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Programme examining the ideas and forces which shape public policy in Britain and abroad, presented by distinguished writers, journalists and academics
From April, 2.7 million workers will get one of the biggest pay rises in UK history as the National Living Wage rises to £11.44 an hour. But...
The existential threat caused by Artificial Intelligence is a popular theme in science fiction. But more recently it’s started to be taken s...
It's 2024, and the Manchester extension of HS2 has been cancelled. The leg to Leeds was cancelled in 2021. The remaining line to Birmingham...
It's widely believed that the Conservaives won the Uxbridge by-election because of motorists who were annoyed by the London mayor's ultra lo...
Middlesbrough, in the north-east, is one of the most deprived towns in England. Once a steel and shipbuilding powerhouse, its fortunes chang...
Democracies do not die in military coups. They are dismantled slowly, by libel laws, through tax audits, and procedure. Democracies are dism...
'What is "British Culture?” I was born in the UK and have lived here for 40 years, and yet, as a British Asian person, I am constantly told...
British politicians love to invoke the family, from John Major's "Back to Basics" campaign, to New Labour's "hardworking families" - and now...
The term nudge has become a byword for the application of behavioural science in public policy, changing how governments the world over crea...
Most educational research now suggests that reading for pleasure is strongly linked to a child’s future outcome, educational success, and ev...
A record 2.6 million people are off work due to long-term sickness, with mental health conditions the biggest single contributor. The proble...
The USA, the UK and France, which have led the democratic world, are all suffering problems with their constitutions. But the problem is mos...
Should we be sceptical when politicians claim to act in "the national interest"? The phrase is frequently trotted out to elevate policy and...
How should we evaluate schools? Is it about delivering a wide range of subjects, or extra activities and pastoral care that make a “good” sc...
The cost of living crisis followed a decade in which people’s wages and incomes barely grew. The idea that each generation does at least as...
Our brain is a wonderful machine, but it can also short-circuit. What happens to us when emotions and politics intersect, when the democrati...
Amid mounting claims for reparations for slavery and colonialism, historian Zoe Strimpel asks how far reparative justice should go. Should w...
People have always fought back against “The elite”, and until recently they were easily recognisable: rich, privileged and often born into m...
Will 2023 be known as the summer of discontent? This year, nearly every corner of the country has been affected by some kind of industrial a...
How can employers in all sectors of the UK economy get the best out of their workers, retain experienced staff, improve productivity and inc...
Single people make up a large proportion of the population in Britain. People are marrying later and less, getting divorced more often, and...
The past decade has seen important shifts in when women become mothers, with 31 years now being the average age for this to occur. This has...
Ruth Sunderland, the group business editor of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, asks industry leaders and thinkers about the purpose of com...
Boycotts are big at the moment. On a global scale, many countries are boycotting Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. There are campaig...
In the last five years in the UK, more than 100 children have died from knife wounds. But violence isn't inevitable and evidence shows that...
In May 2020 a group of experts came together, at speed, to form the UK’s Vaccine Task Force. Born in the teeth of a crisis, its efforts were...
How difficult is it for a police force to change? A review of the Metropolitan police by Baroness Louise Casey says racism, misogyny, and ho...
Is Britain Exceptional? Historian, author and Sunday Telegraph columnist Zoe Strimpel believes so, and sifts through the layers of Britain’s...
The Queen’s funeral appeared a resounding reassertion of our enduring commitment to monarchy, but was it a tribute to her rather than the in...
Classic theories of representative democracy argue that it’s the representation of ideas not our personal characteristics - such as age, gen...
Professor Ian Goldin explores globalisation, and asks how far the world is fragmenting politically and economically, and what the consequenc...
It’s a year since Russia launched its war in Ukraine; a year that has brought failure, humiliation, defeat and heavy losses on the battlefie...
The UK has pledged to reach net-zero by 2050. But has a pandemic, the fallout from the war in Ukraine and now an economic crisis derailed ou...
In the search for stability and growth, policy and debate often focuses on looking for multi-million pound inward investment, or industries...
Last week, the government unveiled around £30bn worth of cuts to public services as it attempts to plug a fiscal hole. Governments have atte...
In spite of progress on men's involvement in childcare the statistics show that women are still doing far more caring of young children. Tha...
As the twin storms of economic turmoil and worsening climate change grip the UK and many other countries around the world, Analysis examines...
Over the decades, a string of umbrella terms and acronyms have been used in the UK to describe people who aren’t white. “Politically Black”,...
If you want to do good in the world, should you be a doctor, or an aid worker? Or should you make a billion or two any way you can, and give...
Just over a decade ago, President Xi Jinping was a virtual unknown. Few would say that now. In ten years, he’s reworked the Chinese Communis...
Does becoming a surrogate mother exploit or empower a woman? UK surrogacy law is under review, and there's a renewed debate around how it sh...
Is a protest march worth your effort? About a million people attended the Stop the War street protest in 2003. About half a million had marc...
Are we past the point of no return when it comes to our obsession with online technology? Elaine Moore considers her own tech use and explor...
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the United Kingdom was sometimes characterised as the 'sickman of Europe' due to industrial strife and poor...
Is formal childcare for pre-school children there to provide an early years education? Or to allow parents to go out to work? Politicians wo...
The Bank of England says inflation might reach 11 per cent this year. There are warnings that some people will have to choose between heatin...
Some countries have legalised cannabis, often with the hope of kick-starting a lucrative new source of tax revenue - but just how profitable...
In late February, three days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made a landmark speech in the German p...
Digital advertising fuels the digital economy, but is it all based on smoke and mirrors? Ed Butler investigates what some claim is a massive...
Arguments over the value of nationalism seem to have been raging for centuries, even though the nation state as we know it has only become w...