scholarly journals Choice, consumerism and devolution: growing old in the welfare state(s) of Scotland, Wales and England

2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 725-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUZANNE MOFFATT ◽  
PAUL HIGGS ◽  
KIRSTEIN RUMMERY ◽  
IAN REES JONES
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Older People ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Theoretical Research ◽  
Retirement Age ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Significant Research ◽  
The Uk ◽  
First Time

ABSTRACTThe introduction of choice and consumer mechanisms in public services has been identified as a fundamental shift in welfare service provision internationally. Within the United Kingdom (UK), such mechanisms developed and integrated into English services have not been replicated in their entirety in Scotland and Wales. For the first time since the inception of the UK welfare state, there are now formal differences in entitlement for older people as a result of devolution. This paper uses comparative policy analysis to review a range of sources not hitherto brought together in order to explore how these concurrent developments – choice and devolution – impact on people over state retirement age. We also consider the extent to which a more consumerist approach to public services might redress or increase later-life inequalities. Drawing on theoretical research and policy evidence, we argue that for many people over state retirement age, the prospect of becoming a consumer in these varied contexts is difficult and unwelcome. We suggest that although it is too early in the devolutionary process for any significant impact of these divergent policies to materialise, continued policy divergence will lead to different experiences and outcomes for older people in Scotland, Wales and England. We conclude that these divergent social policies offer significant research opportunities, particularly concerning their impact on later-life inequalities.

To bee or not to beet with neonicotinoids

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-109
Author(s):  
Lynda M. Warren
Keyword(s):  
Sugar Beet ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Environmental Standards ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Precautionary Approach ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Commercial Sugar ◽  
The Uk ◽  
First Time

In January 2021 the UK government granted an application for authorisation to use thiamethoxam, a neonicotinoid pesticide, to protect commercial sugar beet crops from attack by viruses transmitted by aphids. This was the first time such an authorisation had been granted in the United Kingdom (UK) and there were concerns that it signalled a weakening of environmental standards now that the UK was no longer part of the European Union. In fact, similar authorisations had been granted by several European Member States in the last 2 years, despite the ban on the use of neonicotinoids introduced in 2018. Nevertheless, the reasons for granting the authorisation do suggest that the balance between adopting a precautionary approach to environmental protection and taking emergency action to protect economic interests may have shifted. It was acknowledged that the proposed mitigation to safeguard bees and other wildlife was not entirely satisfactory. In the end, due to unforeseen weather conditions it meant that the pesticide is not necessary, which in itself demonstrates that short-term emergency measures are unsuitable for dealing with the problem. If the sugar beet industry is to continue to prosper in the UK, it will need to be managed in a way that provides resistance to virus infection without the use of controversial chemicals.

The duties of impartiality, disclosure, and confidentiality: lessons from a London-seated arbitration

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Yee Ching Leung ◽  
Alex Chun Hei Chan
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Important Case ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
International Arbitration ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
The Uk ◽  
First Time

Abstract Halliburton Company v Chubb Bermuda Insurance Ltd (formerly known as Ace Bermuda Insurance Ltd [2020] UKSC 48 is an important case not only to the UK but also to the international arbitration community for several reasons: first, it examines indispensable duties in international arbitration and for the first time recognises and explicates upon the duty of disclosure at the highest court of the United Kingdom; secondly, it addresses and clarifies key concepts in international arbitration; thirdly, it confirms the objective nature of the test of justifiable doubts which has wider implications for other arbitral forums; fourthly, it illustrates how the duties of impartiality, disclosure, and confidentiality interact with and affect each other and how the key concepts should be applied to this interaction; and finally, it lays down useful guidance for arbitrators. For these reasons, this case deserves close and careful examination. This article aims to explain the significance of the aforesaid and suggests that, in addition to what has been addressed, further judicial explanations are warranted in what other aspects.

