Category Archives: Top500

The pandemic has highlighted a problem which has been growing for a number of years in which an increasing proportion of the public feel alienated from the political system, not feeling represented by any of the main political parties and perceiving the country as run by a political class who they describe as “them”  Continue reading “Alienation from the Political Process”

A Royal Family is a really good institution for the expression of national values but its commitment to avoiding political controversy makes it impossible for it to fulfil its role of addressing difficult constitutional issues.     3047-2

Levelling up was reported to be one of Boris Johnson’s most-used terms during the 2019 election campaign1. The Conservative Party said in its manifesto that it would be “levelling up every part of the UK” and proposed five initiatives: investing in towns, cities, and rural and coastal areas; giving those areas more control of howContinue reading “LEVELLING UP – THE PROBLEM”

Our current inability to cope with a non military National Crisis. No one ministry has the overall brief, to ensure we are prepared for a non military threat to the country, be it from a virus, climate change, asteroid strike, solar flare or other unforeseen disaster. The consequences have become all too obvious, with ourContinue reading “Ministry for National Crisis Security”

A key challenge during the pandemic has been the unprecedented requirement for teachers to provide distance learning (“DL”) across all year groups. This has been achieved by individual teachers using a wide range of material and a variety of delivery platforms. Most schools will have received feedback from parents, trust boards and the local authorityContinue reading “The Necessity of Home Learning During the Covid-19 Pandemic Presents a Unique Educational Opportunity.”

Covid has severely damaged the ability of an already stretched NHS to deal with its normal work. At the same time physical inactivity is causing serious health issues which are expensive and time consuming to treat and which will continue to add to the challenges faced by the NHS. According to Public Heath England physicalContinue reading “Improve the nation’s health to reduce the burden on the NHS”

An average household pays 33.8% of their income in tax. … Council tax is sharply regressive even after adjusting for rebates and Council Tax Benefit with the poorest 10% paying 7.1% of their income in council tax whilst the richest 10% pay only 1.5% of their income in council tax. Extract from The Equality TrustContinue reading “Paying for the pandemic Taxation and Thinking outside of the box.”

It used to be said that a woman over 30 with two degrees or higher qualifications had a statistically higher chance of dying in an air crash than getting married. Now, well-qualified and experienced women over 50 have a statistically lower chance of finding new employment at all levels of the UK’s workforce. Many olderContinue reading “Business and employment policy needs to target women over 50 years of age”

2020 and the Covid-pandemic has seen the greatest outpouring of civil society in a generation. On release, the NHS Responder App attracted 750,000 volunteer applicants and over 1m missions were completed, in addition to the 1000’s of mutual aid groups that sprang up across the country. The opportunity to capture civil society through making volunteeringContinue reading “Employee Engagement and Covid-19 Support”

The population of the UK currently stands at 66 million. Covid presents a great challenge to deliver vaccines by injection not once, but twice per person. Therefore, a total of 132 million injections need to be given. This is a sizable piece of work and may need to be undertaken annually like the flu jab.Continue reading “Dentists should be utilised to deliver vaccines in future large-scale vaccination programmes”