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The aim of this study was to document the longitudinal experiences of chaplains who served during both the early AIDS (1981–1995) and early COVID-19 (2020–2021) pandemics. A total of 11 hospital chaplains were interviewed across the USA and the United Kingdom. Interviews were analyzed using a Grounded theory approach. Chaplains reported multiple stressors during both pandemics, including barriers to integration into care teams, tensions with home religions institutions, burnout, and challenges arising from the politicization of disease. Despite these challenges, chaplains play a vital role during pandemics. Insights from their experiences can inform future strategies for compassionate crisis response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long covid (persistent COVID‐19) is a new disease with contested aetiology and variable prognosis. We report a 2‐year ethnography of UK long covid clinics. Using a preformative lens, we show that multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) built working knowledge based on shared practices, mutual trust, distributed cognition (e.g. emails, record entries), relational knowledge of what was at stake for the patient, and harnessing uncertainty to open new discursive spaces. Most long covid MDTs performed the working knowledge of 'rehabilitation', a linked set of practices oriented to ensuring that the patient understood and strove to 'correct' maladaptive physiological responses (e.g. through breathing exercises) and pursued recovery goals, supported by physiotherapists, psychologists and generalist clinicians. Some MDTs with a higher proportion of doctors (e.g. cardiologists, neurologists, immunologists) enacted the working knowledge of 'microscopic damage', seeking to elucidate and rectify long covid's underlying molecular and cellular pathology. They justified non‐standard investigations and medication in selected patients by co‐constructing an evidentiary narrative based on biological mechanisms. Working knowledge was ontologically concordant within MDTs but sometimes discordant between MDTs. Overt ontological conflict occurred mostly when patients attending 'rehabilitation' clinics invoked the working knowledge of microscopic damage that had been generated and circulated in online support communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Leaders are rewarded for delivering on policy pledges. Yet mobilisation strategies often depend on keeping issues and unsolved problems ‘alive’ for electoral purposes. What happens when these incentives collide has been subject to little attention. Drawing on the example of Brexit in the United Kingdom, this article examines the politics of issue-eclipsing pledges – scenarios in which policy pledges directly undercut mobilisation strategies. Brexit offers a good example of these tensions because the referendum vote called the bluff of decades-long Conservative efforts to instrumentalise EU membership for electoral gain. We show how issue-eclipsing pledges produce cyclical and path-dependent dynamics that tend towards radicalisation, as pledges of incumbent elites to guarantee policy delivery are vulnerable to the efforts of non-incumbents to re-interpret pledges and re-mobilise bases of electoral support. We illustrate these dynamics by narrating the interplay of reform pledges and re-mobilisation strategies encountered by successive UK governments since the 2016 referendum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conspiracy theories introduce a democratic paradox, as belief in conspiracy theories predicts support for both democratic and non‐democratic political systems. In this article, we explore whether democratic and anti‐democratic attitudes, resulting from conspiracy beliefs, can be mutually exclusive. In Study 1 (United Kingdom, N = 293), we show that belief in conspiracy theories is associated with decreased support for representative democracy, and increased support for direct democracy, anarchism, and autocracy within the same individuals. In Study 2 (United States, N = 302, pre‐registered), we experimentally show that the perceived presence of conspiracies is linked to an increased preference for direct democracy, anarchism, and autocracy and decreased support for representative democracy. Mediational analyses suggest that widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo and, less consistently, feelings of political cynicism mediate the relationships between conspiracy beliefs and (anti‐)democratic attitudes. In Study 3 (United States, N = 400, pre‐registered), we experimentally manipulate (dis)satisfaction with the status quo. Results indicate that rejecting the status quo increases support for direct democracy, anarchism, and autocracy and decreases support for representative democracy. Overall, our findings suggest that people who believe in conspiracy theories tend to favour both democratic and anti‐democratic political alternatives, largely attributed to citizens' desire to change the status quo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK state has been through many periods of perceived crisis, but the instability of the last decade has shaken some of the foundational institutions of British politics. Our main argument is that the rise of political instability relates to the failure of British politics to respond to structural inequality in society and politics. This includes growing economic and geographic disparities, as well as destabilizing divisions over long-standing social injustices. The infusion of these trends into the political process is the subject of the 'asymmetric power model (APM)', which acts as the theoretical underpinning of this paper and the special issue it introduces. In this editorial to the Parliamentary Affairs Special Issue on 'Instability and inequality in the British state', we elaborate these arguments and provide a brief overview of the eight papers in the issue, which cover the APM, the constitution, the UK Union, the Conservative Party, public policymaking, gender inequalities, intersectional inequalities, and