Positive thinking

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 ...

Koldo Casla, Newcastle University   The UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, is in the UK on an official UN mission . He is meeting with civil society groups, academics, public authorities and above all with people living in poverty and dealing with the consequences of years of austerity. Alston, an independent expert from Australia, is seeking evidence on poverty, inequality and the effect of austerity on local government funding. This official UN visit takes place at a critical juncture for the 66m people living on these islands. With Brexit’s bridge to nowhere in sight, Britons have been promised “the end of austerity” by their prime minister. However, think tanks such as the Resolution Foundation and the Institute for Fiscal Studies agree that the recent budget from the chancellor of the exchequer is far from an end to austerity, and that uncertainty about the future relationship with the EU leaves all financial prospect...

   Matthew White, Sheffield Hallam University In light of the Facebook data scandal more people are beginning to challenge the web’s pervasive surveillance culture. But few British citizens seem to be aware of the government’s own online surveillance regime – significant parts of which have been deemed unlawful. The UK government broke EU law under the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act ( DRIPA ), the Court of Appeal ruled in January. The regime – colloquially known as the Snoopers’ Charter – had allowed public bodies to have access to the records of British citizens’ web activity and phone records, without any suspicion that a serious crime had been committed. This activity took place without any independent oversight. DRIPA was rushed through parliament in 2014 by the then Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government after the European Court of Justice (CJEU) ruled that the EU-wide Data Retention Directive (DRD) was “invalid”, due...

Jessica Potter, Queen Mary University of London When I first qualified as a doctor more than ten years ago, it was simple – my duty was to provide the best possible care to the patient in front of me. Evidence and clinical experience were my guides. Unlike in a commercialised health system, such as the US or India, I was not torn between doing the right thing and demands from a profit-making paymaster, or concerns over whether my patient could afford the care. Identity checks at the front door and upfront charging have changed all that. They compromise my duty to “ show respect for human life ” by prioritising British lives over all others, regardless of the wider implications. According to the NHS constitution , healthcare should be “available to all irrespective of gender, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion, belief, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity or marital or civil partnership status”. It is a service that provides care “based o...