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Attempts to modernise the working practices of the Foreign Office within the last half century have largely been successful. Technological advances have rendered the work of today's Foreign Secretaries and Diplomatic Service totally different from their immediate post-war predecessors. This has not only speeded up the pace of diplomacy but resulted in a more 'intimate' approach to diplomatic contact through the use of video and satellite links, for example. These changes have taken place against the backdrop of a decline of Britain as a world power and a realignment of the British relationship with Europe through the European Union. At the same time, however, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was anxious to preserve its architectural and historical heritage, and the author praises the Thatcher government's commitment to restoring Gilbert Scott's building in Whitehall to its original splendour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic landscape of the UK has been significantly shaped by the intertwined issues of Brexit, COVID, and their interconnected impacts. The disruptions caused by Brexit and the COVID pandemic have created uncertainty and upheaval for both businesses and individuals. Whilst the effects of COVID are now receding, Brexit is still dominating headlines seven years after the referendum and is likely to do so for the foreseeable future. In this introduction, we provide an overview of the literature on Brexit. We review the reasons for leaving the European Union, as well examine the consequences of Brexit, with a focus on investment, economic growth, trade, unemployment, and financial markets. We then introduce the seven papers selected from the 'Post Brexit: Uncertainty, Risk Measurement and Coronavirus Challenges Conference' held at Birmingham Business School in June 2021, that advance the current literature on the effects of Brexit and COVID on the UK economy. Evidence in these papers suggests that Brexit and COVID are still clearly posing a severe strain on the UK's economy. However, some papers suggest that not everything about Brexit has been detrimental, or at least certain sectors of the UK economy are displaying a marked resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses how so-called Brexit, that is the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union (EU), has modified the regional geography of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs). The latter are therapies deriving from cell manipulation, gene editing, tissue engineering, or a combination of these techniques. Their development and delivery have been realised through research collaborations and commercial relations of international scope. In the EU, this has happened by means of a complex distribution of commercial activities and legal responsibilities. With Brexit, three main kinds of reconfigurations have occurred: the relocation of research and manufacturing activities; the reorganisation of quality control tests aimed to manage clinical risks; and the redistribution of legal responsibilities and representatives. This technical and legal reconfiguration is captured here by means of theoretical insights from the emerging domain of legal geography. Drawing on interviews conducted with both EU and UK professionals involved in ATMP development, this paper reveals the main challenges brought by Brexit to the current and future configuration of the ATMP landscape in the EU and the UK. Furthermore, it demonstrates how shifts in legal arrangements impact on science-intensive domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the United Kingdom's referendum on European Union (EU) membership in 2016, a new political cleavage of Remainers and Leavers has developed (Kelley, N. [2019]. British social attitudes survey: Britain's shifting identities and attitudes. (36). National Centre for Research). This paper explores how five pro-Brexit newspapers discursively construct political division in Britain in relation to two key events in the final year of Britain's EU membership: the extension of the withdrawal process past the original date of March, and the introduction of the Benn Act in September. The paper reveals two primary discursive constructions of division in Britain: a divide between incompetent and arrogant political officials and an innocent, suffering public, and an identity cleavage between pro-Remain 'elites' and 'ordinary' Leave-voting citizens. The study argues that the construction of these divisions threatens a collective national identity in Britain at a time when it is most required. It concludes that by apportioning blame for socio-political divisions, the newspapers obfuscate their role in contributing to disunity in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes responses of Great Britain to the European Union (EU) White Paper. View of Great Britain on governance; Support of Great Britain for a code of conduct on consultation; Responses from EU governance actors.

The UK's 'Australian-style' points-based system (PBS), introduced in 2021, has been promoted by politicians as a strategy to 'take back control' of migration after leaving the European Union. However, the 2021 PBS is just the most recent of several initiatives since 2002 to introduce points into the UK's labor migration policy. Points tests in various forms have been repeatedly introduced, modified, and removed in the UK's immigration system. This paper examines what accounts for the enduring appeal and repeated reinvention of this policy tool. We argue that the main factor driving interest in points-based systems is not what they achieve in practice, but their symbolic value. Points systems have allowed policymakers to signal that labor migration policy is objective, rational, meritocratic and efficient. These objectives appear to outweigh the substantive policy benefits of points-based systems as mechanisms for accumulating human capital or offering flexibility in eligibility criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years the meaning and different dimensions and implications of European territorial cohesion have been a matter of debate in some academic circles, amongst elements of the European Commission and in certain Member States and regions. In 2008, the European Commission published its ‘Green Paper on Territorial Cohesion’, launching a debate on the meaning of territorial cohesion and potential implications for European, Member State and sub-state policies. Informed by this context, this paper considers how the concept of territorial cohesion is being interpreted, and its meaning (re)constructed, by sub-state territories and actors in the United Kingdom. