and improving the unemployment situation – which he blames on Khan’s leadership. Unemployment rates have continued in Pakistan since Khan came to power in 2018. For many Khan has failed to live up to his promises of a Naya (new) Pakistan.

Kashmir’s conflicted past

After partition, there was an expectation that there would be a referendum to enable the people of Kashmir to decide of the state. This never took place. Since then, India and Pakistan have gone to war over Kashmir in 1965 and 1971 – and came close to nuclear war in 1999. Kashmir has experienced multiple waves of violence, predominantly in the Kashmir Valley, including attacks by militant organisations and by Indian security forces.

On August 5 2019, India revoked , stripping Kashmir of the special status it has held for the past 70 years, giving it relative autonomy over its own affairs. Telephone networks and the internet were turned off for some weeks and Indian troops were sent into the region. This put the New Delhi government in direct control of the territory. After the of Article 370, Pakistan suspended trade, prevented travel to India and expelled the Indian High Commissioner.

Khan spoke openly against Modi’s administration, accusing him of the constitution and comparing the situation to the second world war.

The former cricketer and political outsider had also made a that he would root out “corruption, providing swift justice, reviving economy and supremacy of the law, [and] to materialize his dream of a welfare state like that of Madina”. However, he has been criticised for the ways in which he has to end the corruption of previous governments, mishandled the pandemic and overseen rising inflation.

Upcoming election

At this stage with Sharif’s status uncertain it is unlikely that Modi will open serious negotiations. A Pakistan election is likely to take place in , so Sharif may not be the prime minister for very long.

The Sharif family has built good relations with Modi, to the extent that Modi attended a Sharif family wedding in Pakistan and the current prime minister’s brother (and former prime minister) Nawaz Sharif was invited to Modi’s . Sharif may be cautious of rocking the boat too much, if he wants to remain in power.

Kashmiris saw Khan as an in their struggle for autonomy. They may now be concerned that a Sharif and Modi relationship would allow Modi’s grip on Kashmir to become even tighter, reducing the autonomy of Kashmir further.

Kashmiris may be reassured by Sharif’s new promises of reconciliation, reviving the economy and speeding up projects. They may also believe that Sharif will be sympathetic towards Kashmir because he himself comes from a Kashmiri family.

It’s difficult to predict what the new government will do in Kashmir. But, a report from a details the opinion of an Indian army commander who argues that despite the leadership crisis in Pakistan, the security situation will not change across the , the de facto border between the Indian-administered and Pakistan-administered parts of Kashmir. It acts as a ceasefire line between the two powers. The commander said that the troops were in full control of the situation. This may be true for now, but if tensions continue to rise, things may change rapidly.

The upcoming election will decide if Sharif remains prime minister, but it could cause huge in the country. But no matter who wins, the Kashmir conflict will need to be addressed.

, Lecturer in Politics, . This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

And we hear about a rare archive of Ukrainian dissident literature from the Soviet era, and why it’s now in danger.

History is central to understanding why the Russian invasion of Ukraine happened, and what might happen next. And in this episode, we’re exploring the history of Ukrainian national identity.

Dominique Arel, professor and holder of the chair of Ukrainian studies at the University of Ottawa in Canada, explains how Ukrainian national identity started to emerge in the 19th century, when the territory that later became Ukraine was split between the Russian empire to the east and the Austro-Hungarian empire to the west.

“The birth of Ukrainian nationalism as a mass social movement really crystallised by the first world war,” says Arel. “It was far more developed in western Ukraine than in eastern Ukraine because in the Russian empire, Ukrainian nationalism was repressed and even the Ukrainian language was banned.” Under the Soviet era, while Ukrainian nationalism was initially encouraged under Vladimir Lenin, it began to be seen as a “nationalist resistance that needed to be wiped out”, explains Arel.

When Ukraine became independent in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union, anyone living on the territory had a right to citizenship. At that time, a little less than identified as ethnically Russian and three-quarters as ethnically Ukrainian – alongside minorities, including Crimean Tatars. But researchers point to shifts in those identities since then.

Volodymyr Kulyk is head research fellow at the Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He spoke to us from Kyiv. “To be Ukrainian used to mean to be Ukrainian by descent to be a Ukrainian origin or in the Soviet official parlance to be of Ukrainian nationality,” he says, explaining that nationality was “primarily understood in ethnic, hereditary terms”.

But now, Kulyk says it’s changing and more and more people are identifying as Ukrainian. “That means that more and more people who used to be Russian or who used to be other ethnicities, start identifying as Ukrainians.”

The of 2013-14 marked a turning point. Olga Onuch, a senior lecturer in politics at the University of Manchester in the UK, has been part of a number of studies surveying Ukrainians about their views and identity, and their politics. She says they’ve found that “civic identity or state attachment was extremely strong amongst Ukrainians, across linguistic and across regions”, and that it was increasing over time. “As the conflict escalated, so did support for the Ukrainian state,” says Onuch.

is also tracking shifts in political attitudes. This was incremental at first, in the years following 2014, but after the election of the current president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in 2019, Onuch says there was a “huge jump” in support for Ukraine joining the EU and NATO, which she calls the “Zelensky effect”.

Our second story brings a personal perspective to some of this history. During the Soviet era, when Ukrainian language was repressed, it was dangerous to publish Ukrainian political and cultural texts within Ukraine. One man, Wolodymyr “Mirko” Pylyshenko, in the diaspora Ukrainian community in the US began collecting this dissident literature. His daughter, Katja Kolcio, an associate professor of dance and environmental studies at Wesleyan University in the US, tells the story of the archive – and why it’s now in danger. (From 36 minutes)

And Moina Spooner, news editor for The Conversation in Nairobi, Kenya, recommends some analysis marking the two-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic. (From 48m)

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. You can find us on Twitter , on Instagram at or via email. You can also sign up to The Conversation’s .