geographical inequalities. Together, the papers identify the causes and features of the UK's troubling inequality-instability dialectic and offer various practical and theoretical ways forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The British Labour Party, after 14 years out of office, is grappling with a dynamic global strategic environment that has been transformed during that period. It has committed to a 'NATO-first' defence and security policy and presided over the United Kingdom's military pullback 'east of Suez' in the 1960s and 1970s, raising questions about the fate of the 'Indo-Pacific tilt' unveiled by the Conservative government three years ago. With its Strategic Defence Review and its first full budget, the new government has the opportunity to take ownership of the tilt. There may be synergies among capabilities that can add value in both the Euro-Atlantic and Asia-Pacific regions, in particular with respect to aircraft carriers, submarines and new fighter aircraft. The UK's paramount challenge is to achieve the right balance between integrated and sovereign capabilities so as to add value without overstretching limited resources or descending to mere tokenism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carefully standardized facial images of 591 participants were taken in the laboratory while controlling for self-presentation, facial expression, head orientation, and image properties. They were presented to human raters and a facial recognition algorithm: both humans (r =.21) and the algorithm (r =.22) could predict participants' scores on a political orientation scale (Cronbach's α =.94) decorrelated with age, gender, and ethnicity. These effects are on par with how well job interviews predict job success, or alcohol drives aggressiveness. The algorithm's predictive accuracy was even higher (r =.31) when it leveraged information on participants' age, gender, and ethnicity. Moreover, the associations between facial appearance and political orientation seem to generalize beyond our sample: The predictive model derived from standardized images (while controlling for age, gender, and ethnicity) could predict political orientation (r ≈.13) from naturalistic images of 3,401 politicians from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The analysis of facial features associated with political orientation revealed that conservatives tended to have larger lower faces. The predictability of political orientation from standardized images has critical implications for privacy, the regulation of facial recognition technology, and understanding the origins and consequences of political orientation. Public Significance Statement: We demonstrate that political orientation can be predicted from neutral facial images by both humans and algorithms, even when factors like age, gender, and ethnicity are accounted for. This indicates a connection between political leanings and inherent facial characteristics, which are largely beyond an individual's control. Our findings underscore the urgency for scholars, the public, and policymakers to recognize and address the potential risks of facial recognition technology to personal privacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses how and why the National Health Service (NHS) has remained at the forefront of British politics and society for 75 years amid significant economic pressures, organizational strain, shifting ideological trends, ongoing reforms, and an unprecedented public health emergency. The postwar "years of consensus" evolved into alleged decline and ostensible neglect during the 1980s, while New Labour sought to rejuvenate this core public service after 1997, featuring investment and often controversial reforms that challenged the party's social democratic values. Amid the New Labour era, NHS powers filtered down to devolved administrations, while from 2008 retrenchment and austerity ensued, fueled by global recession. Austerity eventually subsided, yet from early 2020 the NHS swiftly faced the extreme conditions of the globalized Covid-19 pandemic. The service continues to face challenges regarding its longer-term viability, and this article analyzes this scenario, within the context of the NHS's 75-year historical legacy, its contemporary status, comparative international trends, and likely future evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2024 UK General Election marked an important change in the politics of Northern Ireland as six different parties, and an independent, now hold Westminster seats. The decline of the DUP plays a key role in this with losses for the party in some of their safest seats. The backlash against the party had big ramifications, including the end of the Paisley dynasty and the loss of status as the largest Northern Irish party at Westminster. The election marked the return of the UUP to Parliament, a first seat for the TUV and saw Sinn Féin cement their position as the largest party at every level in Northern Ireland. This report examines the build-up to the elections, the battleground constituencies and the change in support for each major party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite predictions that liberal democracy was ascendent as a paradigm for governance in the contemporary era, the world has witnessed an alarming rise in authoritarian nationalism. A seeming preference for open and transparent models of plural democratic government has been challenged by the global advance of despotic and repressive regimes that are organized around racial, religious, and nationalist themes. Social work, grounded in the practice and pursuit of human rights, stands in stark contrast to authoritarian nationalism and is called to act through public diplomacy and soft power to counter emergent neo-fascism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In electoral contexts, mental health topics have recently attracted sociopolitical relevance, influenced by policy developments, election-related psychopathology and popular discourse about individual candidates. Yet, whether this reflects generalised trends or is