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the relation between GDP growth, Divisia money growth, CPI inflation, financial stress, and the UK's economic policy uncertainty in the context of its departure from the European Union. We employ two Bayesian VAR models which account for the extreme observations in macroeconomic and financial time series resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. We document a contractionary effect of an economic policy uncertainty shock on GDP growth, which is not present in a model which does not account for the COVID-19-related outliers. Additionally, we find that GDP growth is enhanced by Divisia monetary stimulus but hampered by increases in financial stress. The results from a stochastic volatility in the mean threshold model also uncover different dynamics of transmission of shocks between economic uncertainty and the indicators we study across high and low economic policy uncertainty regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the 1 January 2021 the new Protocol on Northern Ireland (NI) regulates NI's trade with the European Union (EU) and Great Britain (GB). These rules imply divergence between trade arrangements in NI and GB creating an unprecedented situation where trade frictions arise between two regions of the same country. In this paper we use a multi-sector economic model to capture the impact that potential non-tariff barriers and tariffs will have on trade in NI. Simulation results demonstrate that a weaker relation between GB and the EU will have a greater negative impact on the NI economy. However, this may be reduced by the ability of NI firms to substitute intermediate inputs from GB for EU imports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shift to online commerce and communication in the global pandemic, the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the cancel culture exacerbated by social media platforms have demonstrated our increasing reliance on digital platforms. Digital regulation is receiving increasing scrutiny globally and, in the UK, as exemplified by the recent Digital Markets and Digital Services Act by the European Union and the establishment of the Digital Markets Unit within the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK. In July 2020, the Competition and Markets Authority, the Information Commissioner's Office and the Office of Communications formed the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum (DRCF) to coordinate digital regulation between various regulators. In April 2021, the Financial Conduct Authority also joined the DRCF as a full member. Against this backdrop, the paper explores the coordination of digital regulation in the UK and analyses how effective the DRCF is in contributing to this objective. It is argued that to effectively respond to the challenges posed by digital technologies, coordination between various regulatory authorities must be extended and formalised to avoid fragmented enforcement. Whilst the DRCF is a step in the right direction, it needs to engage more closely with other relevant stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Implementation outcomes of the Ambient Air Quality Directive (AAQD) (2008/50/EC)) are weak across European Union (EU) member states. In the UK, Local Authorities (LAs) must work toward reducing air pollution, however, means of assessing the extent and effectiveness of their contribution are limited. This paper develops a framework to evaluate policies implemented by UK LAs to address air pollution and applies it to Air Quality Action Plans (AQAP) of five cities. It looks at how, and the extent to which, LA air quality policies align with AAQD requirements, thus advancing empirical and academic knowledge on implementation literature surrounding multi-level governance, specifically the policy disconnect between the AAQD and UK Local Air Quality Management (LAQM). The application of the framework shows how LAs can better integrate AQAPs into their LAQM plans to assess, develop, improve and implement their air quality policies on the ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Kingdom's European Union membership referendum, which marked the end of UK membership in the European Union, created much uncertainty amongst those British and European business practitioners who were accustomed to conducting trade with partners across The North Sea. This exogenous threat to business was subsequently compounded by another serious threat: the COVID-19 pandemic. Knowing that business-to-business (B2B) relationships are particularly important for the success of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and that exogenous threats in the business environment can threaten these relationships, the purpose of this study is to examine whether frequent contact and social exchanges between partners on a range of topics, during threatening times, are positively linked to the relationship qualities of trust, satisfaction, and commitment. Guided by an explorative, expert interview with a Danish SME owner-manager (OM) who has a great deal of experience conducting business with UK partners, a questionnaire was developed to examine two variables which seemingly play central roles with regard to supporting business relationships during threatening times: contact frequency (how often partners are in contact), and contact scope (how often B2B partners talk together about topics which are social in nature). The questionnaire was administered to 193 Danish SME owners and managers who had British business partners at the time of the BREXIT referendum and the COVID-19 pandemic. The questionnaire revealed a positive relationship between contact frequency and relationship satisfaction and commitment, as well as a positive