How to introduce a national minimum wage- the UK example

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 630-649 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bill Callaghan
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
International Comparisons ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
The Political ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Low Pay

The article deals with the introduction of the national minimum wage (NMW) in the United Kingdom. It describes the background to the debate, dealing with, among other things, developments in collective bargaining policy, deregulation and the positions of the political parties. It also touches on the changes that have occurred in the thinking of the TUC and the Labour Party. The establishment of the tripartite Low Pay Commission (LPC) and the way it has operated are described in some detail. Particular attention is paid to the procedure used by the LPC to collate evidence, and especially to the official discussions with employers, trade unions and other groups. The article presents the main recommendations of the first two LPC reports and explains their impact on income distribution. A number of specific questions are looked at in some detail, including the problems of data availability, international comparisons, methodology, young people, the periodic adjustment of the minimum wage and consequences for the trade unions.

scholarly journals The UK Citizenship Process: Political Integration or Marginalization?

Sociology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 671-688 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Bartram
Keyword(s):  
Panel Data ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Integration ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Political Sphere ◽  
The Uk

The UK ‘citizenship process’ subjects immigrants to requirements ostensibly intended to enhance their identification with ‘British values’. Policy-makers suggest the policy will facilitate immigrants’ integration: as they learn about ‘life in the UK’, they will become better able to understand and navigate core institutions. Many external observers, by contrast, believe that the requirements exacerbate immigrants’ marginalization. I use panel data from ‘Understanding Society’ to investigate political participation among non-citizen immigrants at Wave 1, comparing those who became citizens by Wave 6 to those who remained non-citizens. Those who became citizens subsequently reported lower interest in politics, relative to those who remained non-citizens; in addition, they were not more likely to be active in organizations (e.g. political parties and trade unions). These findings reinforce the concerns of critics: the UK citizenship policy appears to do more to alienate new citizens than it does to facilitate their integration in the political sphere.

scholarly journals Challenges and impossibilities of ‘standing alongside’ in an intolerable context: Learning from refugees and volunteers in the Calais camp

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Burck ◽  
Gillian Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Refugee Camp ◽  
The Political ◽  
Liberation Psychology ◽  
Humanitarian Crisis ◽  
Context Learning ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Narrative Practice ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Narrative Framework

This article describes the experience of setting up a psychosocial and therapeutic support project in the French Calais refugee camp, by a group of family therapists and clinical psychologists from the United Kingdom. This came about in response to reports of a humanitarian crisis unfolding on our doorstep, with the British government’s lack of support for the growing numbers of refugees gathering along the UK border with France. The project involved working alongside other agencies in the camp to provide psychosocial and resilience-based therapeutic support to unaccompanied young people, women, children and their families and also to many volunteers in the camp. The process of setting up the work is described, as well as the challenges and dilemmas of offering an intervention in extremely unsafe and insanitary conditions, where for most the experience of trauma was ongoing. The project was informed by systemic–narrative practice and community/liberation psychology, which incorporate the political and social context. A narrative framework offered a way of drawing on people’s strengths and resources, rooted in their cultural and social histories and helping them connect with preferred identities, which we found to be essential in the context of ongoing crisis.

scholarly journals Young People’s Services in an Age of Neoliberalism

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-206
Author(s):  
Graham Brotherton ◽  
Christina Hyland ◽  
Iain Jones ◽  
Terry Potter
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Young People ◽  
Higher Education Policy ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
Youth Services ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Way

Abstract This article brings together four different perspectives which explore the way in which various policy initiatives in recent years have sought to construct young people resident in the United Kingdom within particular policy discourses shaped by neoliberalism. In order to do this it firstly considers the way in which the assumptions of neoliberalism have increasingly been applied by the new Coalition Government to young people and the services provided for them; it then considers the particular role of New Labour in the UK in applying these ideas in practice. Specific examples from the areas of young people’s participation in youth services and higher education policy are then considered.

scholarly journals Financing Political Parties in France, Germany and The United Kingdom

2016 ◽  
pp. 91-110
Author(s):  
Jan Misiuna
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Accounting Standards ◽  
Financial Information ◽  
Public Access ◽  
Final Conclusion ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Low Level ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Uk

The paper compares the systems of financing political parties in France, Germany and the UK. The analysis concentrates on effectiveness of collecting contributions, dependency on large donors for providing funds for financing election campaigns and daily operation of political parties, and the level of transparency of finances of political parties. The final conclusion is that only introducing limits on expenditures on election campaigns allows to keep the costs of election campaigns and political parties at a low level, while mandatory common accounting standards and public access to financial information is necessary to preserve transparency of finances of political parties.

6. The party system

UK Politics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 121-143
Author(s):  
Andrew Blick
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
Conservative Party ◽  
Labour Party ◽  
The Political ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
System P ◽  
Political Approach ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Uk

This chapter switches the focus to political parties. It looks at their individual roles and how they operate. The chapter discusses the parties that constitute the ‘party system’. It considers the two main parties operating at the UK level: the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. It also looks at the smaller parties, such as the Liberal Democrats. The chapter considers the political approach of the various parties and the type of support they attract. It also looks at how parties are funded. The chapter provides a number of theoretical perspectives to help with an analysis of political parties. These are: the extent to which parties pursue values or power; the respective roles of their members and leaders; groupings within parties; how far the UK has a two-party system or whether our definition of the party system should be revised; and the relationships between the various parities. The chapter then gives examples of how these ideas play out with specific focus on recent events involving the Conversative and Labour parties. The chapter asks: do members have too much influence over their parties? The chapter ends by asking: where are we now?