Newsclips in this episode are from , , , , and .

You can listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our , or find out how else to .

, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, and , Assistant Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast,

This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

Ukraine these treatment services since 2017. In that year, it also rapidly expanded its services for people in need of sterile syringes, condoms and peer support or counselling – the World Health Organization-recommended for harm reduction among drug users and those at risk of HIV.

The Russian invasion has severely disrupted access to these specialist drug-treatment services. Before the war, some people would collect their methadone daily, but the Ministry of Health that a 15-30 days’ supply should be given. This helps to reduce the number of trips to services, which in some parts of the country are risky. Yet even at this early stage in the war, ensuring people can secure medication is proving difficult.

Of the 1,328 people registered with drug services in Kyiv, so far, most have been able to get their opiate substitution medication. But services in other parts of the country aren’t faring so well. They are either running out of supplies or contact has been lost with local drug treatment teams.

Without this daily supply, people will develop symptoms. Although these are not life-threatening, they are extremely uncomfortable at a time when people are already experiencing significant stress. We know that food, water and safe accommodation for many in Ukraine.

An increasing number of Ukrainians are leaving the country, in neighbouring countries. The Ministry of Health is trying to reach an agreement with its neighbours to ensure care is continued for those who need treatment for tuberculosis or HIV.

The International Narcotics Control Board these countries to ensure there is also access to substitute opiates for refugees. Negotiations have been taking place between Ukrainian officials and health authorities in Moldova, Romania and Poland to ensure injecting drug users can continue to get treatment, though it is not clear how much effort or success there has been.

There are in the way neighbouring countries provide treatment to those who are dependent on drugs like opiates. Some countries are not as progressive as Ukraine in their attitudes to people who use drugs. Recent ceasefires have opened up humanitarian corridors to Belarus and Russia, both of which to treatment – hardly enticing options for people in need.

Future looks bleak for drug users if Russia wins

President Putin has made clear his disdain of people who use drugs, most Ukrainian leaders of being a “gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis”.

In 2011, “total war” on the country’s drug problem. It is difficult to source reliable estimates of how many Russians now have problems with drugs, though of debates held in the Russian parliament between 2014 and 2018 suggest about 8 million Russians use drugs regularly. This compares with 6 million in 2011. It is not clear what proportion depends on or needs treatment.

After decades of official denial that drug use existed in the Soviet Union, the post-Soviet authorities were forced to acknowledge the HIV/Aids epidemic in the 1990s. This was linked to injecting drug use, which for 40% of new HIV infections in Russia.

An increasing number of Russians have developed problems with drugs such as heroin; a suggested that 3 million Russians are injecting drugs. Many of these people don’t have access to harm-reduction services such as needle and syringe exchange schemes. Without these, the risk of contracting HIV and other blood-borne viruses is increased.

Russia is also the among the 47 member states of the Council of Europe that prohibits opioid substitution therapy. The prospect of long-term occupation by Russia therefore has deeply negative implications for harm reduction services in Ukraine.

Russia’s domestic drug policy has been counterproductive in fuelling disease spread, stigma and human rights abuses. There is no doubt that people who use drugs are vulnerable during conflicts, and those risks are amplified considerably when an invasion is orchestrated by a president who has complete contempt for them.

Ukrainians dependent on drugs have a right to healthcare. But that support looks to be evaporating quickly, albeit not for the lack of courage by those trying to provide treatment during this conflict.

, Associate Professor of Addiction, and , Professor, Criminology, . This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

How do I contact my MP?

The first step is to check who your MP is by using this . Once you know who they are, you can then choose how to contact them. All MPs can be contacted by post (just send your letter to House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA) or by email.

The MP search tool will also show you their official email address. Parliamentary rules mean that MPs can only respond to communication from their own constituents, so it’s really important that you send your letter or email to your own MP.

What should I write?

People write to their MPs for all sorts of reasons, including asking for help with services such as benefits and tax or to discuss matters relating to immigration, the NHS and child support. These sorts of letters are usually dealt with by the MP’s constituency office, which will be based in your local area.

You can also write to your MP about bigger issues relating to national government policy – including foreign affairs issues like the Ukraine conflict. It’s a good idea to say what you want your MP to do. For instance, are you writing because you would like your MP to vote in a particular way in parliament on an upcoming issue? In the case of Ukraine, it may be that you’d like your MP to push the government to take more action, or a different course of action. It’s also a good idea to set out your reasons for wanting this particular course of action.

Perhaps you want them to sign an (EDM) – a request for parliament to hold a debate on a specific issue. In practice, these work a bit like petitions, demonstrating which MPs agree with proposals and raising awareness of campaigns or events. MPs write them and encourage their colleagues to sign them in support of a particular issue. Recent EDMs include a request from Labour MP Clive Betts that Uefa to outside Russia.

Should I write my own message or use a template?

Sometimes campaign groups provide a template to copy and paste when you contact your MP, or they may ask you to use an online form (see here from Amnesty International on the recent policing bill). This may be pre-filled with requests and explanations. Even if you agree with all of what the group is asking for, it’s a good idea to put these into your own words. If the issue affects you or your family personally, then say so.

Individually crafted letters and emails are often more persuasive and carry more weight than hundreds of identical emails. Although we typically only contact our MPs when we want to complain or object to something – you can also write to show your support for an issue or decision too. These letters are typically (though not always) dealt with by your MP’s staff at Westminster.