relationship between contact scope and relationship commitment. However, no significant relationships were found between contact frequency nor contact scope, on the one hand, and the level of trust between business partners on the other. This study has underscored the usefulness of studying social exchanges, and not just information exchanges, as they are an important, relationship-strengthening aspect of B2B communication. Indeed, while the central role played by informational exchanges in building quality relationships, including trusting relationships, is well-documented, this study increases our understanding of the value of social exchanges to business relationship quality; in particular, their noteworthy link to B2B partners' willingness to go to great lengths to maintain relationships during challenging times. Our findings indicate that simply being in contact with B2B partners and speaking about topics that are not directly related to business is not, on its own, a sufficient means of establishing trusting relationships; however, it is nonetheless worthwhile to take the time to nurture personal relationships with B2B partners. Just a modest amount of contact is positively related to relationship satisfaction, as well as relationship commitment, which can be crucial when unforeseen and threatening times inevitably arise in the business environment. Besides enhancing our understanding of the value of frequent and social exchanges in terms of relationship quality, this paper also illustrates a useful means of studying social aspects of business relationships, which are notoriously difficult to study. This is accomplished via a questionnaire study in which respondents are asked to concretely reflect upon and report on the frequency and nature of their contact with specific B2B partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the historic role of Britain's major public service broadcaster, the BBC, in reporting the European Union. To do this it combines a content analysis of two datasets of BBC broadcast and online coverage from 2007 and 2012 with a series of semi-structured interviews conducted with former and current senior BBC editors and journalists. The research finds that BBC coverage in the pre-referendum period was closely tied to major events – such as summits – and elite party conflict. These patterns in coverage were primarily a consequence of the lack of traditional news values inherent in most EU stories and the impact of the wider political and media landscape. The consequence of these patterns in coverage was to present audiences with a restricted, negative and largely conflictual picture of Britain's relationship with the EU which is likely to have fuelled rather than inhibited the growth of Euroscepticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a hypothetical Supreme Court judgment issued in response to a similarly hypothetical entrenchment problem arising in the context of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union. The article imagines a scenario in which a Conservative government facing electoral defeat presses legislation through Parliament which is intended to entrench - to a very high degree - the United Kingdom's withdrawal. The hypothetical litigation suggests that the Supreme Court would upheld such legislation in the face of a subsequent statute passed in the ordinary way which purports to repeal the earlier Act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do members of the committees under the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) find that there are coalitions of specific member states in these committees? If so, then what kind of side payments hold these coalitions together? For the first time in scholarly literature, and based on an empirical investigation, the findings in this paper document that two opposing coalitions - with the United Kingdom and France as the respective leaders - exist in OMC committees where mutual learning is the raison d'etre. In the existing theory on this subject in the EU, it is claimed that consensus decision-making leads to a weakening of coalition-building. All three committees analysed in this paper build on consensus decision-making, which is achieved after intensive meetings between all the members. However, it is contended that the 'argumentative contest' working method of the OMC committees leads to more - not less - coalition-building. On the basis of a test, it is also shown that these committees are primarily held together by side payments in the form of 'promises relating to policy among the like-minded'; however, 'payments allied to subsequent decisions' add to the cement of the coalition-building processes stemming from the OMC working method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Social Work is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper offers a defence of ambivalence as a response to the political polarisation of our era using multiple languages to present its case from psychology to sociology, political science, philosophy and critical theory. It suggests that the Brexit story can be told in a different key, whereby the politics that have led to entrenching 'leave' and 'remain' identities overlay a harder to assess ambivalence about the EU both in the UK and in the EU, a dynamic referred to as the 'Machiavelli Trap.' Accordingly, we ought to ground the future relationship in the recognition of the 'Brexit paradox' (you can leave and therefore you shouldn't), and its implications for the core principles that have shaped the Brexit debate and negotiations. In the end, the paper offers a plea for a politics that allows citizens to tune into their constructive ambivalence about the fundamental tension between control and cooperation which pervades both Brexit, EU and global politics at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Social Work is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper analyses the discourses produced on their websites by the two organisations that conducted the official 'leave' and 'remain' campaigns in the Brexit referendum. The analysis, which adopts the general orientation of the Discourse Historical Approach in CDS, is aimed at illuminating the main discursive strategies, argumentative schemes and key representations of Britain in/and Europe that sustained the ideological (de)legitimation of Brexit on either side. Based on this analysis, this paper argues that the specific ideological articulation of two key discursive elements – namely trade and immigration – and the argumentative schemes deployed in the campaign engendered and legitimised a new toxic (inter)national logic of Brexit: by leaving the EU, Britain 'takes back control' to pursue mercantile policies whose benefits 'outsiders' should be excluded from. