It is rare that a parliamentary panel into the creation and use of an internal government policy would get full-blown live media coverage, never mind an audience of thousands tuning in agog to hear the evidence. But a recent Scottish parliament hearing was not like any other held in HolyroodContinue Reading
Recording casualties during a conflict can provide a body of evidence of how violence has affected particular communities or groups, such as the Yazidis in Iraq and the Kurds in Syria. When the Islamic State entered Iraq in 2014, they immediately started committing gross human rights violations and displayed violenceContinue Reading
The idea of relocating Whitehall departments to the regions has a long but rather mundane history in the UK. Already, more than 80% of civil servants are based outside London – probably higher than most of us assume, given Britain’s highly centralised political system. If we exclude the Ministry ofContinue Reading
A man of his time: Colonel Vivian Majendie — the first recognised bomb disposal expert in Britain Spy Magazine (1882) via Wikimedia Commons On the last day of February 1884, the then home secretary Sir William Harcourt rose in the UK parliament to answer a question about a series ofContinue Reading
COVID-19 has intensified the UK's digital divide. Juliya Shangarey/Shutterstock The internet and other digital technologies have helped many of us cope with lockdown, and new ways of working have quickly become commonplace. But the pandemic has also exposed the “digital divide” across the UK – and the fact that notContinue Reading
Zara Mohammed, the new secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, was recently questioned about Muslim female leadership on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour Abdulmukith Ahmed/Muslim Council of Britain Debate continues in the wake of a high-profile Radio 4 Woman’s Hour interview with Zara Mohammed, the first woman generalContinue Reading
Six months on from the disputed re-election of Alexander Lukashenko as president, the opposition in Belarus shows no signs of giving up on its demands. Protesters are calling for Lukashenko to resign, for an end to the regime’s use of violence against its own citizens, and for the release ofContinue Reading
Andy Rain/EPA As part of the UK government’s latest budget, Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced that the £20 weekly universal credit uplift introduced at the start of the pandemic would be extended until September while working tax credit claimants will be afforded the equivalent of a one-off £500 payment. ToContinue Reading
Most nations are currently focusing their efforts to defeat the pandemic within their own borders, under pressure to help their citizens first. But this is a global problem and governments need to work together to eradicate COVID. To avoid hardening attitudes against helping other countries, governments need to change howContinue Reading
Tensions are running high in Hong Kong after the pro-Beijing government charged 47 democracy activists and politicians with sedition under the controversial new national security law. The group is accused of running what has been described as an unofficial “primary” poll in July last year in which more than 600,000Continue Reading