What if I didn’t vote for my MP?

It doesn’t matter if you didn’t vote for your MP or if you are a member or supporter of another party. They represent all of their constituents and regardless of political affiliation, your correspondence will be dealt with in the same way.

What happens next?

If you have contacted your MP about a personal issue, they will get back to you and let you know if they are able to help by letter, email or phone call.

If you asked about a policy issue, there are several options available to your MP. In all cases, you should receive a message back from your MP with their own thoughts on the issue. They may say why they agree or disagree with you or explain how they have raised the issue in parliament. Your MP may forward your message to a government minister and ask for a response, which they will then forward to you.

Sometimes an MP will raise a constituent’s issue in the House of Commons chamber. A of Hansard (the record of parliamentary debates) over the last year shows over 150 explicit references to constituents’ concerns in this way. Labour MP Barbara Keeley, for example, for clarification around visa rules on behalf of one of her constituents who was trying to bring family members over from Ukraine.

Only a few constituency correspondence will be mentioned in the chamber in this way, and your MP will let you know if and when this happens.

Is it worth it?

There is much value in writing to your MP. After all, it is difficult for them to represent their constituents in parliament if they don’t know what they are thinking. MPs need to see both sides of the debate to decide how to vote. Letters and emails are particularly valuable as part of a broader campaign where they can help to build momentum behind an issue. If lots of MPs raise the same issue with a government minister, its significance and importance will grow.

It doesn’t really make much difference whether your MP sits on the government or the opposition benches, and, in fact, cross-party campaigns .

However, if your MP is a government minister, whip of parliamentary private secretary, there will be some restrictions on what they can and can’t do. They aren’t allowed to sign EDMs, for instance.

Is there anything else I can do?

Another good way of showing MPs what you think about issues is to . these can be a very powerful tool to express concern or dissatisfaction with government policy. The government responds to all petitions that receive 10,000 signatures. And those that reach 100,000 are considered for debate in parliament – including calling for more support for Ukrainian refugees.

, Senior Lecturer in Politics, . This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

Over the last two decades, Addis Ababa has witnessed rapid socio-economic changes and a drastic physical transformation. This was propelled by and .

However, the city faces challenges around housing, transport, infrastructure, services, youth unemployment and displacement. 

I’m part of the , a new six-year initiative committed to addressing critical challenges in 13 cities in sub-Saharan Africa, including Addis.

I the solution lies in the way the city is governed. Currently, political elites influence the city’s governance and its physical transformation. The planning is top-down and excludes the majority of the city’s residents. 

The result is that development has focused on features like skyscrapers, shopping malls and luxury housing complexes. These might fit the government’s aspirational template for a modern African city but they do not meet the needs or reflect the realities – of city residents live in dilapidated housing conditions.

A rethink is needed on how the city residents –- particularly the low-income urban citizens –- can actively shape their city and overcome the challenges they face every day.

Urban challenges

Addis Ababa was established in the , under King Menelik (1889-1913). It was an area that was previously agro-pastoralists.

Constitutionally, Addis Ababa is governed by a city council, which are directly elected by city residents every five years. And the council elect a mayor among its members, who will lead the executive branch of the city government. However, the federal government has the legislative power to , extend .

Even though residents elect the city council, they don’t have much say. Urban planning processes tend to be –- for instance, the (2017-2027) which was effected to guide the development of the city. However, due to , , and , it’s common to find developments that violate the urban plans. These include .

Federal and city governments have invested in infrastructure over the past 20 years. This has helped to reduce . However, since the city started from a low development base the reduction is marginal. Addis Ababa still faces complex and interrelated urban challenges.

Around is congested, dilapidated and lacks basic services and sanitation facilities. Although the city government has constructed more than 270,000 housing units since 2005, they are for most of the city’s low-income residents.

of the population have access to clean water, and have access to sewerage services.

affect many due to informal housing construction in risk-prone areas, congested settlement patterns, and poor housing quality.

The city is challenged by youth unemployment. About (aged 15-29) are unemployed. This is the mismatch between the new jobs the economy creates and the increasing number of youth joining the labour market.

Addis Ababa is also under pressure from the influx of migrants. Within the last five years, of net recent migrants (people who migrated in the last five years) was 16.2 per 1000 total population. Most of these recent migrants endure , especially during their initial years in the city.

Additionaly, city officials’ drive to make the city a well governed modern-city created a hostile environment to independent informal sector operators. Although official statistics tend to informal employment, some scholars estimate it to be as high as in Addis Ababa. Nevertheless, small informal businesses are forced to which is a challenge for them. And street vendors face .

Overall, the city is unable to unlock its full development potential.

Fix the politics first

Many strategies have been proposed to tackle Addis Ababa’s urban challenges. But few seriously consider the city’s complex politics and how this determines resource allocation. 

I suggest four areas of improvement.

Fix the relationship between Addis and Oromia

Addis is the capital of both Ethiopia and the Regional State of Oromia.

However, due to the absence of an institutional framework between the city government and the surrounding Oromia National Regional State – to demarcate the boundary and collaborate in joint governance concerns – cooperation is limited and . This needs to be resolved. 

Without a clear agreement about how to work together or what each is responsible for, the city and the state can’t easily coordinate development, like water supply or landfill sites.

The establishment, and further expansion, of Addis has displaced thousands of ethnic Oromo farmers. The 1995 constitution guarantees the Oromia National Regional State a “” in Addis Ababa to address the historical ownership claims of ethnic Oromos. But the details of the “special interest” have not yet been specified in law.