Horizontal Process Integration in E-Government

2011 ◽  
pp. 2177-2194
Author(s):  
Jyoti Choudrie ◽  
Vishanth Weerrakody
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Process Integration ◽  
Horizontal Integration ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
The Uk

This article examines how horizontal integration between the various departments of a local authority in the United Kingdom (UK) occurs. Following that the aim of this article is to extract the “success factors” in government intervention that support horizontal and vertical integration based on the strategies pursued in the UK in order to render favourable results if applied elsewhere. The research methodology consisted of an in-depth case study that used the research tools of interviews and referring to archival documents. This research is timely as the maturity of e-government increases the issues of integrating processes and systems across various government departments becomes pertinent. The conclusion and lessons that can be learnt from this research is that e-government integration on a horizontal level obtains significant ef- ficiency and effectiveness as more and more public services are being centralized.

Socio-economic disadvantage and poverty

2020 ◽  
pp. 105-114
Author(s):  
Alisoun Milne
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Poverty Line ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Economic Disadvantage ◽  
Fundamental Building Block ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Uk ◽  
State Pension ◽  
The Impact

Chapter 5 is the first of three chapters exploring the impact of age related risks affecting particular sub populations of older people. Socioeconomic disadvantage in later life tends to reflect a lifecourse status. It amplifies what is already present. In 2016/17 one million older people were living in poverty; an additional 1.2 million were living just above the poverty line. These numbers are rising. Those aged 85 years or over, frail older people, older women and single older people are particularly at risk. Poor older people are also more likely to live in poor housing and be exposed to fuel poverty. Being poor - and its concomitants - compromises mental health in a number of profound ways. It undermines an older person’s capacity to make choices, retain independence, save for a crisis, maintain social contacts and be digitally included. It is linked with worry, loss of control over life and shame. Poor older people are at heightened risk of isolation and loneliness, stress, anxiety and depression. The UK has a weak policy record, compared with other developed countries, of sustainably and coherently addressing poverty in later life. One of the cornerstones of doing so is a continued commitment to the basic state pension as a fundamental building block of a secure old age. Addressing poor housing is also pivotal.

The influence of the welfare state on the number of young old persons

2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 609-624 ◽  
Author(s):  
KATHRIN KOMP ◽  
THEO VAN TILBURG ◽  
MARJOLEIN BROESE VAN GROENOU
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Legal Responsibility ◽  
Retirement Age ◽  
Old People ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Country Differences ◽  
Southern European Countries ◽  
Young Old ◽  
The Welfare State

ABSTRACTMany current discussions of welfare state reforms focus on the ‘young old’, a group now generally perceived as healthy people past retirement age without a legal responsibility for dependent persons in need of care. For the welfare state, they constitute a resource whose activities are hard to steer. This article focuses on the influence of the welfare state on the number of ‘young old’ people. It describes different ways in which the welfare state influences the number of young old persons, and investigates whether variations in the regulations for the ages of normal, early and late retirement are the prime cause. The paper also estimates the share of the young old among those aged 50–90 years in 10 European countries in 2004 using comparable survey data. These shares ranged between 36 and 49 per cent for men and between 35 and 52 per cent for women. High shares were found in continental European countries, and low shares in Scandinavian countries and the United Kingdom. The shares in southern European countries varied among the countries and by gender. To explain the variations in the share, country differences in retirement regulations proved helpful but insufficient. When the overall influence of the welfare state on the share of young old persons in the population was analysed, a country-characteristic pattern emerged.

Precarity and Ageing

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Life Expectancy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Older People ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
The Welfare State

This book examines some of the challenges facing older people, given a context of rising life expectancy, cuts to the welfare state, and widening economic and social inequalities. It explores precarity and ageing from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, critical perspectives, and contexts. Although cultural representations and policy discourses depict older people as a group healthier and more prosperous than ever, many older people experience ageing amid insecurities that emerge in later life or are carried forward as a consequence of earlier disadvantage. The collection of chapters develops a distinctive approach to understanding the changing cultural, economic and social circumstances that create precarity for different groups of older people. The aim of the book is to explore what insights the concept of precarity might bring to an understanding of ageing across the life course, especially in the context of the radical socio-political changes affecting the lives of older people. In doing so, it draws attention both to altered forms of ageing, but also to changing social and cultural contexts, and realities that challenge the assumption that older people will be protected by existing social programmes or whatever resources that can be marshalled privately.