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brexit has reopened and repoliticised the debate about future growth models for the UK economy. This contribution argues that this debate is built around historically specific path dependencies that reflect the particular character of public debate about British political economy, while also suggesting that the debate around Brexit takes place at a very distinctive moment in the history of democratic capitalism in Europe. This combination gives the renewed politicisation a specific and perhaps perverse character. The paper considers how we should approach debates about growth models, paying particular attention to the importance of the politics of support. It suggests that recent debate about growth models has been largely subsumed within the politics of Brexit, which has politicised that debate, albeit through the emergent political economy frames that Brexit has provoked. The paper explores the ways in which the demise of three key props of European democratic capitalism - a sustained period of economic growth, a governing philosophy that subordinated the market to wider social purposes and strong political parties - play out in the context of Brexit and the search for a new politics of support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the potential impact of Brexit on UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Using a major longitudinal survey of UK SMEs, the analysis suggests that Brexit-related concerns are escalating. Larger, export- and import-oriented SMEs are most concerned, as are those located in major urban and peripheral locations. Among SMEs with growth-related plans, many firms are scaling back on capital investment, innovation and (especially) exports. An appraisal of existing policy frameworks suggests that the devolved administrations seem better equipped to enact interventions in order to alleviate any negative effects arising from Brexit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with re-imaginings of 'Europe' following the accession to the European Union (EU) of former 'Eastern European' countries. In particular it explores media representations of post-EU accession migration from Romania to the United Kingdom in the UK and Romanian newspaper press. Todorova's (1997) notion of Balkanism is deployed as a theoretical construct to facilitate the analysis of these representations as first, the continuation of long-standing and deeply embedded imaginings of the 'East' of Europe and, second, as a means of contesting these discourses. The paper explores the way in which the UK press construct Balkanist discourses about Romania and Romanian migrants, and then analyses how the Romanian press has contested such discourses. The paper argues that the idea of the 'East' remains important in constructing notions of 'Europe' within popular media geographies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first examines the New Labour government's redefinition of equality of opportunity in Britain, mainly with regard to education and the ways in which it mediates 'opportunity'. In doing so, it also draws on wider social policy issues, such as the use of education policies to combat social exclusion. Second, the paper reviews European Union policies and selected documents that address questions of social inclusion, social cohesion and the role of education in achieving those policy goals. The main argument is that both New Labour policies in Britain and the examined EU documents promote rather minimal understandings of the term 'equality of opportunity', while, education, in both cases, is given an enormous burden to carry in balancing increasingly liberalised market-driven economies, with the requirements of a socially just society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editors discuss various reports within the issue on topics including the relationship-based practice of social work education, the challenges faced by social work practitioners, and the significance of social relationships and connection.

In light of the EU enlargements and a promise of unrestricted mobility within EU borders for European nationals, the opportunity was rapidly taken up in particular by young and highly educated Poles. However, some aspirant migrants wished to travel beyond EU borders and such individuals sought different strategies to migrate, including obtaining British citizenship and passports. The paper highlights the possibility of a go-stop-go mobility, which can be described as a stepped approach to citizenship, and a key feature of the new elite cohort of young European graduates, who use their European citizenship to obtain an alternative citizenship that acts as a passport literally and metaphorically to mobility beyond Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Community, Work & Family is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper analyses the policy developments concerning the Single Market in finance in the context of Brexit. Theoretically, we engage with two bodies of work that make contrasting predictions on European financial market integration and the development of European Union (EU) policies on financial regulation: one focused upon a neo-mercantilist 'battle' amongst member states and the other stressing the importance of transnational financial networks (or coalitions). Empirically, we find limited evidence of the formation of cross-national alliances in favour of the United Kingdom (UK) retaining broad access to the EU Single Market in financial services, the presence of which would have aligned with the expectations of analyses focused upon transnational networks. By contrast, the main financial centres in the EU27 and