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Recovery catches the austerity critics off-balance
This week's reduction in unemployment was hailed as a sure sign of the green shoots of recovery. But to grow them, households have to keep spending, writes Alan Shipman. After the longest...
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The inevitability of treating partners as things?
In the first of three posts, Meg Barker examines how romance is explored in the movie Ruby Sparks.Recently I got round to watching last year's movie Ruby Sparks on DVD. I'd been looking forward to...
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The scandal of the millions not paid enough to live on
Do you get a living wage? Would you pay one? John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, wants to hear your views.Millions of people across the country will get up today, leave their families and travel to...
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Why has the Great British Summer become so expensive?
Ticket prices for sport and entertainment events are rocketing. Are these sky-high charges just a bubble, or here to stay, asks Alan Shipman. Average UK pay crept up to £26,500 last year, still less in...
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Same sex marriage: the positive and the negative
OU psychology lecturer and Society Matters' blogger Meg Barker went to 10 Downing Street in July for a reception celebrating the same sex marriage act.Her invite was linked to The Bisexuality Report,...
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If we could shrink the Earth to a hundred people
Dick Skellington shares some thoughts on his visit to the Eden Project. Do you have a bucket list? One of the things on mine was the Eden Project in Cornwall, and this summer I managed to visit it at...
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What's in a name?
Some surnames are at risk in 21st century Britain, including the Deputy Prime Minister's and the Shadow Chancellor's, writes Dick Skellington. With a rare surname like Skellington I have often wondered...
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Majestic Armageddon
The Queen’s undelivered nuclear-war speech in 1983 is a reminder of a still uncertain future while weapons stocks last, argues Alan Shipman. There’s been an oddly dismissive reaction to the Queen’s...
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The story behind Martin Luther King's iconic speech
August 28 marks the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream' speech. Guardian columnist Gary Younge reveals how it made history (and how it nearly fell flat).The night before the March...
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Britain’s hidden children’s scandal
Britain struggles to compare favourably with its European counterparts as maternal and infant mortality rates continue to cause concern. Britain’s levels of maternal and infant mortality are higher...
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European austerity is creating a divided continent
Poverty will be entrenched in Europe for a generation if there is no change in the policy of cuts, reports Dick Skellington. The number of people trapped in poverty in Europe will increase 25 million...
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Murder most British
Crime correspondent Duncan Campbell asks what crime can tell us about the times we live in.In 1946 in Kent, the strangled body of a 46-year-old former telephonist known as Dagmar Peters was found by...
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Xi who must be obeyed
The giant pandas are a plus – but China’s main appeal to western leaders is its ability to lead the giant projects their own companies won’t invest in, argues Alan Shipman. China has always beguiled...
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The big question: will we really miss the UK census?
The 2011 roll call of Great Britain cost £500m. Its supporters claim the information it gathered was invaluable and that plans to abandon the process could cause untold damage. Cahal Milmo, chief...
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The Norwegian prison that works
With the UK prison system in crisis Erwin James visits a prison with a reoffending rate of 16 per cent and tries to find the secrets of its success. When Arne Kvernvik Nilsen was a little boy he had an...
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Winter looms but still energy companies and Government fail to confront the...
Bills, rather than children and pensioners, should be frozen, writes Dick Skellington. Every winter a similar news story flourishes around this time of year – how can we afford to heat our homes this...
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This year I will wear a poppy for the last time
At the age of 90 World War Two veteran Harry Leslie Smith has resolved to remember his friends and comrades in private next year, rather than allow his remembrance to be co-opted by politicians for...
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'Feed the monkey' gaffe shows a British media stuck in a rut
Monkey-gate tells us a good deal about the nature of racial debate in Britain, argues OU sociologist Karim Murji. Is it racist to use the word ‘monkey’ in a sentence referring to a black man? That is...
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Stranger than science fiction: party's pledges lost in space
As the Conservative Party airbrushes the last decade of speeches from its website, Alan Shipman offers a sneak preview of Gravity 4, the hit space movie’s four-dimensional sequel, in which Sandra...
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Wot no books?
A new film documentary showing how local action helped save one of Britain's libraries provides a template to fight philistine authoritarianism, says Dick Skellington.In 2011, I wrote a post for this...
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