Centre WriteEconomy & Finance
July 29, 2021

Ben Matthews: Beware Modern Monetary Theory – inflation risks our post-pandemic recovery

Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) attempts to offer an alternative economic rationale for government spending. Fiscal austerity after the Great Recession was a painful process, for people’s material wellbeing and even…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteEconomy & FinanceEnergy & EnvironmentPatrick Hall
July 28, 2021

Patrick Hall: The Government must reconcile its levelling up and green agendas – here’s how they can do it

The Government has a housing crisis on their hands. For a long time, but especially over the last year, prospective home buyers have faced soaring prices. So, last year, the…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteData & TechEconomy & Finance
July 27, 2021

Lord Holmes MBE: The UK is falling behind on battery and fuel cell technology

As a member of the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee, I’m delighted to draw attention to our report into battery and fuel-cell technology, published today. Our findings…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteEnergy & Environment
July 25, 2021

John Walter: Something of a COP out? The G20 and climate change

Leading up to the Venice summit, the G20’s record on climate already looked less than ideal. Since 2015, the G20 countries have collectively spent $3 trillion on fossil fuel subsidies,…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteLaw & Justice
July 22, 2021

Ming Yao Yap: The Modern Slavery Act must do more

Though slavery is often seen as a now-conquered phenomenon of the past, it is alive and well today. The UK Government estimates there are between 10,000 and 13,000 victims of…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WritePolitics
July 13, 2021

Henry Yates: Without urgent reform, the next big lobbying scandal won’t be far away

In February 2010 David Cameron predicted that lobbying was “the next big scandal waiting to happen”. In 2014, Cameron’s Government passed the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteWelfare
July 5, 2021

Zoë Shipton: Mandatory Reconsideration – a barrier to social security?

In 2013, the Department for Work and Pensions introduced Mandatory Reconsideration (MR), a mechanism to review and correct benefit assessments should a claimant wish to challenge a decision. This essentially…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteEducation
June 25, 2021

Tom Goodman: The Turing scheme may not be as generous as the Erasmus programme

Boris Johnson’s decision to pull the UK out of the Erasmus programme, in favour of his Government’s Turing scheme, has prompted widespread criticism. Dr Hywel Ceri Jones, who was the…
Sam Lampier
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Centre Write
June 25, 2021

Melanie Onn: Ripe for renewal – green energy and levelling up

Notwithstanding the disruption, heartache, and necessary political focus on crisis management caused by the pandemic, this Johnsonian Government has made levelling up a priority for its period in office, spearheaded…
Sam Lampier
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Centre Write
June 18, 2021

Andrew Carter: Levelling up demands doubling down on devolution

In December 2019, the Prime Minister, a former Mayor of London, promised to level up the ‘left-behind’ cities and towns of the UK. Yet, over a year on, it looks…
Sam Lampier
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Anvar SarygulovCentre WriteWelfare
June 14, 2021

Anvar Sarygulov: Benefit to all? Financial experience of Universal Credit claimants during the pandemic

Introduction As the COVID-19 pandemic hit the UK in March 2020, the Government made an unprecedented intervention to support the incomes of households through increases in various working-age benefits and…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteDrugs
June 11, 2021

Crispin Blunt MP: The public support psilocybin research and rescheduling

It is surprising what you can find out from asking a random sample of UK citizens about psilocybin, given that it is by no means a term familiar to everybody.…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteEconomy & Finance
June 10, 2021

Jeet Bains: Should the Conservatives embrace Modern Monetary Theory?

There is a new economics kid on the block: Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). It has emerged from many years in academia, with papers published, peer-reviewed, attacked, defended, refined. Perhaps the…
Sam Lampier
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Centre Write
June 8, 2021

Andrew O’Brien: More than just money – three pillars for levelling up public services

The Blair and Brown years saw huge investments in public services, but left behind communities did not see significant transformation.  The Prime Minister would do well to draw on the…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteImmigration & Integration
June 3, 2021

David Cowan: Viva Bush! A case for an immigration compromise

President George W. Bush has a message for his party. During a round of media appearances to promote his new collection of portraits of immigrants, Out of Many, One, President…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteEconomy & Finance
June 2, 2021

Dr Tim Bradshaw: Unleash our world-leading universities to drive levelling up

As we emerge from a year of crisis, now is the time for the UK to double down on our competitive advantage in education and research as a means of…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteForeign
May 28, 2021