A protest sparked by a shook the country between 2014 and 2018. Many ethnic Oromos perceived it as a plan to expand the administrative boundary of Addis Ababa into Oromia. In response, the city government decided to and allocate them subsidised condominium flats. The city government also sought to support them in urban agriculture.

The federal government should build on this and facilitate institutionalised coordination between the Addis Ababa city government and Oromia national regional state.

More representation

City residents must be better represented in how the city is governed and elected officials must be accountable to them.

The federal government in the governance of the city means city officials are loyal to the ruling party, rather than the city residents. And, because they are not accountable to residents, corruption and mismanagement can go unchecked. 

It’s paramount that city residents are properly represented at each tier of the city’s administration; city, sub-city and district. This will enhance their role in shaping the city’s future. City and local council elections must be held regularly and in accordance with the . 

Imposed city models

City and national governments have imposed their vision of a “”. This has resulted in that do not meet the needs of the majority of citizens. Instead, they favour . This must change.

Two examples of this include the current government’s flagship project – aimed at cleaning Addis’ rivers and building green spaces along the 56km riverbanks – and , upscale commercial and residential public-private partnership developments. With the introduction of these developments the policy focus and of the city government shifted away from the pro-poor schemes, such as .

Moreover, these developments threaten .

Supporting the informal

have made it for civil society organisations to defend the rights and interests of their constituency. For instance, government can and without providing alternative housing. 

The city needs organised communities that can reorient top-down, exclusionary urban development towards inclusive development.

Ultimately, what is needed is a shift to inclusivity. This requires that the relations between Oromia National Regional State and Addis Ababa City Government by addressed. In addition, the city residents must govern and pro-poor urban developments be promoted.

, Research Fellow, . This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

At one end of the spectrum, there are people called “”. They find face recognition easy – often successfully identifying people even if they have only seen them once, briefly or a long time ago. Conversely, people with “” are at the opposite end of the face recognition scale. They find it tricky to recognise faces and can therefore struggle to socially interact with those around them.

People with this type of “face blindness” may not realise they have it until they reach their teenage years or later. For most of us though, our face recognition ability falls between these extremes – we aren’t super-good, but we aren’t particularly bad either.

It may seem that face recognition is a single, isolated skill. But psychologists know that the ability depends on a number of different cognitive processes that interact in complex ways.

Measuring face recognition

If we are to test face recognition accurately, it is important that we know what it is. And it turns out that may produce different results.

One task used to measure how good we are at determining identity in unfamiliar faces is called “face matching”, captured, for example, by the . Here you are presented with two faces and asked whether they belong to the same person or different people. Performance across 40 pairs, ranges from being just over chance (guessing) to 100% correct.

Being good at face matching is particularly important for some jobs. Indeed, passport control officers verify identity by matching the identity of a live person to a photo in a passport.

But being good at face matching doesn’t necessarily make you a super-recogniser. Indeed some matching tasks may not be difficult enough to allow super recognisers to show off their skills. is an example of a “face learning task”. It measures your ability to learn and identify previously unknown faces. Specifically, you memorise the faces of different people and then try to pick them out of a line-up of three faces. The test starts very easy and gets progressively more difficult. Doing well on this task depends on your ability to see the visual differences between faces and to memorise them.

Finally, we can test familiar face recognition. When recognising familiar faces, we are tapping into our stored long-term memories of known people. We may know them as a family member or friend, or it may be someone from our favourite TV show. Most ask people to try to recognise famous faces either from current footage or use a test based on celebrity faces from before they were famous.
 

Performance across tasks

Interestingly, performance across different face tasks may be associated. So, if you are good at one face recognition task then you may also be good at other face tasks too. Some researchers that accounts for some correspondence in performance across tasks.

But this is not necessarily the case. You can be good at one task but impaired at another. And this is where the complexity lies. For example, if you have problems with working memory then you may struggle with face learning and familiar face recognition, but not necessarily with face matching. Similarly, being impaired at long term memory may make it particularly difficult to access memories of familiar people. Finally, problems with attention may affect your everyday face recognition but have less impact in the lab when you are fully focused on the task in hand.

Given the different measures of face recognition, we need to clearly define how we determine when someone is impaired (or a super-recogniser). Certainly, there is no single accepted test to measure face recognition ability. Instead, psychologists think that its best to measure face recognition using multiple tasks, exploring the different aspects of face recognition. On each task, performance from an individual is compared to that achieved by a large population of the general public.

We must also listen to a person’s report of their face recognition ability in their everyday lives. Some people may score normally on, for example, the Cambridge Face Memory Test in the lab, but struggle to recognise their friends and family in the street. Conversely, while poor performance across a number of face recognition tests is a good indicator for prosopagnosia, it is not necessarily a clear diagnosis of it.

More valid measures of face recognition that reflect real life still need to be developed. In real life, face recognition is much more complicated. Most of the existing face tasks use still images of faces, whereas in the real world faces move in complex and subtle ways. The full picture will rely on tests that can distinguish more carefully between different types of face impairment.
 

, Senior Lecturer in Experimental Psychology, . This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

The shape this takes . You might spend your time reflecting, mediation, through a forest or simply staying silent for a week. You might stoically endure the heat of a sweat lodge. Whatever the method, research has generally retreat-going as the ultimate in , a perfect example of the .

, however, suggests that retreat-going may be far more collaborative. Through in-depth interviews with 27 people, carried out in the UK over six months, I have been struck by how central encounters with other people are to the experience. People told me about the unexpected bonds they formed, which they described as “profound”, “inexplicable”, “mysterious”.

