BRIEFING
Call for new government to reduce children’s food insecurity
NEW DATA from The Food Foundation shows that in the month leading up to the election, 14 per cent of UK households, and 18 per cent of households with children, experienced food insecurity. This underlines the need for plans to ensure that everyone can afford and...
Rates of self-harm and violence soar in prisons in England and Wales
RATES of self-harm and assaults are soaring in prisons, reveals the latest statistical bulletin published by the Ministry of Justice. Prisons recorded 73,804 incidents of self-harm in the 12 months to the end of March 2024, at a rate of one every seven minutes. In the...
Private renters in England plagued with cold, damp or mould
NEW RESEARCH from Citizens Advice finds almost one in two (45 per cent) private renters in England are currently experiencing damp, mould or excessive cold in their home, and half (48 per cent) of them have been living with these disrepair issues for over a year. This...
UK public wants to end division and tackle poverty, climate change
THE public believe that the UK is more divided than 10 years ago, and that this is holding us back from tackling key issues such as poverty and climate change, a YouGov poll for Oxfam has found. Just over two weeks since the General Election, Britons are calling for...
Alarming suffering for refugees and hosts in South Sudan
A PILOT socioeconomic survey carried out by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, warns that the ongoing conflict in Sudan is exacerbating the already severe humanitarian crisis in South Sudan for refugees and the communities hosting them. The findings of UNHCR´s first-ever...
COMMENTARY
The re-emergence of independents and political renewal
ESPECIALLY in local and regional government across the UK, independent candidates (in reality, some more independent than others) were a strong feature of the landscape for many years. That trend has diminished as the capacity of party machineries, especially in the...
Moving beyond a phantom election
AS THE 2024 General Election stumbles to the finishing line today, and unless anything truly unexpected happens now, history will surely marvel at how it succeeded in being both a theatrical non-event and politically momentous all at the same time. What we have mostly...
Labour’s 2024 Manifesto: what prospects for progressive change?
THIS analytical article looks in some depth at whether there is much prospect of ‘progressive’ politics and policy following the 2024 UK General Election. MICK McATEER focuses on the Labour manifesto for two reasons. First, the party is traditionally associated with...
A volatile electoral climate and a sense of possibility
ELECTORAL MATTERS were simpler in 1882. “Every boy and every gal that's born into the world alive/Is either a little Liberal or else a little Conservat- ive!” Simpler, but far less democratic and carrying nowhere near the potential and challenge now unfolding. The...
Now is the time for social poets
IN 2021, Pope Francis addressed a Meeting of Popular Movements – activists from some of the most marginalised communities around the world, united by their struggle for justice and dignity. Beginning, “Dear Social Poets”, Pope Francis said: “This is what I like to...
MEDIA
UPDATES
Preview: 900 Voices in Edinburgh
WE LIVE in an increasingly information overloaded, mixed belief, diverse and busy world. So how and where do we consciously hear each other? Where do the voices of anticipated difference and unexpected consonance come to us? Is it possible to find common ground or...
Gaza news updates and truth-sourcing
IT HAS long been said that truth is the first casualty in war. In the age of digital technology, social media, AI and deepfakes, that awful reality has been turbo-charged. The continuing bombardment and assault on Gaza and the Russian invasion of Ukraine are prime...
Stations of the Cross for Gaza
WE ARE grateful to our friends at Christians for Palestine for producing a moving set of meditations and prayers for Gaza, using the traditional form of the Stations of the Cross, which depict Jesus's path to crucifixion. In commending these reflections we remember...