Sylvia Lee: What the BN(O) visa scheme says about post-Brexit Britain

Many had expected post-Brexit Britain to dramatically tighten immigration when London rejected the EU’s principle of freedom of movement. However, in light of the National Security Law imposed by the…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteEconomy & Finance
May 27, 2021

Aveek Bhattacharya: Island of idlers? Better management to improve productivity

In 2019, the Royal Statistical Society declared its ‘statistic of the decade’ to be 0.3%: the average annual increase in UK productivity since the 2008 financial crisis.  That dubious honour…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteEducation
May 26, 2021

Freddie Kellett: University free speech legislation is neither wanted nor needed

In the Queen's Speech, the Conservative Party revealed plans for a more robust series of protections for free speech at British universities. However, this legislation, which aims to prevent no-platforming,…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteForeign
May 12, 2021

Tommaso Rabitti: An Italian job – Italy’s plan to spend EU recovery programme funds

In response to the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the EU deployed its ‘Recovery Plan’ programme, “the largest stimulus package ever financed in Europe”. Of the €1.8 trillion…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteEnergy & Environment
May 6, 2021

Ian D. Rotherham and Peter Bridgewater: Living with aliens – dealing with non-native species

During late May 2021, the GB Non-native Species Secretariat and partners are organising ‘Invasive Species Week 2021’. Non-native species are often called invasive alien species – for simplicity we use…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteData & TechEconomy & Finance
May 5, 2021

Lord Holmes MBE: Fintech and financial inclusion – lessons from the Financial Services Bill

Having lived the Financial Services Bill for the past three months I find myself now reflecting, not just on the clauses, amendments, debates, and discussions, but more on the essence…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteEconomy & FinancePhoebe Arslanagic-Wakefield
May 3, 2021

Phoebe Arslanagic-Wakefield: Increasingly precarious? Young adults during the pandemic

Introduction It has been much commented that young adults aged 18-34 have received a particularly raw deal over the past year: much less likely than older age groups to suffer…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteEconomy & Finance
April 30, 2021

Mehroz Shaikh: A coherent industrial strategy is essential for Global Britain

Arm is a Cambridge-based British semiconductor design firm whose blueprints for chips are used to make cars, smartphones, advanced military hardware and more. Its clientele, including Apple, Qualcomm, and Huawei,…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteEducation
April 29, 2021

Jan Ole Faust: Where do Scotland’s main parties stand on education?

Education in Scotland has been wholly devolved since 1999, and the main party in favour of complete separation from the United Kingdom, the SNP, has been in power since 2007.…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteWelfare
April 27, 2021

Helen Barnard: Levelling up requires a strong social security system

Is levelling up a Christmas tree or a bullet train? Will we look back at it as a flabby concept onto which politicians, wonks, and campaigners competed to hang their…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteHuman Rights & Discrimination
April 26, 2021

Lucy Mason: The Police and Crime Bill discriminates against the Traveller community

The Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Bill 2021 aims to increase police power and tools, introduce tougher sentencing for the worst offenders and improve the efficiency of the court system.…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteEducation
April 19, 2021

John Cope: It’s time to ditch the disadvantage gap

Conservatism is an immensely broad church, but one thing it is united on is a fundamental belief in fairness of opportunity. There is also agreement that a knowledge-rich education, grounded…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteHealth & Social Care
April 15, 2021

George Tench: Why Britain must lead global vaccination efforts

“The scientists have done it” the Prime Minister declared on December 2nd, after the first Covid-19 vaccine received regulatory approval. By February 14th all healthcare workers, adults over 70 and…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteEconomy & Finance
April 13, 2021

Paul Howell MP: Rebuilding social infrastructure must be at the heart of levelling up

As one of the Conservative MPs successful in breaking through Labour’s ‘Red Wall’ in the 2019 general election, I am under no illusions as to the nature of the task…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteHuman Rights & DiscriminationImmigration & Integration
April 13, 2021

Aaron Gates-Lincoln: The Domestic Abuse Bill must not leave migrant women behind

Domestic abuse is a problem that is often exacerbated by poor policy and support. After years of development, the Domestic Abuse Bill returned to the House of Lords on the…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteDefenceForeign
April 12, 2021

Luke Jones: Has British foreign policy moved on since Churchill?