their national authorities competed to lure financial business away from the UK – what we explain in terms of a 'battle' amongst member states and their national financial centres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For most analysts, Brexit reveals the highly contingent power of finance and the clear limits to its ability to influence crucial policymaking outcomes. By contrast, I contend that UK-EU negotiations demonstrate the unique capacity of finance to secure substantial commercial protections relative to all other business sectors and that the structural sources of the City's political power remain exceptionally robust. Elaborating a notion of 'structural interdependence', the paper demonstrates how policy officials on both sides came to perceive that the future prosperity and stability of their economies relied upon maintaining open trading relations in financial services. This necessitated broad continuity in access to London's deep financial markets for EU firms and preservation of the City's leading role in the UK growth regime. In establishing these claims empirically, I document an extensive range of contingency measures designed throughout December 2018-April 2019 that would function to protect the financial industry from economic disruption in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The outcome illustrates how finance benefits from a form of structural power that does not require instrumental mobilisation, but rather shapes policy decisions on the basis of deeply entrenched and commercially vital cross-border financial entanglements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rejection of free movement embodied in the 2016 Referendum vote created tremendous uncertainty regarding the immediate and future legal rights of EU nationals living in the UK. Drawing on interviews with EU staff and management at three universities, this paper asks how Brexit was experienced by highly skilled migrants in a sector reliant on EU migration, and the ways that employment in higher education buffered staff against its impact. Interviews reveal the ways that the Brexit vote disrupted previous perceptions of life in the UK, creating new feelings of vulnerability in terms of rights as well as public acceptance. Symbolic and practical support provided by management, as well as informal support from colleagues, cushioned EU employees against this shock. At the same time, employee satisfaction with employer response was shaped by perceptions of a neo-liberal turn within the University, with a subset of (primarily) academics expecting more personalised support and political involvement in the Brexit debate. Ironically, at the institutional level, the university with the most neo-liberal employment model was the most concerned and proactive in response to the Brexit vote, due to reliance on ready access to the EU to fulfil contingent labour contracts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the late 1990s, populist discourse based on anti-immigration sentiments has been on the rise in Britain. This phenomenon reached a peak during the EU Referendum (ER) campaign and shortly thereafter. The ER has been linked to the upsurge in racially and religiously aggravated offences recorded post-July 2016. Polish nationals, who constitute the largest group of EU nationals in the UK, were targeted by many of these incidents. It could therefore be argued that, in the last years, and particularly, since the ER, EU nationals living in the UK have become more 'vulnerable'. To test this hypothesis, this contribution is based on an interdisciplinary project that collected socio-legal evidence to compare the vulnerability of the Polish community in Southampton before and after the ER. The paper draws on vulnerability and psychology literature to differentiate between 'objective' and 'subjective' vulnerability. Our study deploys mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) to test changes in objective and subjective vulnerability among Southampton-based Poles before and after the ER. Our findings suggest that, following the ER, Poles felt significantly more vulnerable, especially in terms of subjective vulnerability, even if they had never experienced overt hate incidents or discrimination (objective vulnerability) before. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

On 23 June 2016, 52% of Britons voted in a referendum to exit (Brexit) the European Union (EU) while 48% opted to remain. This is a watershed moment in world politics, given the implications for the future of the UK, the EU and the rest of the world. This paper uses the case of Brexit to analyse paradoxes of regionalism and democracy. The central question is, what does the case of Brexit suggests about the contradictions of democracy and regionalism in the 21st century? Importantly, what broad lessons may be gleaned from the case for regionalist projects among Commonwealth countries? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The UK's 'Australian-style' points-based system (PBS), introduced in 2021, has been promoted by politicians as a strategy to 'take back control' of migration after leaving the European Union. However, the 2021 PBS is just the most recent of several initiatives since 2002 to introduce points into the UK's labor migration policy. Points tests in various forms have been repeatedly introduced, modified, and removed in the UK's immigration system. This paper examines what accounts for the enduring appeal and repeated reinvention of this policy tool. We argue that the main factor driving interest in points-based systems is not what they achieve in practice, but their symbolic value. Points systems have allowed policymakers to signal that labor migration policy is objective, rational, meritocratic and efficient. These objectives appear to outweigh the substantive policy benefits of points-based systems as mechanisms for accumulating human capital or offering flexibility in eligibility criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on a larger research project that investigates the networks and institutions shaping cultural policy across national, international and supranational contexts. Taking Britain as its touchstone, it identifies and maps some of