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Recent Blogs
Policy Exchange proposes solution to social care crisis
Social care is once more at the top of the political agenda. Paying big bills to fund your relatives’ social care is becoming what Americans call a ‘third rail’ issue in British politics.
Policy Exchange has done a lot of work on funding social care and our conclusion is clear. 21st Century Social Care, the report I co-authored, set out a clear answer to how it should be paid for, offering what we believe is the only sustainable solution.
Unlicensed law reformer? Lady Hale and the law of surrogacy
The publication of Lady Hale’s memoirs is likely to prompt an assessment of her undeniably impressive judicial career. Given its title, Spider Woman: A Life, attention may focus on what Lady Hale has to say about her role in the Supreme Court prorogation litigation in Cherry/Miller (No 2) [2019] UKSC 4. After all, it is that decision, along with the notorious arachnoid brooch, that made her famous with the general public.
Fourteen questions for ministers and police emerging from the killing of Sir David Amess MP
Much of the attention following the killing of Sir David Amess MP has been focused on the rising volume of threats to MPs and the issue of online anonymity. These are very important, but a much broader set of questions around ideology is in danger of slipping from view. William Shawcross’ Independent Review of the counter-radicalisation Prevent strategy affords a major opportunity to address this imbalance and reset discussion in a neglected area of policy. Shawcross is due to report shortly to the Home Secretary.
Here are fourteen questions which emerge from the horrific events in Southend:
Less emotion, more evidence – that is what’s needed to tackle the challenges in general practice
At an ‘in conversation’ event hosted by Policy Exchange at this year’s Conservative Party Conference, Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care insisted that investment was required to tackle the challenges facing the NHS, but it would only come with reform. Uncontroversial, surely? Yet this week’s announcement of a new package of funding proved anything but, with the £250m ‘Winter Access Fund’ – the first test of Javid’s model – landing at the epicentre of a febrile media debate around access to general practice, where emotion and opposition has begun to dominate over evidence and consensus-building.
“Radicalised” convert kills five in Norway
On the evening of Wednesday October 13, 2021, in the city of Kongsberg, some 50 miles from Oslo, five people were killed and two more were injured in a suspected terrorist attack by a lone perpetrator. The attacker, named Espen Andersen Bråthen, was armed with a bow and arrows. He was later apprehended and charged.
French Interior Minister: “Our action against Islamism is bearing fruit”
France’s Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, and the Minister for Citizenship, Marlène Schiappa, recently gave an interview with Le Figaro, reflecting on the first anniversary of Macron’s speech against “Islamist separatism”, which he delivered on October 2, 2020. Darmanin and Schiappa described how the French government has stepped up its efforts to tackle Islamist extremism in France, particularly after the approval by the National Assembly in July 2021, of the Law Reinforcing Respect of the Principles of the Republic, also called the “anti-separatism” bill. This includes a wave of measures against violent and non-violent Islamist extremism.
Charity Commission to investigate Islamic charities after pro-Taliban lectures
The Charity Commission is to investigate a London-based Islamic charity, the Miftahul Jannah Academy in Waltham Forest, after the National Secular Society reported that the charity’s website contained extremist sermons praising the Taliban and encouraging Muslims to fund jihadists. The charity’s website also hosted antisemitic audio recordings referring to the “dirty qualities” of Jews.
Ten things we learned about Levelling Up at Conservative Party Conference…
Levelling Up – the vast policy idea driving the whole Government’s agenda – was one area where some clarity emerged during the Conservative Party Conference, particularly during the Prime Minister’s speech and at two fringe events hosted by Policy Exchange – one with Michael Gove, the new Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities; and another with Neil O’Brien, who is a new minister in the rebranded department, a former Director of Policy Exchange and the man holding the pen on the forthcoming Levelling Up White Paper.
CAGE, MEND and IHRC co-launch international campaign against Western democracies’ “War on Terror”
Three British Islamist organisations have helped spearhead an international campaign in commemoration of 9/11. The International Witness Campaign, according to its website, seeks to raise awareness not of the victims of global jihadist violence – which, incidentally, pre-dates 9/11 – but of the plight of “the millions of people affected across the globe” by what it calls “state sponsored violence” conducted since 9/11 and the beginning of the “War on Terror”.
Under Pressure from Labour, APPG’s definition of Islamophobia adopted by Flintshire Council
Related Content Flintshire Council in Wales is the latest local authority to adopt the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims’ definition of Islamophobia. It also accepted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism...