Unexplained connections

One 54-year old man, Simon, started going on retreats after his wife left him and he lost his job. The effect they had on his life was intense.

His first experience was a silent retreat. One evening, having spent the day next to a young woman (a stranger), they walked together to a nearby lake and swam, then returned – all in silence.

When they could finally speak, at the very end, Simon found out that his companion was Latvian. They have kept in touch since and remain friends. “It was a common bond that nobody else would understand,” he said. “People probably would have thought it was incredibly weird.”

to the importance of a group for retreat-going. Even during long sessions of group meditation, with the focus supposedly on the inner workings of the mind, an individual’s attention often rests on other people in the room. We watch our neighbours or listen for sighs, giggles and coughs. This actually helps the meditation process – it dials down our awareness of how we usually behave with others and synchronises participants’ attention to the present.

Anonymity is also important. work in part because people don’t know each other. This gives participants a chance to experiment with their own identity – being kind to themselves, for example, or talking about difficult experiences – in a safe space, without much risk to their everyday sense of self.

A similar principle might apply to retreat-going but in terms of relationships. Retreats offer people sustained contact with a group of complete strangers, usually around seven days. Without much information on who you will be on retreat with, you are free to connect with others in ways you might otherwise feel were impossible. You are provided with what could be thought of as a relational blank slate.

Simon, for example, wasn’t a “recently divorced man”, with all the baggage that might bring to a new encounter. He could connect with another person free from assumptions and expectations. He felt a sense of companionship, or even simply of connection, that had been otherwise very difficult for him to access in his everyday life.

Mystical connectedness

Another interviewee, Lorelei, who is a 37-year-old healthcare manager, described taking part in a “sharing circle”. This is a common activity wherein the whole group is given the chance to reflect on how the retreat is going and talk about their feelings with each other. She looked into the eyes of another participant by chance – a man she had never met before – and told me that, somehow, “I did not see them; I saw their soul. And it made me cry tears of joy.”

Lorelei could not explain the sense of connection and intimacy she felt with this stranger. It is true that empathy is a common feature of , where participants share their own feelings and listen to the feelings of others. But the sense that they had been meant to connect lingered for months afterwards.

Anthropologists have described the mystical sense of that emerges during rituals and festivals, where people report a sense of commonality and shared humanity. This phenomenon also appears in everyday life too, for example in the context of . But in retreat-going there is a sense of unexpectedness and surprise, too, which seems to be an important piece of the puzzle.

British sociologist Jennifer Mason highlights that with strangers can shock us out of staid relational habits and routines. They can shift our perspective on life, which is what can make them feel so potent – they might even hint at the sense we might be linked together in deeper, more mysterious ways, ways we can’t .

Likewise, the actual setting of a retreat can also explain why participants feel excited and emotional. Retreats often take place in remote, beautiful countryside.

 

 If the retreat takes place in a sacred space – a monastery, say, or a Buddhist retreat centre – the religious iconography might add to the , compounding the sense you were destined to meet a mysterious stranger. It might lend an extra weight to the striking, surprising resemblances you discover with a meditation partner.

increasingly points of for wellbeing. Going on a retreat, for many, is a way to re-enchant their relational lives. To return a sense of mystery and surprise to life that may otherwise have been lost along the way.

, Research Associate in Sociology of Relationships and Personal Life, . This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

This is the call from academics and experts at The University of Manchester in a new publication, . The report is published today to coincide , which aims to bring together communities, businesses, schools and the health sector to improve public understanding of air pollution and build awareness of how air pollution affects our health.

Since the great smog of 1952 killed 4000 people in London, “We’ve known for a long time that air pollution is bad for our health and for the environment” says Mary Creagh in the foreword for the publication. Mary is the Chief Executive of Living Streets, the charity for everyday walking, and former Member of Parliament for Wakefield, and chair of the House of Commons Environmental Audit select Committee.

“Now research tells us about the harmful effects of exposure to particulate matter from tyres and stoves. Each time, knowledge has ultimately informed the policy and legislation needed to take appropriate action. This is why we welcome this timely publication.”

On Air Quality, published by Policy@91ֱ��, The University of Manchester’s policy engagement unit, is released ahead of the UK Government’s next-stage consideration of the which is due to be discussed at Committee Stage in the House of Lords on June 21. The bill is aimed at cleaning the country’s air, restoring natural habitats and increasing biodiversity, but is the bill in its current form enough?

Writing in On Air Quality Professor Hugh Coe says: “Addressing poor air is central to meeting many sustainable development goals and should be embedded in future urban planning and public healthcare policy.”

Currently the UK has an opportunity to lead on tackling a global problem. The Global Burden of Disease project estimated in 2017 that 3.4 million premature deaths globally could be attributed to outdoor air pollution and in 2019, 2.31 million global deaths could be attributed to household, or indoor air pollution.

“Whilst there are major challenges to be faced post-pandemic and post-Brexit, the UK would do well not to lose its leadership in solving global problems such as air pollution. Continuing to facilitate the co-development of partnerships to address the global air quality challenge through the development of regionally targeted solutions will convey numerous benefits to the UK.” Says Professor Coe.

The report also highlights the particular dangers to children’s health with an urgent need to review and improve the which has recently been linked to increasing cognitive health impairments including ADHD, depression and dementia.

In the new report Professor Martie Van Tongeren claims it is a critical time to prevent cognitive decline in children and prevent childhood neurodegenerative disease. “Pollutants can transfer to the bloodstream in the lungs and travel to other parts of the body including the brain or may travel directly to the brain from the nose through the olfactory nerve.