the operational relations between culture, governance and nation shaping the development and orientation of contemporary cultural policy. It thus highlights key formal and informal domestic relationships and contexts within which Britain's local, regional and national cultural policy initiatives are situated. The British context - in which England figures strongly for historical, political and demographic reasons, and so draws a corresponding resistance across other constituents of nation - is shown to be both internally differentiated along various lines, and also embedded in the larger sphere of the European Union that redraws the boundaries of cultural policy and governance. In tracing the contours and interrogating the constitutive elements of Britain's domains of cultural policy, we seek to provide a foundation for understanding the intersections and influences that exist between fields of cultural governance, and their interdependence and fluidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates around the impacts of the UK's exit from the European Union ('Brexit') have exposed the limited critical attention given to how planning systems intersect with environmental protection. This is an important omission, especially given deregulatory pressures on both planning and environment in many countries. In response, this paper uses documentary, interview and focus group data, to conceptualise different regulatory styles governing the environment-planning interface, and assess UK planning practitioner attitudes to EU environmental legislation and scenarios for future change. The data show practitioners largely supporting the fixed standards and robust oversight characteristic of EU environmental regulatory styles, anxious about deregulation, and interested in procedural flexibility. More fundamentally, it also reveals the compromises struck in regulatory design, and the importance of concrete development-environment challenges in constructing arguments for change. Consequently, planning occupies a pivotal position within wider debates about new environmental policy fixes, warranting more extensive professional discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EU's work on climate change is key to the regional and international fight against the problem, and disruptions to it have global implications. When analyzing the effects of the UK's decision to leave the EU (Brexit) on EU climate action, this paper looks at two types of impact. The first is related to UK absence from EU climate policy, finance and diplomacy following the actual UK departure from the EU. The second is related to the costs attached to the withdrawal process, including the additional costs and uncertainty created by the delayed UK departure. These latter implications of Brexit have been less explored by the literature, although the last years provide plenty of evidence for them. The paper finds that the impact of Brexit on EU climate action is mainly negative, without denying some potential positive impact and while acknowledging the limitations of a study that entails forecasting in an uncertain political context. Key policy insights Following Brexit, the EU will lose a member that supported its climate action internally and internationally through commitment to high emissions reduction targets at the EU level, policy solutions, and financial and diplomatic support. The withdrawal process itself has had a negative impact on EU climate action: Brexit has hijacked the EU agenda, captured EU human and administrative resources and increased the uncertainty in which investors and businesses operate. Planning for separate European Councils to deal with Brexit could prevent agenda hijacking. Both the EU and UK also need to provide businesses with a clear regulatory framework. A repeatedly postponed Brexit has caused additional damage, by prolonging uncertainty. Continuing to work with the UK on climate during the Brexit negotiations and after the UK departure should be a priority for the EU, as well as ensuring the willingness to cooperate is not spoiled by mutual resentment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the EU Structural Fund intervention framework is critically assessed in an effort to reflect on the problems faced by policy-makers when trying to make sense of the complexity associated with innovation. An assessment is made of the 'evidence-based' approach for reporting on EU Structural Fund interventions in the Welsh economy. It is argued that the measurement of quantifiable inputs and outputs fails to engage sufficiently with the process qualities of innovation. Building on this critique, the paper reports on a study of innovation practice and performance in a sample of Welsh manufacturing SMEs to demonstrate empirically the problems of assuming universal best practices and linear models of innovation. The evidence leads to recommendations for policy improvements in two areas: the need to improve the identification and support of innovative practice in SMEs; and the need to improve the monitoring and evaluation of innovation effects from policy interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an EU-funded project under the Training and Mobility of Researchers (TMR) Programme, with a particular emphasis on the Oxford-based part. Involving six European universities, the overarching investigation was concerned with the tensions between standardization and tradition in education. In Oxford the focus was on aspects of EU education and training policy in four Member States: the United Kingdom, German, Sweden, and France. The paper describes the research undertaken and its outcomes, using the project as an example of EU funding programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the impact on covenants in the debt contracts of companies of the impending change to international accounting standards (IAS). The primary focus of the paper is the UK debt market, but comparisons are drawn with other EU countries that will also be affected by the adoption of IAS. Existing evidence of the nature of debt covenants and the impact of accounting regulation change on such covenants is briefly reviewed. It is argued that the adoption of IAS will have a significant impact both on