contingent on election-specific and contextual factors remains difficult to ascertain. Aims: This study sought to examine correlations between Google Trends (GT) data on mental health and four national elections in the US and the UK from 2008 to 2020. This was intended to yield preliminary insights into the relevance of mental health topics amongst voters and the potential impact of electoral cycles on patterns of online engagement with these issues. Methods: Monthly and daily Search Volume Indexes (SVI) were gathered from the 'Mental Health' category on GT in the US and UK from 2008 to 2023. SVI were evaluated around the past four national ballots, comparing election-year intervals and baseline data from the preceding year. Statistical tests were conducted to assess SVI and short- and long-term dynamics. Findings: The results showed heterogeneous SVI patterns related to mental health during elections in the US and the UK. In the US, there were statistically significant SVI increases proximal to the majority of elections as compared to data in the same calendar year, but these did not typically exceed baseline SVI. However, interestingly, divisive US contests showed correlations with several elevated SVI measures in the same and previous years. Conversely, there was a lack of consistent longitudinal trends in UK elections, perhaps informed by its disparate sociopolitical landscape. Conclusions: These findings underline the composite relationship between electoral politics and popular engagement with mental health topics around national votes, suggesting that this is driven more by situational factors rather than a recurrent electoral effect or signs of burgeoning engagement. Detailed research is required to understand the nuances and causality behind these dynamics and their wider implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A popular form of neoliberal feminism seeks to advance gender equality in leadership and beyond by encouraging women to be resilient as individuals. By locating career advancement as within an individual's control, recent research has shown that this focus subtly shifts the blame for gender inequality onto women and reduces support for needed structural changes to tackle gender discrimination. We extend research into neoliberal feminism by examining anticipated negative effects on women's protest motivation. Across four studies in the United Kingdom (total N = 1,168), undergraduate women students and employed women with university degrees in both the control and resilience conditions first read about gender inequality. Participants in the neoliberal feminist conditions then read messages promoting individual resilience as key to women's advancement (Study 1–3) or participated in activities designed to build their own resilience as individuals to help them advance (Study 4). In Studies 1, 3, and 4, participants in the neoliberal feminist conditions compared to the control had lower collective action intentions – a negative effect that was either indirect, via reduced perceptions of gender discrimination (Studies 1 and 4) and reduced anger over inequality (Study 1), or direct (Study 3). Together, these studies provided partial support for our hypothesis that neoliberal feminism can undermine women's protest motivation. Future research can help establish how contextual and other factors contribute to the strength of these effects and explore how feminists can better harness messages of resilience. To advance gender equality, our findings suggest that advocates should focus less on individualistic solutions and more on addressing structural barriers, laying the groundwork for effective protest action and social change. Additional online materials for this article are available on PWQ's website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/03616843241238176. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are widespread concerns about the online harms to children operating online. As such, governments have enacted laws to require online service providers to deploy age verification to prevent such harms. We investigate the following three research questions regarding this topic: (1) To what extent have different governments legislated age verification controls? (2) Do governments embrace a responsibilization strategy when it comes to online age verification? and (3) How does the UK public feel about online age verification legislation? We find that governments are applying a responsibilization strategy, which has led to widespread deployment of privacy-invasive or ineffective age verification. The former violates the privacy of underage users, with the latter undermining the overarching aims of the legislation. We have also found general disengagement and a lack of trust in the government amongst the public with regards to new online age verification laws within the UK. To conclude, despite governments globally looking to put more robust online age verification mechanisms in place, there remains a general lack of privacy preservation and affordable technological solutions. Moreover, the overarching aims of the online safety and age verification legislative changes may not be satisfied due to the general public stakeholder group's disengagement and lack of trust in their government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By focusing on the experiences of employees living with coeliac disease as evidenced in UK employment tribunal cases, this paper interrogates the way practices of exclusion are performed in legal and organisational contexts that purport to promote values of inclusion. In paying attention to how differences are constructed and negotiated, the paper unpacks the way organisational practices mobilise an array of workplace mechanisms to produce complex dynamics of exclusion. Applying Laclau and Mouffe’s logics of equivalence and difference, we show how questionable impulses and practices emerge in a workplace environment characterised by unclarity and vagueness. One impulse, for example, involves privatising and individualising the condition of employees with coeliac disease, giving rise to