“The effects of air pollution exposure on brain health have been observed at different life stages. Children and the elderly face a considerably higher risk of neurological impacts resulting from air pollutants. There is an urgent need to review and increase the methods available to us for reducing air pollution exposure for the most vulnerable.”

The University of Manchester has previously pioneered a first of its kind ‘clean air for schools’ programme in Greater 91ֱ�� in 2019 to determine how varying levels of air quality affects school children.

“There are a range of interventions that can and must be made to protect children in their critical developmental years.” According to Professor Van Tongeren. “Local authorities and schools must work closely to minimise air pollution exposure, protecting the physical health and cognitive functioning of children and preventing significant impacts on society and the NHS from neurodegenerative diseases further down the line.”

There are many key areas which need greater scrutiny to create sensible polices and address the environment challenges of today and the future. On Air Quality highlights some of the key pressing topics ranging from improving localised air-quality, to a coordinated approach to tackling greenhouse emissions and air pollutants, to the negative impact pollution has on our economy.

Read On Air Quality .

That’s according to a group of researchers and scientists who have contributed to a new  released today (Wednesday, 30 September) by The University of Manchester.

However, the academics also say that investing in local innovation, harnessing the green sector, and combating the climate emergency must remain key priorities for the government, despite the ongoing pandemic and impending second wave.  have been identified by 91ֱ�� experts across five overarching universal subject matters (health, economic recovery, inequality, growth of the green sector and innovation).

On our economic recovery, Professor Bart van Ark, Managing Director of the newly-founded Productivity Institute at Alliance 91ֱ�� Business School, says: “As we are mitigating the impact from a second wave of new cases on public health, it is also critical to safeguard people's living standards. First, we need to limit the number of job losses as a direct result of the crisis and then we need to find a path to economic recovery that creates new jobs and raises their incomes.” 

That includes key workers and the roles they have in society adds Professor Miguel Martinez Lucio from the Work and Equalities Institute: “There's been a lot of applause for NHS workers. There's been a lot of symbolic support. But amongst many work and employment academics, what we begin to realise, is that the real issue is that these workers have to be financially rewarded.”

James Baker, CEO of Graphene@91ֱ��, says another pathway to economic recovery is the “devolution of innovation”. He explains: “The 91ֱ�� model of innovation – design, make and validate – is core to what we do here in 91ֱ��. We often refer to it as ‘make-or-break', accelerating from the initial discovery through to applications and bringing products rapidly to market.

“As we move towards a post-COVID world, we're now seeing new factors are increasingly important for customers and industry. For example, the need for local supply chains for the manufacture of things like personal protective equipment (PPE) to be used locally.”

 sees world-renowned experts offer thought leadership and suggestions on how the global response to COVID-19 could also act as a catalyst to combat other major challenges. Some of the ideas are a complete shift in the way society currently looks at a range of global situations and solutions.

Professor David Hulme, Executive Director of the Global Development Institute, says: “COVID-19 has brought many issues into a very sharp focus. It's a health crisis, and at the same, time it's an economic crisis. But it may also be an opportunity to start to rethink some of the ways in which the world is governed and think about the strategies that countries and organisations have been pursuing.”

When it comes to combating climate change, Professor Alice Larkin from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and Head of the School of Engineering, says: “There are two important lessons that we've learnt so far from the COVID-19 pandemic. Firstly, that our priorities can be different. And secondly, that change can happen quickly.

“These observations can also be harnessed to tackle the climate emergency because with everything going on in the world right now, you'd be forgiven for forgetting that we're in one.”

To tackle the roots of inequality, especially for ethnic minority communities who have been disproportionately hit hardest by the pandemic, Professor James Nazroo, says: “The outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic points to the need to establish a wide independent inquiry into ethnic inequalities in health, and one that moves to focus on recommendations to address the fundamental causes of these long-standing and profound inequalities.”

For more information and to view all the lectures visit manchester.ac.uk/covid-catalysts

A leading group of University of Manchester academics are imploring policy makers to use the UK’s post-pandemic recovery as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lead a positive green revolution.

The UK is slowly easing COVID-19 restrictions and has recently announced financial aid to stimulate economic recovery including a £3bn plan to cut emissions. Now a collaborative group of leading scientists are imploring governments the world over to use this moment in history to turn towards a vastly more sustainable, green future.

In a new publication, , recommendations ranging from; emissions reductions, economic incentives and new technologies have been put forward. The report brings together some of the country’s leading energy, policy, and climate change experts to offer their opinions and solutions for the UK’s most pressing energy issues, including new data as a result of global lockdown restrictions.

Lord Deben, Chairman of the , who wrote the foreword for On Net Zero commented: "We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to address these urgent challenges together; it’s there for the taking. The steps that the UK takes to rebuild from the COVID-19 pandemic can accelerate the transition to a successful and low-carbon economy and improve our climate resilience. Choices that lock in emissions or climate risks are unacceptable.”

Professor Carly McLachlan is the Director of , one of the founding partners of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research: “Analysis of the impact on emissions of various lockdown orders across the world has demonstrated an average global reduction of 17%.

“The analysis estimates that even if some restrictions remain in place to the end of 2020, the overall reduction in emissions for the year will only be 3-13%. While this does tell us that we can do things differently and that it does have an impact, it also indicates how deeply embedded the use of fossil fuels is in our lives. Even when our lives ‘feel’ very different – they are still powered by fossil fuels.

“Our recovery must support structural change that addresses the way we power our lives – all levels from the individual, to business, to the energy system, to government policy must be aligned to deliver the significant reductions we need.”

