The link between immigration policy, labour markets and exploitation in the UK

The UK government’s commitment to tackling trafficking for labour exploitation is being undermined by its immigration and labour market policies.

Social care: from personal budgets to a person-centred policy and practice

Personal budgets have serious implications for the ethos of the NHS which must be considered if health and social care are to be merged - universality and provision based on need are principles we should not be so quick to abandon.

Did Earl Howe get any part of procurement law right?

Speaking to the Lords in the final debate on the Coalition's NHS privatisation regulations, Earl Howe made a number of claims about the legislation which has been challenged by campaigners, lawyers, charities and even the Lords' own scrutiny committee. David Lock QC lists ten errors.

Underrated legislations: Arab parliaments could play a crucial transformational role

Arab parliaments have traditionally played a largely ceremonial and self-serving role in politics. But now, they must take a leading role in the renewal of democracy in the Middle East.

Backlash against Bangladeshi bloggers

The bloggers of Shahbagh are facing a backlash – hunted by fundamentalists, denounced in mosques as atheists, arrested by the government. Those abroad are under threat. Meanwhile activists are still demanding justice and cyber movements are using their mobilising power to deal with disasters.

Security industry provides medics for UK deportation flights

The UK government entrusts security company rooted in the military with medical care of detainees on deportation flights.

The terror watchdog that failed to bark - Britain's secret justice legislation

Why did the terror watchdog with 'unrestricted access' appear to have only limited access to the security files on the government's secret justice bill, now shamefully going through parliament?

Syria: the life cycle of civil war

A comprehensive understanding of how, why and when opposition groups in civil war engage in civilian governance must have important policy implications for outsiders engaging or toying with engaging in Syria.

Trans women in feminism: nothing about us without us

In a reply to Rahila Gupta, Celeste West argues that we can’t have meaningful feminism or a meaningful democratic project without ensuring that people have a chance to speak for themselves

NPT and risks to human survival: the inside story

Doctrines, deployments, and the political value attached to "nuclear deterrence" are being challenged at the NPT conference.  As 78 nations co-sponsor a growing "humanitarian initiative", the five NPT nuclear-armed states and some of their "nuclear umbrella" allies like Japan, Australia and Germany are in denial. Rebecca Johnson reports

Europe’s austerity, the beginning of the end?

Europe is increasingly unpopular, the recession hits the euro area and Angela Merkel is now facing a new populist party. So Brussels opens up to a timid change of season. But austerity has not yet been defeated politically, in elections and in the streets.

The military in our midst

Up in Arms normally focuses on the figure of the soldier in order to track the militarization process. Here we visit the overlooked role of the ‘military wife’ as a key to interpreting far-reaching policy decisions.

Europe’s guns, debt and corruption

This second of two essays on military spending and the EU crisis, explores the role of the European arms trade, corruption and the role of arms exporting countries in fuelling a debt crisis, and why these 'odious' debts need to be written off. See Part One here.

Do the Egyptians really need democracy?

One might be forced to return to the  question posed, this time with a view to the current situation in Egypt. Do the Egyptians really understand democracy? 

Britain's 'tough choices': a call for a new approach to welfare

At the Citizens Advice Bureau the real Thatcher legacy can be seen every day: social disengagement, indifference and injustice. It is Thatcherism that needs burying.

This week's editor

Heather McRobie


Niki Seth-Smith is a freelance journalist and co-editor of OurKingdom.

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