Positive thinking

Maria Goddard, University of York Everybody watching the UK general election expected the Labour Party’s manifesto to reinforce the message that the National Health Service is “not for sale”, but what else does it say about health and social care? In line with plans for increased spending across all the public services, financed in part through changes to the taxation system, there is a focus on spending more on the NHS – an average of 4.3% per year. This is a more generous pledge than the Labour Party made in the 2017 election and would be higher than historic averages . End privatisation Sticking with the theme of a greater role for the public sector, there is a promise to “end and reverse privatisation in the NHS in the next parliament”. There are some symbolic actions, such as banning the “fire sale of NHS land and assets” as well as taking all private finance initiative (PFI) contracts back into public ownership. Actually, PFI was rolled out extensively under Labour...

Naomi Warne, Cardiff University and Ruth Sellers, University of Sussex In England, rates of childhood mental health disorders have increased in the past 20 years. The proportion of five to 15-year-olds with a mental health disorder rose from 9.7% in 1999 to 11.2% in 2017 , with emotional disorders (such as depression and anxiety) becoming more common in particular. Now, on average, three children in a class of 30 will have a mental health disorder. Awareness of mental health problems has increased too, and a number of policy changes and novel treatments have been introduced to specifically target children’s mental health. But our research suggests t hat children with mental health problems have worse relationships with their peers, worse grades at school and worse mental health in adolescence compared to children who had mental health problems 40 years ago. Our study takes a novel approach, by looking at changes in the impact of child mental health problems over time. We ...

Katy Jones, Manchester Metropolitan University One in every 200 people in Britain is homeless – sleeping on the streets or stuck in temporary accommodation, including hostels and B&Bs, according to analysis from housing charity Shelter. But it might surprise you to know that despite not having a secure home, a small but significant proportion of people experiencing homelessness are in paid employment. Getting a job is often presented as a solution to getting people off the streets. Indeed, former prime minister Theresa May, in a speech about tackling homelessness, said : Dealing with homelessness…is about more than just accommodation…the key thing is ensuring people can be in work and can be earning and not find themselves in that situation. But work does not always offer a route out of poverty – and many people who are in work continue to face housing insecurity . Indeed, a recent analysis from the housing charity Shelter found that 55% of families in temporar...

Leïla Choukroune, University of Portsmouth “Peace is the natural effect of trade. Two nations who traffic with each other become reciprocally dependent … their union is founded on their mutual necessities.” Montesquieu’s idealised vision of trade put forward here in his 1748 treatise, The Spirit of Laws , still informs thinking today. But the reality of commerce has long turned out very differently and Britain’s future trade relationships with the EU and the rest of the world remain some of the big unknowns of the Brexit process. There is more to trade than simply exchanging goods and services. International trade today involves all aspects of human life and, as a result, EU treaties include clauses that ensure various human rights protections. But, as the UK goes about making its own post-Brexit treaties, it looks like human rights are being abandoned as a result of its weaker bargaining power. As part of the EU, the UK is a party to 40 trade deals, which cover more than ...

Simon Tormey, University of Bristol And so the UK will head to an election on December 12 to try to resolve the spectacular mess that is Brexit. It’s an outcome many of us had been predicting for some time. The only surprise is that it came about as it did. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has, after all, just managed what seemed nearly impossible a mere few weeks back, which is to both achieve a compromise agreement with the European Union over the terms of withdrawal and convince the House of Commons that it should vote in favour of it , and by a princely majority of 30. So why did Johnson seek an election? And why, at the third attempt, did Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn agree? More generally, will an election get us out of the royal mess the UK finds itself in? It’s not if you Brexit, but how As far as Johnson is concerned, he wants Brexit, but he doesn’t want any old Brexit. He wants a “proper” Brexit, a clean break from the EU that will, as his mantra insists, d...