On Net Zero key takeaways:

• At a national level we need to be clear that substantial emissions reductions are expected from the vast majority of sectors and that the limited removals we can deliver within the UK are likely to be needed for specific sectors.
• Clear policies are needed to support Greenhouse Gas removal. The extent to which we rely on this should reflect our confidence in the existence of proven technologies, robust monitoring approaches and sustainable supply chains.

• Far from being ‘difficult to decarbonise’, the shipping sector has significant room to manoeuvre, even over the short time horizon dictated by the Paris Agreement.

The impact of COVID-19 on energy use around the world has been stark, with the current background showing a reduction in energy demand tied with a decrease in economic activity and increased home working. The report also tackles the issue of energy poverty linked to vulnerable households, income reductions, job losses and lack of access to existing infrastructure.

Stefan Bouzarovski is Professor of Human Geography at The University of Manchester, where he leads the People and Energy Programme: “We often hear the phrase ‘no one must be left behind’ in the movement towards a climate friendly future. Low-carbon initiatives, including net zero policies, should take into account existing social and economic inequalities, while ensuring that disadvantaged people are adequately represented and supported.

“Climate policies, however, require deep reconfigurations of socio-economic patterns of energy supply and demand. Not only can climate policies transform existing inequalities, but they may also create new ones as they unfold. Recent international research argues that energy transitions may adversely affect the social, economic and political vulnerability of actors involved in and affected by the process; from individual households to entire states. Thus vulnerability to domestic energy deprivation cannot be considered as a household issue, but rather a phenomenon that is distributed throughout the ‘energy chain’.”

Energy is one of The University of Manchester’s research beacons - examples of pioneering discoveries, interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-sector partnerships that are tackling some of the biggest questions facing the planet. #ResearchBeacons

Policy@91ֱ�� is The University of Manchester’s sector-leading policy engagement unit. Policy@91ֱ�� connects researchers with policymakers and influencers, nurtures long-term policy engagement relationships, and seeks to enhance stakeholder understanding of pressing policy challenges.

Urgent fundamental changes to ‘fast fashion’ clothing items which are treated by many as disposable is needed to stem a devastating impact upon the environment according to scientists.

The fashion industry has been heavily criticised for the devastating environmental pollution caused by its global operations. Despite the widely publicised environmental impacts, however, the industry continues to grow, in part due to the rise of fast fashion, which relies on cheap mass-manufacturing, frequent consumption and short-lived garment use.

A new research paper published in reviews state-of-the-art research to examine the environmental impacts at critical points in the textile and fashion value chain from production to consumption, focusing on water use, chemical pollution, carbon emissions and textile waste.

Impacts from the fashion industry include, over 92 million tonnes of waste produced per year and 1.5 trillion litres of water consumed, alongside chemical pollution and high levels of CO2 emissions.

LISTEN: Podcast with Dr Patsy Perry and Dr Amy Benstead - Fast Fashion: The dark side of modern fashion

Dr Patsy Perry from The University of Manchester said: “We highlight the need for urgent and fundamental changes in the fashion business model to minimise and mitigate the detrimental environmental impacts.”

“A transition away from fast fashion towards slow fashion requires a slowdown in manufacturing volumes, the introduction of sustainable practices throughout the supply chain and a shift in consumer behaviour to reduce the amount of new clothing being purchased and increase garment lifetimes. Such systemic changes could improve the long-term sustainability of the fashion supply chain.”

A solution to the negative environment cost would require substantial changes in the industry. A move towards ‘slow fashion’ would encourage the industry to focus on more sustainable practices, including the deceleration of manufacturing and an emphasis on better-quality materials which last longer.

Kirsi Niinimäki, co-author of the paper and Associate Professor at Aalto University said: “Slow fashion is the future, but we need a new system-wide understanding of how to transition towards this model, requiring creativity and collaboration between designers and manufacturers, various stakeholders, and end consumers.”

As well as industry required to be open to adopting large-scale changes in practice, consumers also have a crucial role and must change their consumption habits.

The paper 'The environmental price of fast fashion' by Niinimäki, Perry, et al is published in 

This article is written as part of #CoveringClimateNow – a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate emergency.

Two centuries have passed since 91ֱ�� established itself as the centre of the global cotton trade. Known as ‘Cottonopolis’, the city was using a third of the world’s cotton production at the height of its textile boom. In fact, 91ֱ�� was the first centre of mass production, thanks to the arrival of steam-powered machines in factories, which sped up the spinning process inexorably.

Yet by the start of the 20^th century, the factories fell quiet and the warehouses stood empty. Cottonopolis was over.

Less than a century later, 91ֱ�� has once again established itself as a centre of textiles production and sales. The question this time round is, at what cost does this success come?

A city on trend

Named for its unique selling point – the fact that you can have a new outfit delivered to you within days or even hours of ordering – ‘fast fashion’ is the great equaliser of western society. Consumers can get a new outfit at a reasonable price – identical to the one they’ve just seen modelled by their favourite influencer – and they can get it the next day. From runway to your wardrobe in record time, and without the designer price tag.

“Fast fashion does democratise fashion for everybody to engage with – not just rich people,” says Dr Patsy Perry, senior lecturer at the Department of Materials. “That’s a great thing – it’s a great social leveller because not everyone has the disposable income to be able to afford luxury brands.”

And the heart of this burgeoning industry is 91ֱ��. “Post-1990s, a lot of UK clothing production moved to the Far East. But now, what we have are all these mills left over from the legacy of the industry in 91ֱ��,” says Professor Liz Barnes, former fashion marketing lecturer at the University. “There was then a gap for big clothing importers dominated by the Indian and Pakistani communities to use their contacts and networks back home.