patronising and stigmatising attitudes that can turn them into victims. However, we also identify workplace mechanisms countering these tendencies, which can underpin forms of collective support in the struggle for recognition. Our study thus contributes to the body of sociological literature that pays attention to health‐related workplace injustices by challenging the purported promotion of health‐based inclusion through a focus on tribunal cases, leading to suggestions for further research into the way medical conditions are theorised and ‘lived’ at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The author, who is Chair of Norfolk's Safeguarding Adults' Board (SAB) reflects on the impact of a Safeguarding Adults Review (SAR) and the actions that resulted. The purpose of the paper is to provide an insight into a significant SAR and the resulting actions desinged to change practice. Design/methodology/approach: The actions illuminate the power of hospitals and politicians over people's lives. It took the deaths of three young adults with learning disabilities, in a hospital, to move beyond the status quo and organise some very different service responses. Findings: "Progress summits" have considered local and national actions. There have been important gains and setbacks, including the delayed reform of the Mental Health Act. Despite uncertainties, SAB can be detonators to listening and taking action. Originality/value: This is a unique insight into the impact of a Safeguarding Adults Review and the actions that resulted from this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective nostalgia is an emotion experienced when one sentimentally recalls events or things related to a particular social identity. We investigated the relationship between collective nostalgia about the United Kingdom (UK) and UK citizens' desire to leave the European Union (EU). We collected data of UK citizens twice prior to the UK's official withdrawal from the European Union (N = 347 and N = 240) and once afterwards (N = 236). Cross‐sectional and longitudinal analysis, utilizing cross‐lagged panel models, supported the hypothesis that collective UK nostalgia increased the desire to leave the European Union. We additionally hypothesized that the relationship between these variables would be mediated positively by ties to UK citizens and negatively by ties to EU citizens. Exploratory and longitudinal analysis, however, indicated that strength of ties to UK and EU citizens predicts levels of collective UK nostalgia which, in turn, predicts desire to leave the European Union. Specifically, ties to UK citizens were associated with increased collective nostalgia and a desire to leave the EU and ties to EU citizens were associated with reduced collective nostalgia and a desire to re‐join the European Union. We discuss the implications of the findings as well as making suggestions for future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK has a fragmented, partial and weak system of lobbying regulation. The system creates a self-reinforcing cycle of 'exposure' and worsening public attitudes. In order to make the case for reform and indicate possible paths, this article reviews the system's faults and weaknesses and then analyses how the lack of political will for reform in Westminster has contributed to a transparency and integrity regime which falls below international standards. Finally, it examines how this cycle can be broken. While the UK lobbying law needs reform, we must look beyond the letter of regulation, taking into account the levels of use and political support, as well as the transparency and ethics ecosystem in which lobbying sits. Only by improvements to all of these areas can there be the possibility of stronger, more positive feedback loops, which can shift behaviour and, ultimately, attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why you should read this article: • To gain a greater understanding of key specialist nursing roles in children’s cardiology • To delve into the guidance and standards on nursing roles and competences in children’s cardiac services • To recognise the need for nursing teams to collaborate across congenital heart disease (CHD) networks. Background: Children’s cardiac nursing roles have changed over the past decade. Royal College of Nursing (RCN) guidance and NHS England standards have been published with the aim of standardising and enhancing nursing care for children and young people with congenital heart disease (CHD) and their families. Aim: To explore the breath of implementation of key nursing roles in children’s cardiac services across the UK and Ireland and to determine whether the roles met the RCN guidance and the NHS England standards. Method: A cross-sectional survey design was used. The 150 members of the Congenital Cardiac Nurses Association (CCNA) were invited via email to participate and were sent a link to an online survey. Findings: Of the 150 potential respondents, 31 completed the survey. Overall, respondents believed that the RCN guidance had been implemented effectively and that children’s cardiac nursing roles matched the RCN’s example job descriptions. Respondents’ comments suggested that implementation of the NHS England standards had been challenging and that progress in setting up key roles such as lead nurse, cardiac nurse educator and children’s cardiac nurse specialist had been slow. Respondents felt that political and financial factors adversely affected recruitment. Conclusion: Since publication of the NHS England standards there has been some progress in the implementation, in children’s cardiac services, of key nursing roles such as lead nurse and innovative nursing roles such as advanced nurse practitioner and research nurse. The findings of this study have informed the latest edition of the RCN guidance, which now includes the role of senior research nurse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When it comes to the relationship between social policy and penal policy, existing scholarship often focuses on the penal–welfare tradeoff, according to which countries with