Articles

The Taiwan Straits maybe the most volatile point in the Asia-Pacific. Even if this thin strip of water, separating Taiwan and China, is not the site of a great power collision this year it nevertheless will be a source of tension between Beijing and Washington. The Communist Party of China claims Taiwan as “an inalienable”...

The House of Lords is an extraordinary place, full of gold leaf, ushers in full white tie dress and an imposing throne. Few other countries have legislative chambers quite like it. It is hard to miss as a physical presence but is often overlooked by think tankers and policy professionals promoting new policy ideas. Any...

At the start of October my organisation transformed from the New Local Government Network to simply New Local. We swapped our plain black acronym for bold lettering and a hot pink colour scheme and unveiled a new website and logo. Post-transformation, it seems like a no-brainer: we now enjoy a name and brand that accurately...

'Levelling up' has become one of the big agenda items for this government but how can it be helped by industrial strategy? Use the Spending Review and R&D Place Strategy to increase support for business innovation in lagging regions By James Blagden (Onward) In recent decades the UK’s regions have diverged so much that we...

The business case for attracting, developing and retaining diversity has been made repeatedly. But diversity is not just about the quality of the work, it’s a reputational issue for the sector as well. A sector lacking in diversity will undermine the importance of the work it produces. Increasing diversity within any workforce can be daunting....

What is public debt? Like a company, the government can borrow in order to fund part of its spending. Over time this adds to its debt level. But the government’s liability is of course someone else’s asset. That is, the majority of UK government debt is owed to investors in the UK, such as insurance...

The coronavirus crisis means we are facing huge changes and disruption in the labour market but what are these likely to be and who will be most affected by them? Covid-19 has accelerated change for workers already facing disruption By Josh Abey (Fabian Society) Covid-19 has pulled the rug from underneath millions of workers and...

There are lots of good reasons to want to work in academia: research freedom, the opportunity to teach, and a community of like-minded scholars. But as a doctoral candidate or early-career postdoc researcher, you might not find those sufficiently compelling; or you might simply be put off by an academic job market where permanent or...

The Withdrawal Agreement states that the EU and the UK should ‘use their best endeavours to conclude and ratify their new fisheries agreement by 1 July 2020’. Clearly, their best endeavours have not been enough: talks broke up on 2 July with continuing disagreement over an EU-UK fisheries agreement. The EU and the UK are...

After the coronavirus crisis and the recognised contribution of key workers, many of whom are immigrants, has this changed the immigration debate? A points-based system will prevent migrants from working in many key roles By Cameron Boyle (The Foreign Policy Centre) One positive to emerge from the COVID-19 era has been the increased appreciation for...

When you think about engaging with policy as a researcher, it’s easy to focus on Government; feeding into policy development, responding to Government consultations, working with Ministers and their teams.  But what about the parliamentary side?  Would you like your evidence to feed into the scrutiny of Government?  Would you like your findings to inform...

The Resolution Foundation has a busy events programme, running a speech, book launch or panel discussion at least once a week. When it became clear that lockdown wasn’t for the short term, I was asked to adapt our events to a digital format. And boy, did I have a lot to learn. While we’d streamed...

In an area of rising tensions what is likely to happen next? This region will be a priority for UK foreign policy By Edward Elliott (BFPG) The UK has recently conducted its first joint naval drills with the US in recent years in the South China Sea and has recently announced that it will be...

A range of ideas on how to help people become homeowners. Introduce a guaranteed buyer to the market to increase output By Sara Gariban (ResPublica) The most important barrier to fixing our broken housing market, and by extension increasing home ownership, is the absence of a guaranteed buyer in the system. ResPublica’s National Housing Fund would introduce...

Ideas for improving the reality of renting for the increasing numbers doing so. The government needs to look at improving security, conditions and affordability By Darren Baxter (IPPR) Over recent decades the private rented sector has grown substantially, more than doubling in twenty years to house 20 per cent of all households. Over that period,...