Introduction: the landscapes of poverty and education across the UK

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Ian Thompson ◽  
Gabrielle Ivinson
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Educational Inequality ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Social And Cultural Factors ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Different Parts

Poverty blights the lives of children and young people. Research has consistently shown that the most economically disadvantaged pupils across the United Kingdom (UK) have the poorest educational outcomes and that poverty has a pernicious effect on children’s well-being. However, far less is known about the ways that poverty is differentially experienced for children and young people in schools within the four jurisdictions of the UK. Are there historical, social and cultural factors that make poverty a postcode lottery in terms of quality of schooling in the different parts of the UK? Are successful local interventions context specific as the research evidence seems to suggest or can we learn from particular regions or cities? This introduction points out that anxieties about growing educational inequality in the UK have to be contextualised historically, geographically and in terms of the distinct political and socio-economic landscapes in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Denmark and the United Kingdom

2020 ◽  
pp. 117-141
Author(s):  
Agnes Cornell ◽  
Jørgen Møller ◽  
Svend-Erik Skaaning
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Regimes ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Additional Support ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Interwar Era ◽  
Civil Societies

Denmark and the United Kingdom are analyzed in-depth as examples of clear positive cases, i.e. surviving democracies with substantial democratic legacies and vibrant associational landscapes. The two case studies show how Denmark and the UK had developed consolidated democracies on the eve of the interwar era. These democracies were bolstered by broad acceptance of democratic procedures among elites and masses as well as strong parties interlaced with lively civil societies. The result of this combination was political regimes, which were immune to the political radicalization of the day. Antidemocratic movements and parties found preciously little support, the established parties remained loyal to democracy, and they came together to strike political agreements in order to counter economic crisis and anti-democratic mobilization in the 1930s. The evidence offered by these case studies thus provide additional support for our theoretical mechanisms.

13. Small Parties and Law-making

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Arnott ◽  
Richard Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Parliamentary Procedure ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Law Making

This chapter discusses the role of smaller parties in the law-making process. General elections in the UK are conducted with an electoral system which militates against the representation of smaller political parties, particularly those having no strong support at the regional level. However, events at Westminster over the last decade have increased the prominence of smaller parties in the operation of parliamentary business. The chapter first considers the role of small parties in the UK Parliament, committees and legislation, as well as their participation in backbench debates before examining how the political and electoral context of Parliament, especially in the twenty-first century, has affected the representation of smaller parties and the ways in which reforms to parliamentary procedure since the 1980s have enhanced the role of the second opposition party. It suggests that Parliament today offers more opportunities for smaller political parties to influence debate and policy, but this remains quite limited.

2. The Political Organization of Parliament

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Norton
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Internal Organization ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Opposition Parties

This chapter discusses the political organization of the UK Parliament, at the heart of which are the political parties. It first considers the internal organization of Parliament, focusing on how political parties are structured. There are two principal parties facing one another in Parliament: the party in government and opposition parties. The opposition comprises frontbench Members (shadow ministers) and backbenchers. Smaller parties may also designate some Members as ‘frontbenchers’ (official spokespeople for the party). The frontbench of each party includes whips. The chapter provides an overview of these whips as well as parliamentary parties before considering legislative–executive relations. In particular, it examines how parties shape the relationship between Parliament and the executive, and how these have changed over time.

scholarly journals A qualitative account of young people’s experiences of alcohol screening and brief interventions in schools: SIPS Jr-HIGH trial findings

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. e259-e267
Author(s):  
E L Giles ◽  
G J McGeechan ◽  
S J Scott ◽  
R McGovern ◽  
S Boniface ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Young People ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Alcohol Screening ◽  
Screening And Brief Intervention ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Analysis Process ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
The Uk

Abstract Background The United Kingdom (UK) has seen a decrease in the number of young people drinking alcohol. However, the UK prevalence of underage drinking still ranks amongst the highest in Western Europe. Whilst there is a wealth of evidence reporting on the effectiveness of both primary, and secondary interventions, there are few reports of the experiences of young people who receive them. Methods The present study reports findings from interviews with 33 young people who were involved in an alcohol screening and brief intervention randomized controlled trial in schools in England. All interviews were analysed using inductive applied thematic analysis. Results Three major themes were identified following the analysis process: 1) drinking identities and awareness of risk; 2) access to support and advice in relation to alcohol use; and 3) appraisal of the intervention and potential impact on alcohol use. Conclusions There appeared to be a reluctance from participants to describe themselves as someone who drinks alcohol. Furthermore, those who did drink alcohol often did so with parental permission. There was variation amongst participants as to how comfortable they felt talking about alcohol issues with school staff. Overall participants felt the intervention was useful, but would be better suited to ‘heavier’ drinkers.

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