On 9th October 1948 in Llandudno, Wales, the elder statesman and Leader of the Opposition, Sir Winston Churchill, boasted of a new, post-war vision for British foreign policy at the…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteEnergy & Environment
April 8, 2021

Luke O’Donnell: Scottish separation would harm the global fight against climate change

Following the declaration of a climate emergency on the 1st May 2019, the UK Government has been ambitious in its efforts to combat climate change and deliver deep decarbonisation. For…
Sam Lampier
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Anvar SarygulovCentre WriteWelfare
March 22, 2021

Anvar Sarygulov: Shaky foundations: the scale and cost of state support for housing costs

Introduction State spending on support for housing costs, which primarily relates to spending on Housing Benefit (HB) and the Housing Element of Universal Credit (UC), is set to increase substantially…
Sam Lampier
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Centre WriteLaw & Justice
March 19, 2021

Frankie Wright: The Police and Crime Bill is an illiberal attack on our tradition of protest

The Government's Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill passed its second reading in the Commons on Tuesday evening and is now due to receive amendments and further debate. But having…
Anvar Sarygulov
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Centre WriteEconomy & FinanceTransport
March 15, 2021

Alicia Kearns MP: Road to prosperity – the importance of infrastructure for levelling up

We all know that the United Kingdom is a competitive international economy. This fact sometimes risks being taken for granted. London is the world’s financial capital, our professional services industry…
Anvar Sarygulov
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Centre WriteEconomy & Finance
March 1, 2021

Jeet Bains: The Budget is the Chancellor’s opportunity to use his political capital

Budget Days are strange affairs. There is a certain pomp associated with Budget Day. The nation used to listen intently to whether the price of beer, wines and spirits would…
Anvar Sarygulov
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Centre WriteImmigration & Integration
February 25, 2021

Chris Clarke: For levelling up to succeed, so must one-nation conservatism

Back in 2014 Nigel Farage stated that, even with the economic arguments for immigration proven, he was against it on cultural grounds. Being “slightly richer” as a country was not…
Anvar Sarygulov
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Centre WritePolitics
February 24, 2021

Wahid Azaoui: Why we should revive the Big Society

Often misunderstood and unfairly demonised by its critics, the Big Society works as a bold conservative political idea. It was first introduced by former Prime Minister David Cameron in his…
Anvar Sarygulov
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Centre WriteHealth & Social Care
February 19, 2021

Jude D’Alesio: What I learned as a care worker during Covid-19

Losing my part-time job as a hog roaster was not how I envisaged the beginning of my Easter holidays. Instead, lockdown created a surge in the demand for care assistant…
Anvar Sarygulov
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Andrew LemingArticlesCentre Write
February 9, 2021

Andrew Leming: Toward Green Export Finance? Investigating the views of UK exporting firms towards UKEF

Summary This analysis presents the results of polling of a reflective sample of UK exporting firms on three broad areas: their general experiences and views of UK Export Finance (UKEF),…
Anvar Sarygulov
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Centre WriteHuman Rights & Discrimination
February 8, 2021

Jeet Bains: Avoiding a damaging culture war – an approach for Conservatives

“This land is your land, this land is my land” – so sang J. Lo at the inauguration ceremony of President Joe Biden. It was a moving performance about the…
Anvar Sarygulov
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Centre WritePolitics
February 2, 2021

Taylor Parnell: Is the age of the minor party over?

Until 2010, Westminster had been dominated by both Labour and the Conservatives for decades, while minor parties had very little influence. Most people would strongly argue that they are the…
Anvar Sarygulov
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Centre WriteEnergy & Environment
January 28, 2021

Deborah Leach: Tackling sewage pollution in our rivers must be a priority

Rivers are the circulatory system our natural environment depends on. They are integral to our daily lives, water supply, health and economy, but our river system is under constant attack…
Anvar Sarygulov
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Centre WriteLaw & Justice
January 25, 2021

Nina Hodžić: The sad irony of prisons in the UK

Home Secretary Priti Patel MP says she’s tough on crime. If lower crime rates are her goal, she should turn her attention towards Britain’s prison system, currently churning out repeat…
Anvar Sarygulov
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Centre WriteCoronavirus
January 18, 2021

Ralph Skan: Broken Strings — government policy and the music industry in 2021

The British music industry entered 2020 with a spring in its step. The previous year had seen its gross value added (GVA) to the UK economy rise by 11% to…
Anvar Sarygulov
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Anvar SarygulovCentre WriteWelfare
January 17, 2021

Anvar Sarygulov: Widening chasms

It is no secret that the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic is worsening existing inequalities. The pandemic has had an asymmetric impact on jobs, putting the greatest strain on…
Anvar Sarygulov
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Centre WriteEnergy & Environment
January 15, 2021

Ian Barker: Is water an undervalued asset?