Confessions of a Hindu-Catholic Artist

2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 164-185
Author(s):  
Caroline Mackenzie
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
New Age ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
New Public ◽  
Public Work ◽  
Inner World ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Church

AbstractDuring my first twelve years in India I studied Hindu art and philosophy, encountering "inculturated" Catholic Christianity for the first time. When I returned to the United Kingdom, I was struck by a manifest separation between the dry, orderly church, and the imaginative world of "New Age" networks such as Dances of Universal Peace. In 1999 I received a major commission to re-design a church in Wales. This opening allowed me to use art as a means to bring some of the insights gained in India into a Western Christian context. After this public work, I made a series of personal pictures that depicted the healing and empowering effect of the new public images (archetypes) on my inner world. I then tried to connect the work in the church to liturgy but found no opening in the UK. In 2003, I returned to India to the Fireflies Intercultural Centre in Bangalore. There I found a "laboratory of the spirit" that provided the right conditions for serious religious experimentation. In 2007, I found a way to express the vision of the artwork in the Welsh church via an embodied liturgy. Using masks representing the Elements, I worked with an Indian Catholic priest to create a cosmic Easter Triduum.

scholarly journals "A gift from God": Anglo-Greek relations during the dictatorship of the Greek colonels

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandros Nafpliotis
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Military Regime ◽  
Diplomatic Relations ◽  
Military Leaders ◽  
Good Working ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Military ◽  
First Time

The focus of this article is an analysis of the Greek junta’s relations with the Wilson and Heath governments in the United Kingdom from 1967 to 1974. Emphasis is placed on diplomatic relations between the two traditional allies. The reactions of the military leaders of the regime in Athens and its representatives in Britain to policies pursued by London towards the establishment, consolidation and eventual demise of the colonels’ dictatorship are presented through the examination (for the first time) of official documents from both the UK and Greece. It is argued that the Greek military regime struggled to cultivate relations with Britain primarily for reasons of domestic and international prestige. Whereas Whitehall pursued a policy of “good working relations” with the junta in order to promote British interests vis-à-vis NATO, Cyprus and trade, the leadership in Athens was solely interested in using British support to gain legitimacy internationally and domestically.

scholarly journals Accessibility and informational barriers to an age friendly railway

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Musselwhite ◽  
Kelly Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Information Provision ◽  
Rolling Stock ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Rail Network ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Informational Barriers ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose Against a backdrop in an increase in the number of older people in the United Kingdom (UK) and an increase in the amount of travel per person for this age group, the number of older people using the railway is in decline. The purpose of this paper is to report on an investigation is a first step towards ascertaining why through audits of issues and problems on rolling stock and station platforms. Design/methodology/approach Rolling stock and station audits were carried out by older people across a rail network in the South West of the UK. A total of 72.2 hours of auditing took place across different sizes of station and different types of rolling stock. Findings Two main themes were found across both rolling stock and station audits: accessibility and information provision. With regards to accessibility, boarding and especially alighting from the train was the key issue. Across stations and in rolling stock luminance, was a key issue for older people with places being too dark or moving from places that were bright to dark. Use of stairs at stations between platforms, especially when the station is crowded was an issue. In terms of information, key issues were found with signage being too cluttered, small, hidden and inconsistent and audible announcements being difficult to decipher. Practical implications There must be improvements made to railways to help older people feel more safe and secure using them. It is suggested step free and level accessibility is found boarding and alighting from the train, but also from station entrance to carriage. Better signage is needed throughout the station and on trains, with large repeated fonts used. Lighting needs to be revisited throughout to ensure areas are bright and well-lit both on station platforms and onboard. Further research needs to look at these findings in relation to slip, trips and fall accident rates. Originality/value There is very little research on older people’s perceptions and barriers to railway use. This adds value in being one of the only studies to do so, especially from the perspective of older people themselves as co-researchers.

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