A by-election has been set for February 26 in the Manchester constituency of Gorton and Denton. This will be a big test for Keir Starmer’s Labour party and a temperature check on the state of multi-party politics in the North. Although…
For many years, I lived in the Indian city of Chennai where the summer temperatures can reach up to 44°C. With a population of 4.5 million, this coastal city is humid and hot.
Protests that began in late December over rising prices and a collapsing currency have now spread to most of Iran’s 31 provinces, with demonstrators taking aim at the country’s rulers.
This year’s UN climate summit (Cop30) in Belém, Brazil, begins with a familiar dilemma: how can we tackle a highly political, long-term problem that involves every country of the world?
The Ganges, a lifeline for hundreds of millions across South Asia, is drying at a rate scientists say is unprecedented in recorded history. Climate change, shifting monsoons, relentless extraction and damming are pushing the mighty river…
The manufacturing of African print textiles has shifted to China in the 21st century. While they are widely consumed in African countries – and symbolic of the continent – the rise of “made in China” has undermined the African women…
Israel’s recent surprise attack on Iran was ostensibly aimed at neutralising Iran’s nuclear programme, but it didn’t just damage nuclear installations. It killed scientists, engineers and senior military personnel.
If you visit Manchester, one of the first things you’ll notice is the great number of bee images throughout the city. Born in the Industrial Revolution, the “worker bee” symbol captured the city’s tireless spirit and its legacy as a…
In an unprecedented move, India recently suspended the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan, citing cross-border terrorism. This was one of a series of escalations between the two countries which now find themselves on the brink of war.
China recently approved the construction of the world’s largest hydropower dam, across the Yarlung Tsangpo river in Tibet. When fully up and running, it will be the world’s largest power plant – by some distance.
For years, nature has been blamed as a blocker of economic growth. After some ministerial bluster about not letting newts and bats get in the way of growth ambitions, the UK government released more details of its plans to get Britain…
The government cannot achieve its target to halve violence against women and girls if it doesn’t address the most serious perpetrators – and it isn’t anywhere near knowing how to identify them. Our new research shows where they are going…
The UK government has published its planning and infrastructure bill, a cornerstone of its strategy for growth. The bill aims to “get Britain building again and deliver economic growth” and includes the hugely ambitious target of building…
The 2024 general election was the first in the UK’s history to be run under a system of voter ID. When heading to the polling station, people could only vote if they proved their identity first. This was the result of a law brought in in…
The Horizon scandal, which led to the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of subpostmasters, has severely dented the public’s perception of the Post Office as an institution. Against this backdrop, branch closures are planned across the Post…
In a book I wrote with a colleague on organisational failures (The Apology Impulse) the inability of many of them to confront their failures, except to say a meaningless “we’re sorry”, is legend.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves presented Labour’s first budget in 14 years by promising to put an “end to short-termism”. British governments typically see budgets as an opportunity to present policies providing short-term gain in terms of…
If tens of thousands of miners turned up in the middle of a protected rainforest to mine for sapphires, you might expect that to cause lots of deforestation and harm local wildlife.
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 withdraw its support for a new coal mine near Whitehaven in Cumbria, which had been…
Desert regions in northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula have been well studied by archaeologists as the home of early humans and as routes of migration along “green corridors”. The archaeology of southern Africa’s west coast desert…
The UPP Foundation has today (Wednesday 10 July) launched a new collection of essays from leading thinkers across different sectors outlining the economic and social benefits universities have on their local communities.
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 turn up to elections…
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…
Gypsy and Traveller communities are among the more socially excluded groups in the UK. There is a long history of government failures in meeting these groups’ housing needs.
Gypsy and Traveller communities are among the more socially excluded groups in the UK. There is a long history of government failures in meeting these groups’ housing needs.
Dressed in a mini skirt and passionate about boys, music, dance and fashion, the 1960s teenage girl is a pop culture icon, the seeming beneficiary of the ascendancy of mass youth culture in the west and of unprecedented social and cultural…
Dressed in a mini skirt and passionate about boys, music, dance and fashion, the 1960s teenage girl is a pop culture icon, the seeming beneficiary of the ascendancy of mass youth culture in the west and of unprecedented social and cultural…