large and generous welfare states tend to have lower incarceration rates and less harsh treatment of offenders. We know much less about the relationship between the punitive turn in criminal justice and the use of discipline within social policy. Has there been a parallel trend of law-and-order policies and stricter benefit conditionality, a kind of 'criminalization' of welfare beneficiaries, as critical scholarship suggests? We test this idea for the first time with quantitative data, using public spending on public order and safety and unemployment benefit conditionality data for 18 rich democracies between 1990 and 2012, that is, the period when a punitive turn as well as the rise of activation and workfare is said to have taken place. Contrary to the critical literature, we do not find evidence of parallel trends toward more discipline in both areas, but rather a negative relationship of 'communicating vessels', where a greater use of disciplinary tools in social policy is associated with stagnating or even shrinking spending on police and prisons. Moreover, this pattern tends to emerge under conditions of higher welfare state generosity. These findings have important implications about the role of state 'discipline' in contemporary policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discourse of deservingness has been mobilised against certain groups in the UK society navigating UK labour markets, among them refugees and asylum seekers. These discourses, leading to the stigmatisation of the unemployed are coupled with an emphasis on the importance of individuals taking responsibility to develop their 'employability'. Little attention has been paid to scrutinise the contrast between the deservingness rhetoric and policy making with the actual conditions newcomers, and in particular refugees and asylum seekers, are confronted with when seeking employment. Our paper fills such a gap by indicating key contradictions at the heart of labour market integration in the UK. On the one hand, the emphasis on deservingness is coupled with policy discourses that construct an environment shaped by welfare and labour market chauvinism. On the other hand, the policy architecture is fundamentally flawed in a number of ways in terms of the support mechanisms necessary to ensure that newcomers can successfully integrate into the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines historical trends in health inequalities over the 20th and 21st centuries. Drawing on studies from the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, and Western Europe, it concludes that there is evidence of a u-shaped curve in (relative) health inequalities. These trends in health inequalities broadly parallel those identified by economists with regards to the u-shaped curve of income and wealth inequalities across the 20th and 21st centuries. The article argues that—as with income inequalities—health inequalities generally decreased across the twentieth century through to the early 1980s. They then started to increase and accelerated further from 2010, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. The article sets out four distinct policy periods that shaped the evolution of trends in health inequalities: the Interbellum Era, 1920–1950; the Trente Glorieuse, 1950–1980; Neoliberalism, 1980–2010; and the Crisis Age, 2010–present. The u-shaped curve of health inequalities over this period suggests that social policies, health care access, and political incorporation have driven changes over time. Taking this long view of changes in health inequalities emphasizes the importance of politics and policy for future health improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article, the author examines the role of critical social work in regard to the COVID-19 pandemic with reference to theory, practice and pedagogy. The author argues that the COVID-19 crisis was not only a crisis of public health but also an ideological crisis. In this context, the author explains that a combination of political theory and psychotherapy theory is necessary when treating individuals for whom the political–ideological space is central to their experience of distress. Such an integration, which is essential to critical social work, can exist when political theory and psychotherapy theory are treated as complementary theories that illuminate the human experience from different angles. Bereavement due to COVID-19-related loss is examined as a theoretical case study to explore the topics of the article alongside the concept of political psychotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In this article, we outline our views on the appropriateness and utility of Return on Investment (ROI) for the evaluation of the value of healthcare quality improvement (QI) programmes. Design/methodology/approach: Our recent research explored the ROI concept and became the genesis of our viewpoint. We reflect on our findings from an extensive research project on the concept of ROI, involving a multidisciplinary global systematic literature review, a qualitative and Delphi study with mental healthcare leaders from the United Kingdom National Health Service. Research participants included board members, clinical directors and QI leaders. Our findings led to our conclusions and interpretation of ROI against the broad QI governance. We discuss our views against the predominant governance frameworks and wider literature. Findings: ROI is in-line with top-down control governance frameworks based in politics and economics. However, there is evidence that to be of better utility, a tool for the assessment of the value of QI benefits must include comprehensive benefits that reflect broad monetary and non-monetary benefits. This is in-line with bottom-up and collaborative governance approaches. ROI has several challenges that may limit it as a QI governance tool. This is supported by wider literature on ROI, QI as well as modern governance theories and models. As such, we question whether ROI is the appropriate tool for QI governance. A more pragmatic governance framework that accommodates various