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In this wide-ranging survey of recent UK government pronouncements, policies and new legislation relating particularly - but not limited - to 'security', migration and refugee issues, the author exposes a consistent pattern in which human rights concerns are being systematically downgraded. But, at the same time that government is systematically minimising its own accountability over possible abuses committed by its agents or in its name, it is ramping up the policing of the UK population in a catch-all programme that places duties of surveillance on individuals and professionals in almost every sector of society - from nursery nurses to private landlords, from lorry drivers to university lecturers. And, even while professionals from every sector are attempting to question the validity of the government's current policy programme, particularly its so-called counterradicalisation strategy, the right to freedom of expression among Third Sector organisations is being incrementally whittled away. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BML monitors consumer book purchases in Britain via its Books & Consumers survey. RR Bowker tracks US consumer book purchases via its PubTrack Consumer survey. This report compares the results of the two surveys. In 2008, the US consumer market was around ten times the size of its UK equivalent, but a higher proportion of British than US consumers bought books. Book buyers in each country were similar in terms of gender and age, but slightly more ‘up market’ in the US than Britain. Adult fiction and hardbacks accounted for a higher proportion of book purchases in the US than in Britain, but with variations in the mix of genres bought. Chain bookshops remained the largest channel for book purchases in Britain, despite losing share in recent years. The internet overtook the chains in the US in 2008, with Britain around 3 years behind in terms of internet share. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]