Wealthy but worried: why the UK’s top 10% are turning their backs on the rest of society: Sentavio/Shutterstock I feel fairly middle of the road and average, but objectively I know this is completely untrue. I am at the top of the income percentiles – though I also know I’m miles away from the very …
How action over parliamentary spying scandal could affect the UK’s economic relationship with China: The arrest of a parliamentary researcher on suspicion of spying for China has fuelled calls in Westminster for tougher action against China by the UK government. This could impact the UK economy since China is an important trading partner and industry …
London is a major reason for the UK’s inequality problem. Unfortunately, City leaders don’t want to talk about it: City leaders often appear reluctant to discuss London't role in growing levels of regional inequality. I.R.Stone/Shutterstock In recent years, there has been growing evidence that the UK economy is in poor shape. While the latest economic …
UK’s first successful womb transplant – key questions answered: Helena Nechaeva/Shutterstock The news that the first successful UK womb transplant has been performed at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford has been greeted as the “dawn of a new era” in reproductive medicine. The recipient is a 34-year-old woman born without a womb, and the donor …
Do heat pumps work in the UK’s climate? An expert answers your low-carbon heating questions: WathanyuSowong/Shutterstock Retrofitting every house in the UK to net zero standard by 2050 will require replacing all gas boilers, mostly with heat pumps. The target rate is 600,000 a year by 2028 – but in 2022, fewer than 60,000 heat …
Red, White & Royal Blue review – this queer romcom puts a new spin on the US and UK’s ‘special relationship’: Warning: contains spoilers for Red, White & Royal Blue. Global interest in the British royals has increased in recent years, thanks, in part, to the prominent romance between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. So, …
All the evidence against the UK’s plans to expand oil and gas drilling: StudioByTheSea/Shutterstock The UK will extract as much oil and gas from the North Sea as possible, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Monday as he announced more than 100 new drilling licenses. Only a few days earlier, United Nations chief António Guterres …
The UK’s top financial influencers skew Conservative – which helps explain why Keir Starmer’s Labour is so anxious about uncosted spending pledges: It has become a common complaint among some Labour supporters that Keir Starmer and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves are being too cautious about their spending commitments in preparing for a future Labour government. …
How the UK’s new immigration law will put more people at risk of modern slavery: Shutterstock The UK’s illegal migration bill is set to become law after going back and forth between the two houses of parliament. The final sticking point, which the House of Lords tried to address in a series of amendments, was …
Horizon Europe: how the UK’s delay in rejoining EU funding scheme is damaging scientific research: Gorodenkoff / Shutterstock Horizon Europe is the largest and richest funding programme for scientific research in the world. Run by the European Union (EU), it has a budget of €95.5 billion (£83 billion) spread over seven years – from 2021 …
The UK’s island identity has long shaped its political outlook – is that why it currently feels so adrift?: Shutterstock/Tony Skerl UK foreign policy has long been shaped by a particular geopolitical way of conceiving the nation’s place in the world. This island identity may have been forged in imperial times, but it remains hugely …
The UK’s water pipe upgrade has made it harder to detect leaks – now the race is on to discover new ways to find them: Enough water is lost in the UK each day to fill around 1,200 Olympic-sized swimming pools. AlanMorris/Shutterstock The UK is losing a staggering 3 billion litres of water each day …
How the UK’s mortgage rescue deal could help or hurt you – in part depending on where you live: Many mortgage borrowers are expecting their repayments to rise rapidly. KucherAV/Shutterstock Millions of UK mortgage borrowers could experience significant payment shocks this year. This is happening due to a steep rise in the Bank of England’s …
COVID: how incorrect assumptions and poor foresight hampered the UK’s pandemic preparedness: Loveandrock/Shutterstock Matt Hancock, the former health secretary, has told the recently opened COVID-19 Inquiry that the UK’s pandemic planning was “completely wrong”. According to Hancock, the doctrine was “to plan for the consequences of a disaster” rather than stopping or containing the virus …
I’m one of the UK’s official climate change advisers – our new report says the country is no longer a world leader: Anne Coatesy / shutterstock The UK’s Climate Change Committee – the official independent advisory body of which I am interim chair – has spent the past three months poring over thousands of pages …
Price caps on groceries are not the answer to the UK’s inflation problem: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is proposing a form of price caps on basic food items like milk and bread to slow their price increases. This is likely to set maximum prices which sellers are not allowed to exceed, though it appears it …
Levelling up alone won’t help many of the UK’s ‘left-behind’ places: philip openshaw/Shutterstock The economies of the UK and US, among other nations, are increasingly based on unjust forms of democracy that do not align with regional attitudes or support regional equality. This can be seen in the many deprived cities, towns and other “left-behind” …
Flood warning expert: I worked on UK’s emergency mobile broadcast – here’s what we learn from tests like these: At 3pm on April 23, an unusual warning sound was emitted from millions of phones across the UK. This was the first test of the government’s national emergency alert system, which will eventually be used to warn …