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From Trump to Biden: why Boris Johnson will be relieved by the end of the affair
“Make America great again” and “taking back control” shared both principles and principals. “I am increasingly admiring of Donald Trump,” Boris Johnson said; Trump said of Johnson: “They call him ‘Britain Trump’.” It followed, for Donald, that “this is the right time for Boris”. The time was right in thatContinue Reading
How countries are raising debt to fight COVID and why developing nations face tougher choices
PM Boris Johnson (left) and Chancellor Rishi Sunak have come up with money to underwrite wages, rescue packages and meal vouchers during the pandemic. Jonathan Brady/PA Wire/PA Images COVID continues to ravage societies around the world, and a key issue is how governments can afford to fight it. As economiesContinue Reading
Learning loss: the National Tutoring Programme for England is a valuable step – but may not go far enough
Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock UNESCO estimates that around 1.5 billion children were unable to attend school in the spring of 2020. Closed schools mean lost learning, lower skills and reduced life chances and wellbeing. A strategy for closing this learning gap needs to be rapid, school-based rather than online, and providedContinue Reading
What does Joe Biden mean for Brexit? A quick primer on the current state of play
There was a collective sigh of relief across the world as President-elect Joe Biden made his victory speech. In Ireland, that relief was accentuated both by Biden’s Irish ancestry and, more importantly, by his position on Brexit. Biden is adamant that any post-Brexit trade deal must not compromise peace inContinue Reading
The way we use data is a life or death matter – from the refugee crisis to COVID-19
In moments of crisis we often turn to data in an attempt to both understand the situation we are in, and to look for answers of how to escape. In response to COVID-19, governments around the world have employed algorithms, used data from apps installed on our phones, alongside CCTV,Continue Reading
How will journalists handle a Joe Biden presidency?
As in much of the developed world, the US media is in an existential crisis. For more than a decade, dwindling advertising revenue and threats to the authority and legitimacy exacerbated by the rise of digital and social platforms is putting relentless pressure on mainstream news organisations. As president, DonaldContinue Reading
Hungry, homeless and pregnant: the migrant women facing destitution in the UK
Motortion Films/Shutterstock Try to imagine for a moment, if you can, how it must feel to be so scared for your life that you are forced to flee your home and seek asylum in another country. Now imagine you are pregnant while doing this. You might hope that when youContinue Reading
How Trump uses Twitter to distract the media – new research
Shutterstock/rafapress In both the lead up to and the immediate aftermath of the US presidential election, President Donald Trump made claims of voter fraud and a rigged election, using all channels available to him, including Twitter. Despite the apparent lack of evidence for these accusations, they have arguably influenced theContinue Reading
US TV satire has lost its edge
Inspiring/Shutterstock For over two decades programmes like The Daily Show, a political news satire production, have positioned themselves as the antidote to a cable news landscape favouring partisan theatrics and politics served as entertainment. While their content isn’t news in the traditional sense, TV satire shows have had the freedomContinue Reading
Time to ditch Dominic Cummings’ technocratic, mechanical vision of government
If crises bring with them new opportunities to think afresh, then the combined impact of Brexit and COVID has been to focus attention on the capacity and structure of the British state. This rethinking is increasingly framed in terms of “smart government”. Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s chief adviser, isContinue Reading