“Clearly, water use is of such importance that its value to the economy as a whole is incalculable”. The words of the National Audit Office – an organisation not known…
Anvar Sarygulov
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Centre WriteCoronavirusWelfare
January 5, 2021

Miatta Fahnbulleh: A radical overhaul of the welfare system is needed for the fallout from COVID

The economic fallout from the pandemic is nothing short of grim: a projected 14% contraction in the economy this year; the deepest recession for 300 years and unemployment twice as…
Anvar Sarygulov
Love0
Centre WriteForeign
January 4, 2021

Oli Hunter: A new foreign policy era for the UK?

Following Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s announcement in his Spending Review that foreign aid would be cut from 0.7 to 0.5%, a reduction of some £4 billion, the debate surrounding this issue…
Anvar Sarygulov
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Centre WriteEducation
December 14, 2020

Debbie Leach: Human health and the environment are intimately connected

We all like simple solutions.  There is reason to celebrate when the answers to difficult or complex problems are straightforward, simple to implement and have long term cost effectiveness.  The…
Anvar Sarygulov
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Centre WriteEducation
December 11, 2020

Josh Jones: Free schools — A very Conservative Revolution

Michael Gove reportedly has a bust of Lenin in his office alongside Thatcher's portrait, reflecting his admiration for revolutionaries of all stripes. Certainly, his mass expansion of the ‘academisation/free schools’…
Anvar Sarygulov
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Centre WriteCoronavirus
December 10, 2020

Louise King: COVID-19 must not leave a lasting scar on our youngest generation

2020 has undoubtedly been a year like no other. The routines of our daily lives have been turned upside-down and many people have faced hardships and difficulties. Children have felt…
Anvar Sarygulov
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Centre WriteHealth & Social Care
December 4, 2020

Sebastian Daszkowski: Is the government doing enough to address the obesity crisis?

The long-lasting effects of COVID-19 on policy making will be experienced for many years. However, one of the less discussed policy shifts is Johnson’s campaign against obesity. Does it represent…
Anvar Sarygulov
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Centre WriteHealth & Social Care
November 27, 2020

Constance Talbot: Women’s Rugby: levelling the playing field?

The number of women playing rugby has soared in recent years, with more than a quarter of global players now being women (2.7 million). In 2018 alone there was a…
Anvar Sarygulov
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Centre WriteCoronavirus
November 25, 2020

Sam Smethers: A post-COVID caring revolution

The COVID-19 crisis is having multiple and profound impacts on our lives, one of which is the way care is shared within households, but will it hasten us towards equality…
Anvar Sarygulov
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Centre Write
November 20, 2020

Joanne Cash: Levelling up begins with the early years

The coronavirus lockdown supposedly forced families across the UK into the same experience at the same time: confined to their homes, sharing the kitchen table for education, work and play.…
Anvar Sarygulov
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BrexitCentre Write
November 17, 2020

Lachlan Rurlander: Making the most of Brexit will help British farming thrive

The issue of Britain’s farming future post-Brexit has returned to the spotlight since the passing of the government’s Agriculture Bill on Monday, which lays out the framework for future agricultural…
Anvar Sarygulov
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Centre WriteCoronavirus
November 13, 2020

Izabela Zawartka: What the UK can learn from Australia’s Better Access to Mental Health Care Initiative

Beyond its immediate threat to physical health, the coronavirus pandemic puts a considerable strain on individuals’ mental wellbeing. Factors such as social isolation, financial stress, and mourning for the loss…
Anvar Sarygulov
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Centre WriteWelfare
November 12, 2020

Peter Aldous MP: The Conservatives are taking rising need for food banks seriously – these new measures must be just the start

It has been a difficult year for families across the country. Despite the best efforts of the government, the pandemic has thrown many families newly into sudden financial hardship and…
Anvar Sarygulov
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