healthcare objectives is advised. Practical implications: This article highlights some of the challenges in adopting ROI as a QI governance tool. We signal a need for the exploration of a suitable QI governance approach. Particularly, are healthcare leaders to be perceived as "agents", "stewards" or both. The evidence from our research and wider literature indicates that both are crucial. Better QI governance through an appropriate value assessment tool could improve clarity on QI value, and thus investment allocation decision-making. Constructive discussion about the utility and appropriateness of ROI in the evaluation of healthcare QI programmes may help safeguard investment in effective and efficient health systems. Originality/value: The article raises awareness of QI governance and encourages discussions about the challenges of using ROI as a tool for healthcare QI governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the growing literature on researcher reflexivity by broaching the often-ignored issue of religious positionalities within political science, as well as speaking to the methodological implications of researching religion more broadly. We present and compare two autoethnographic case studies of research on politico-religious conflict in Vietnam and Lebanon, exploring how a researcher's religiosity presents unique fieldwork challenges, opportunities and insights. We then discuss the ambivalence faced by religious researchers within the highly secularised academic environment, thus blurring the artificial dichotomy between 'the field' and the academy. Our reflections centre around three findings: (1) the importance of taking an intersectional approach which neither essentialises nor ignores religious aspects of positionality, whilst also being sensitive to spatial and temporal shifts in how they interact with a researcher's gender, ethnicity, class and other identifiers; (2) the opportunities and perils of a researcher's apparent religious common ground with participants (or lack thereof) in building rapport and negotiating a degree of insider status; and (3) the similarities and differences between suspicions of religious partialism during fieldwork and within academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Youth violence and knife crime is increasing dramatically, so much so it has been described as a global epidemic. The social, economic and political forces fuelling this rise mean that minority groups are particularly affected. Aim: This paper reviews the literature primarily from a UK perspective, and illustrates the disparate factors that are influencing the rise in youth violence and knife crime and illustrates the complexities of integrating the perspectives of different disciplines into coherent intervention strategies. Method: We conducted a systematic review of the literature that explores both the causes of increasing youth violence and knife crime as well as some of the interventions that have attempted to deal with the problem. Results: A complex interplay of social, economic, mental health and political factors underpin the increase in youth violence and knife crime. An uneasy tension exists between a traditional criminal justice system-based approach based upon deterrence and punishment, and a more liberal preventative model focusing on adolescent mental health. None of the interventions thus far have been particularly effective. Conclusion: Youth violence and knife crime is a global social issue that causes untold suffering to individuals, families and communities as well as fear that reverberates through society. Interventions have often been devised through the lens of particular disciplines or ideologies. Integrating these perspectives into a coherent approach that is actually effective demands greater co-operation, dialogue and mutual understanding between disciplines and agencies, as well as a robust framework for the evidence-based assessment of outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the UK a polarised and politicised discourse exists that attempts to pitch transgender identities in opposition to discourses on sexual orientations. This suggests that interventions assisting clients in their understanding of one, would be detrimental on exploration of the other i.e., to be affirming of gender identity is to cause conversion of sexuality and vice versa. This paper attempts to address some of the problems with this oppositional critique and solve some of the practical problems that the theorist and/or clinician may encounter while attempting to help their clients within the realm of psychological therapies. It does so through Deleuzian ontologies of difference, coupled with Bhaskarian critical realism. We aim to present a (re)consideration of the biopsychosocial model of Health. The recent publication of the International Classification of Diseases 11th Edition and its reclassification of trans aetiology as a Disorder of Sexual Development has presented a conceptual shift from gender dysphoria towards a gender incongruence model (WHO 2022). The aim of this article therefore is to develop practice by enhancing the conceptual toolbox of the clinician and therapist working with Gender Sex and Relationship Diversities (GSRD). Thereby enabling them to better approach a wider diversity of clients safely. This paper explores current conversations and ideas around the phenomenon of trans gender identities and minority orientations. It aims to present an ethical model which can inform the clinical practice of therapists and is underpinned by a critical realist interpretation of biological, psychological and sociological aspects of the mind and body. Overall, the paper acts as a call to action against conversion practices which aim to position trans experience and sexual attraction in opposition to each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research on party leader questioning in legislatures usually focuses on single case studies, less-than-ideal behaviours across leaders, and often post-election periods. Our article compares hostility and positivity in behaviours across three