Tag Archives: United Kingdom

18Mar/24

Half the world will vote in 2024, but how many elections will be fair?

Toby James, University of East Anglia and Holly Ann Garnett, Royal Military College of Canada

This year has been widely proclaimed to be the year of elections, with national elections expected in at least 64 countries. This means that half of the world’s population will have the opportunity to change their government, choose their representatives and indirectly shape policy. It began as a year of hope – and the prospect of democratic empowerment.

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14Mar/24

The abuse of Diane Abbott by a top Tory donor should have us all thinking about how we normalise racism against women MPs

Orly Siow, Lund University and Sofia Collignon, Queen Mary University of London

Yet again a black woman in British public life has been subjected to racist and sexist abuse. This may be shocking, but it is not surprising.

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11Mar/24

‘Bengali Cockney, Black Cockney, East End Cockney, Essex Cockney, Jewish Cockney, Sylheti Cockney’: why community languages matter

Christopher Strelluf, University of Warwick

In response to a community petition, Tower Hamlets council in east London has designated Cockney as a “community language”. This recognition paves the way for the borough to actively challenge the linguistic discrimination that speakers of “non-standard” English dialects face.

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19Feb/24

History’s crisis detectives: how we’re using maths and data to reveal why societies collapse – and clues about the future

Daniel Hoyer, University of Toronto

American humorist and writer Mark Twain is believed to have once said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”

I’ve been working as a historian and complexity scientist for the better part of a decade, and I often think about this phrase as I follow different strands of the historical record and notice the same patterns over and over.

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09Feb/24

Orca Scan launches three-step solution to connect millions of retail products to the internet

Cambridge-based software company Orca Scan has partnered with GS1 UK, the UK arm of the global not-for-profit association that sets and maintains standards for barcodes, to help brands upgrade traditional barcodes on their product packaging to the next generation of GS1 Digital Link QR codes. Read more

17Jan/24

Newsweek and BrandSpark International announce the 2024, 100% consumer-voted Most Trusted consumer product, retail, and services brands in the UK as voted by UK shoppers

Market research and consulting firm BrandSpark International, in partnership with iconic media brand Newsweek, has released its 2nd edition with the 2024 list of the Most Trusted brands in the UK, as 100% voted on by UK Shoppers. The winning brands were determined in the BrandSpark International UK Trust Study through a consumer survey, aggregating the opinions of 13,823 recent category shoppers who provided 86,736 top-of-mind unaided responses on which brands they trust most. BrandSpark has been measuring trust for 11 years, with robust studies in the United States and Canada. Continue reading

Freedom of thought is being threatened by states, big tech and even ourselves. Here’s what we can do to protect it

Simon McCarthy-Jones, Trinity College Dublin

The idea of free speech sparked into life 2,500 years ago in Ancient Greece – in part because it served a politician’s interests. The ability to speak freely was seen as essential for the new Athenian democracy, which the politician Cleisthenes both introduced and benefited from.

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2024: The year of democratic elections

Jan. 2, 2024 /Politics/ — 2024 is shaping up to be a bumper year for elections! Here are some noteworthy examples beyond the UK and USA: Continue reading

12Dec/23

What have been 2023’s leading investment trends? A comfortable pension for retirement, ESG credentials and financial independence – new survey data from CMC Invest reveals all

With 2023 approaching its end, UK Investment platform, CMC Invest, is today releasing new data – based on surveying 2,002 investors in the UK (aged 18+) with £10,000+ investable assets, who have been investing for at least two years – showing investing behaviours throughout 2023. Continue reading