“From this came successful entrepreneurs who poured this knowledge and experience into online brands. And being online offers opportunities, as you don’t need a network of stores – you just need a good website,” she adds.

While 91ֱ��’s Cottonopolis legacy meant it had infrastructure for a new fashion sector to thrive, the city and wider region had already established itself as a leader in catalogue retail. As Prof Barnes explains: “There’s that history and heritage there and catalogue is the natural predecessor to online.”

Today, 91ֱ��-born brands like Missguided, Boohoo and JD Williams are leading the way in fast online fashion – and they, and others like them, show no signs of slowing down.

“Online shopping has really changed things. Speed is the norm but what we’ve got now is, very significantly, that the fastest growing retail sector is online and it’s online fast fashion,” says Prof Barnes. “As the erosion of the high street continues as it struggles to compete, that sector will continue to grow.”

A new outfit you can order on your phone as you watch TV on a Thursday evening and receive first thing Friday morning ready for your night out, all without spending more than £20 – there has to be a catch.

The elephant in the room

When it comes to fast fashion, there is a catch – in fact, there are several.

“Fast fashion is so accessible, so cheap, so readily available online, fast, free delivery – it’s too hard to resist,” says Dr Perry, who specialises in the environmental impact of the growing industry. “And then we end up with a mountain of textile waste. A lot of the products are made from polyester and synthetic materials, which don’t biodegrade. A lot of nasty chemicals and dyes involved in production lead to water pollution. So, it’s become a major problem.

“The elephant in the room,” continues Dr Perry, “is that the vast volume of the stuff is predominantly made of virgin polyester.” As polyester is derived from petroleum, coal, air and water, the environmental cost of its production is, obviously, high. Factor in the fact it doesn’t biodegrade and takes between 35 and 45 years to decompose, and it’s easy to see why it has become one of the top concerns among sustainability campaigners.

Earlier this year, the Environmental Audit Committee called on government to take action to ensure that fashion brands and retailers take responsibility for the waste generated by the industry. Mary Creagh MP, chair of the committee, said: “Fast fashion means we overconsume and under use clothes. As a result, we get rid of over a million tonnes of clothes, with £140 million worth going to landfill, every year.”

Even starting to unpick some of the damage done requires a sea change in both the production and marketing operations of fashion retailers, and in the behaviour of consumers.

“It’s fine to buy these items if you carefully consider what you’re buying; if there’s a specific need for it; if you look after it and keep it – what’s wrong with that?,” says Dr Perry. “But it’s the way that we think about it – almost like a cup of coffee to be thrown away once you’ve finished it – which is wrong, because there’s been so many processes that have happened to that clothing; so many people have touched it; it’s been across so many miles – to end up being purchased and maybe not even worn before it’s thrown away.”

However, it seems change is in the air. “Society is becoming more aware of sustainability issues – consumers are asking questions and various geographical locations are increasing legislation in this area,” says Dr Perry.

The true cost of being fastest

It is the ‘fast’ component of fast fashion that is the most damaging. Where previously manufacturing was outsourced, consumer demand to receive purchases within days of ordering means that the one-month wait for the shipping containers to arrive is no longer an option for these online brands. As a result, more and more clothing in now made in the UK.

Dr Amy Benstead is a lecturer in Fashion Management and specialises in the subject of modern slavery. “Outsourcing makes clothing cheaper. But to speed it up, the manufacturing has to happen here. Yet retailers still deliver…” she explains. There has to be a catch.

“These e-tailers are able to be fast because they are getting a lot made in the UK,” Dr Benstead explains. “But with that, there are stories emerging of exploitation.

“This is a global issue,” Dr Benstead warns, “And it is happening in the UK as well.”

Known as ‘dark factories’, these manufacturing units are present across the UK and their workers are paid far below the minimum wage. Yet few customers question who made their clothes or where they came from.

“I THINK THAT PEOPLE ARE A LOT MORE AWARE ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE, BUT NOT ABOUT THE EXPLOITATION THAT CAN ACTUALLY HAPPEN WHEN YOUR CLOTHES ARE BEING MADE.”

“There’s an assumption that when it’s made in the UK it’s better, because we are a civilised country with regulations,” says Dr Benstead. “But exploitation is still happening here.” She adds: “I think that people are a lot more aware about environmental damage and recycling and plastic use arising from the manufacture of their clothing, but not about the exploitation that can actually happen when your clothes are being made. I think people just don’t think about who made their clothes and that it’s actually a person who made that item.”

So, who takes responsibility? How can fashion be better? “It’s the brands really, fundamentally, who have to take responsibility, because they have trained us as consumers to shop in this way. They have created that demand and consumers only buy what’s presented to them,” says Dr Perry.

But where is the motivation for brands to take this step? “In the end, it’s about educating the consumer, and these businesses have no vested interest in making us more sustainable in the way we buy our garments as it would mean encouraging consumers to buy less – and no business is going to do that,” says Prof Barnes.

Yet consumer thinking is changing. In the wake of the Extinction Rebellion that has ignited debate about the damage done to the planet and how on Earth it can be reversed, consumers – and particularly young consumers – are asking questions.

“We all need to buy less and buy better,” says Dr Perry. “But we also need to be offered less and offered better.”

As a city that’s been at the forefront of two fashion and textile revolutions, can 91ֱ�� step up and lead the way? If ever there was a time to head up a revolution, it’s now.

Words – Hayley Cox

Images – The University of Manchester, , ,