From Thatcher to Truss: stop equating female leaders with feminist leaders ROSIE BEACON In Liz Truss, we now have our third female prime minister and our second in a decade - a laudable achievement. It is important not to confuse a female body for a feminist mind.
To do more than simply stay standing, the NHS must return to its first ideas Rosie Beacon Last week, in the wake of the desperately sad passing of TV host Bill Turnbull, BBC Radio 4 dedicated a segment to the importance of prostate cancer screening. “But the NHS can’t cope if every man turns up and demands a test,” said presenter Nick Robinson. This candid, casual reflection highlights a profound deficiency in [...]
We’re ignoring a basic tool to help the poorest with their energy bills right now ROSIE BEACON In the throes of an inflation induced cost of living crisis, energy prices need urgent political and policy attention. The plans put forward tend to vary around traditional conceptions of more tax, less tax or price suppression – but there are also ways the government can do highly targeted interventions to people in need. Targeted [...]
The race for Tory leader is out of step with our social media news addiction July 27, 2022 REALISTICALLY, whenever I have the time and can be bothered, I will always turn to traditional news sources instead of simply people on Twitter. But it would be misleading to say this does not require a concerted effort. My incentive to go on social media is instinctively stronger. It’s full of my peers, friends, people [...]
Tax and spend? We can’t save public services without a unified tech policy July 20, 2022 There are numerous ways in which to judge a potential leadership candidate. Their sheer electoral appeal, their reputation within the party, their communication style and authenticity, their experience, or their policy agendas. Or often all of the above. In regards to the latter, the candidates are unsurprisingly fixated on the same old conventional arguments about [...]
Two parties, devoid of the hopeful political vision for the future we need June 29, 2022 One of the most repeated criticisms of our political landscape is the absence of any long term political vision. Survival over reflection, short term over long term, disparate issues over coherent vision. Our politics needs a radical refresh to shift away from chronic short termism and mediocrity to something much more compelling. We’ve all been [...]
If we take abuse of women for granted in politics, our democracy will pay June 15, 2022 Online abuse and harassment of women in public life has become a curse on our political landscape. For many, such abuse is simply the cost of doing politics, an unfortunate but largely inevitable factor women have to wrestle with when making the decision to enter public life. At best, the abuse is insulting and unsavoury, [...]
A viral discussion on bin collections proves the case for digital democracy August 27, 2021 Around midnight on Wednesday night, British Twitter erupted, united over a single issue: bin collections. It all started with a “Twitter Space” – a public audio forum where anyone can join as a listener and up to 13 people can speak at once. What started out as an ironic experiment culminated in around 1,600 people joining in [...]