reported earnings and on balance sheet values. Moreover, it is argued that the adoption of IAS will increase the volatility of earnings. It is further argued that, as a consequence of these effects, there will be a significant impact on debt covenants given the widespread use of rolling GAAP. A number of cases and hypothetical examples are provided to illustrate the impact of the adoption of IAS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last 10 years, European Union interest in planning has increased significantly. Although land use planning remains a function of each member state, the legal obligations imposed by the EU in the fields of environmental law, structural funds, the Common Agricultural Policy, and Trans-European Transport Networks, have all impacted upon the context of the operation of the British planning process. Many of the EU initiatives have had to be transposed into domestic legislation, while others form an important-if oft-times uncertain-framework for British policy-makers. This paper examines the relationship between the European Union's policies and initiatives as they have potentially impacted upon the British planning system and the contents of Britain's national and regional planning policy guidance to local planning authorities in the assessment period 1988-1997. But the Conservative governments adopted a 'Eurosceptic' approach to their relations with Europe and, as demonstrated within this paper, also towards spatial planning issues that caused uncertainty in practice. The research indicates that although the EU has impacted upon British planning, particularly at the local level of government, this has not been reflected at the national and regional levels in planning policy documentation, mainly because of the 'Eurosceptic' attitude of the government. Policy-makers at both the national and regional levels in England, Scotland and Wales are now recognizing the need, however, to keep apace with changes occurring simultaneously with regard to enhanced European integration, and the approach of the Blair government since 1997 has re-focused the relationship between the EU and UK over spatial planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brexit constitutes a puzzle for integration theory. Functionalist analyses have not only failed to predict the UK's exit but have also underestimated the disintegrative dynamics of the withdrawal negotiations. By contrast, postfunctionalism accounts for the disintegrative Brexit process but struggles to explain the unity and defence of supranational integration among the EU-27. This article tries to make sense of the Brexit puzzle. First, it argues that Brexit constitutes an attack on the EU polity rather than a policy failure – the type of crisis that functionalist theories explain best. Second, it complements the postfunctionalist account of domestic politicisation with an analysis of the reactions and strategies of the defenders of supranational integration. According to this expanded postfunctionalist analysis, the interaction of polity attack and polity defence has produced 'external rebordering': extreme disintegration of the UK from the EU, on the one hand, and strengthened integration of the EU-27, on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: A significant amount of data concerning maternal-fetal damage arising from the exertion of Kristeller maneuvers (KMs) or fundal pressure (FP) go unreleased due to medicolegal implications.Materials and Methods: For this reason, the paper gathers information as to the real magnitude of litigation related to FP-induced damages and injuries. The authors have undertaken a research in order to include general search engines (PubMed-Medline, Cochrane, Embase, Google, GyneWeb) and legal databases (De Jure, Italian database of jurisprudence daily update; Westlaw, Thomson Reuters, American ruling database and Bailii, UK Court Ruling Database).Results: Results confirm said phenomenon to be more wide ranging than it appears through official channels. Several courts of law, both in the United States of America (USA) and in European Union (EU) Member States as well, have ruled against the use of the maneuver itself, assuming a stance conducive to a presumption of guilt against those doctors and healthcare providers who resorted to KMs or FP during deliveries. Given how rife FP is in mainstream obstetric practice, it is as if there were a wide gap between obstetric real-life and what official jurisprudence and healthcare institutions-sanctioned official practices are.Conclusion: The authors think that it would be desirable to draft specifically targeted guidelines or recommendations on maneuvers during vaginal delivery, in which to point out exactly what kinds of maneuvering techniques are to be absolutely banned and what maneuvers are to be allowed, and under what conditions their application can be considered appropriate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transport projects have numerous consequences for the environment, society and economy, and thus an EU Directive has stated a number of impacts that need to be assessed prior to any major intervention. This paper is set in a Danish context where the EU requirements have been adopted in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) regulation along with national requirements. In recent years, however, the EIAs have been criticised for an inconsistent inclusion of impacts and unclear assessment process. A selection of EIAs is for this reason reviewed and compared to the EU Directive and corresponding works in Sweden and the UK to identify potential opportunities for improvements. From the literature study, an overview table with all potential relevant impacts for transport projects is set up to assist the EIA process. For the sake of simplicity and transparency, the impacts selected from this table should, however, be further reduced in number to ensure that only the most important impacts are included in the process. To further increase simplicity and transparency in the EIA process, a novel framework for assessing different types of impacts is proposed. In this framework, a comprehensive decision support tool involving stakeholders is in focus. The framework is supplemented with a procedure for generating objectives and presenting results in an appropriate way to the many stakeholders involved. The impacts overview table and the assessment techniques are applied to a case study to illustrate the process, and finally, conclusions and perspectives for future work within the field are set out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports findings from a focus group study on representations of Europe, conducted in England in the run-up to the UK EU referendum. Four themes were identified in the analysis: 'cultured Europe'; 'little Europe/global Britain'; 'Europe as a cultural threat'; and 'Eastern vs. Western Europe'. Analysis of these themes showed that Europe was an ambivalent identity category that could encapsulate contrary ideas such as cosmopolitanism/isolationism and cultural enrichment/undermining. Europe's relation to Britain was also ambivalent in the data. Britain could be positioned as superior to Europe, sometimes being seen as closer to the 'European essence' in the context of the EU's eastward expansion, which was seen as diluting European culture. But, Britain could also be seen as backward compared to the idea of cosmopolitan continental Europe. These different lines of argument and their ideological underpinnings are explored in the discussion of the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the ‘global middle classes’, cultural reproduction increasingly involves the international school as they promise considerable distinction [Bourdieu, P. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press] granting University passage past Anglo gate-keepers. This paper draws on research providing a multiphase exploration of the character of senior leadership in IB international schools. Participants emerged as white ‘English’ and Christian. However, data collected show that these leaders do not operationalise (organisational) international values; instead, they draw upon their own societal values in leadership. Yet, their stories and outlooks of global-mindedness sit uncritically, framed in ‘Inner Circle English’ [Kachru, B. 1985. “Standards, Codification and Sociolinguistic Realism: The English Language in the Outer Circle.” In English in the World: Teaching and Learning the Language and Literatures, edited by R. Quirk and H. G. Widdowson, 11-34. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] advantage. Participants lean on a power-narrative of middle-class ‘Englishness’. As powerful policy-makers, this orientation defines the international school’s mission and vision. It appeals to the surge of international education, particularly in the global South, where international schools can be seen as incubators of ‘English’ epistemic advantage. It is unlikely that the consolidation of the ‘Brand of Britain’ will affect this demographic and their choices to ‘go UK’. The affordance of diminishing EU participation in the UK higher education system may work in favour of globalising middle classes and elites. Conversely, it is unlikely that lower income EU or UK domestic HE participation is likely to profit from this move. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In investigating the operation of the rescue culture in the Commonwealth Caribbean as compared to the United Kingdom administration regime and Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code, this paper laments that the Commonwealth Caribbean and the USA fail to consider key issues of post-petition priority for finance. It also delves into a critical, but overlooked, pillar of strong rescue frameworks: access to finance. Taking guidance from the European Union framework on state aid and the UK Funding for Lending and National Loan Guarantee, the author proposes a fair, transparent and efficient framework encompassing state involvement and state-driven private sector engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines how and in what ways workplace 'sexual harassment' achieved social and legal recognition in the UK news press following its importation from North America in the mid-1970s. It assesses the role of feminist campaigners working within institutions (trade unions, human rights advocacy, the Equal Opportunities Commission and journalism itself) in shifting public discourse and in using the media to educate and promote social change. We demonstrate that the trajectory was far from a linear progression. Initial hostility within the popular press in the early 1980s was replaced with sympathetic coverage across the party-political spectrum by 1990. However, this consensus broke down in the 1990s as a result of politicised and polarised coverage of a series of claims brought by women in the services and armed forces against the backdrop of debates about 'compensation culture' and membership of the European Union. Whilst change was effected at the level of employment law, formal practice and in the human resources policies of larger employers, 'sexual harassment myths' were resilient as a thread within 'everyday cultural discourse' and, by implication, within informal workplace cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1948 and 1962, approximately 600 million Commonwealth citizens had the right to enter the UK. This number decreased throughout the 1960s and 1970s, as a series of Acts of Parliament altered the rights and definitions of Commonwealth citizens. To date, the European Union has extended the right to over 500 million citizens and residents of member-states to enter the UK. This new trend has been met with perceptions of threat to national cultural and economic resources. Reactions to Commonwealth immigration were similarly negative. This paper examines parallels between EU immigration today and Commonwealth immigration of the past. It argues that the fears expressed, both in the literature of the 1960s and 1970s and in contemporary society, reflect a fear of persons who are seen as ‘other’ but who must, by law, be defined as fellow-citizens and afforded the attendant rights. We argue that theorists of free and freer movement must acknowledge these local concerns in order to strengthen their theory and enable a more liberal treatment of immigration policy in the UK and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]