parliaments and, because of the COVID-19 crisis, across different time periods and modes of operation (live, hybrid, and online) while controlling for the same leaders. Using content analysis at the sentence level (N = 3554), our data contrast parliamentary leader hostility and positivity levels in the UK, Scottish, and Welsh Parliaments across three time periods: pre-COVID-19, initial, and lockdown COVID-19. Findings for positivity are mixed, but for hostility, we find that while the initial shock of the COVID-19 crisis suppressed hostility, Westminster has higher ratios of hostility across all three time periods, and that format of operation has little effect on behaviour. Findings suggest less hostility in Scotland and Wales than in Westminster adding possible weight to 'new politics' arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Welfare chauvinism, that is, the exclusion of non-citizens who live permanently within a state from social benefits and services, has become a mainstream form of welfare policy opposition advocated by some political parties and members of the public. While existing studies have successfully cast a light on the roots and scope of these policies, welfare chauvinism effectively encompasses a wide range of ideas that all have different meanings. Drawing on the stances taken by populist radical right parties, this article introduces five categories (or frames) of welfare chauvinism: temporary, selective, functional, cultural and, in its most extreme form, unconditional chauvinism. The article then illustrates how such categorization is applied empirically by focusing on the stances taken by three populist radical right parties and open-ended discussions held during mini-publics in examples of three different institutional forms of welfare state: Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom. This article offers a more precise depiction of how this form of opposition to welfare state policies plays out in the public sphere, taking full account of how different forms and frames of welfare chauvinism yield different policy outcomes and implications in different institutional and political contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers news briefs related to dental field as of May 1, 2024. Topics include a trial demonstrating the effectiveness of an alcohol reduction app in reducing drinking, parliamentary support for raising tobacco sale age, and research highlighting potential risks of moderate alcohol consumption during pregnancy leading to birth defects.

Sinoscepticism is on the rise in British politics. Why is this? And what are the implications? This article shows that Sinoscepticism is not solely a result of the whims of MPs, but also stems from deep‐rooted tensions surrounding Britain's position in global order. Specifically, the British state finds itself on the horns of a dilemma: accept the status quo of staying economically open to China, but face staunch criticism and reprisals both internationally and domestically; or become more hawkish in relations, but risk worsening Britain's imbalanced and underperforming economy. Considering the Conservative Party's longstanding commitment to both the 'special relationship' with the US and to business and finance, this predicament is likely to provoke the party. The dilemma is seemingly about relations with one country, but, like Euroscepticism, it has the potential to become a stand‐in for debates over what sort of country the UK should be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The net zero transition requires concurrent and rapid decarbonisation in five major consumption‐production systems—transport, housing, industry, food and power. These systems differ in their public visibility and institutional makeup, as well as in their technologies. Transition politics needs dexterity to facilitate transformation of these multiple systems. Yet, there remain big contrasts in the rate of change of different systems. These are shown by the variation in the fulfilment of the 2020 system targets which were set in the 2009 UK Low Carbon Transition Plan. Comparison of the transition pathways of renewable electricity production and home insulation indicates that current UK net zero transition politics is poorly suited to the transformation of household energy use. A more proactive state and wider public participation are needed for a more effective place‐based approach. Environmental activism and populist backlash have focused attention on everyday transformative change. A new type of transition politics which engages with multiple systems is needed to rise to this urgent climate challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has established that the success of strikes, and social movements more broadly, depends on their ability to garner support from the public. However, there is scant published research investigating the response of the public to strike action by healthcare workers. In this study, we address this gap through a study of public responses to UK nursing strikes in 2022–2023, using a data set drawn from Twitter of more than 2300 publicly available tweets. We focus on negative tweets, investigating which societal discourses social media users draw on to oppose strike action by nurses. Using a combination of corpus‐based approaches and discourse analysis, we identified five categories of opposition: (i) discourse discrediting nurses; (ii) discourse discrediting strikes by nurses; (iii) discourse on the National Health System; (iv) discourse about the fairness of strikers' demands and (v) discourse about potential harmful impact. Our findings show how social media users operationalise wider societal discourses about the nursing profession (e.g., associations with care, gender, vocation and sacrifice) as well as recent crises such as the Covid‐19 pandemic to justify their opposition. The results also provide valuable insights into misconceptions about nursing, strike action and patient harm, which can inform strategies for public communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments have adopted unprecedented measures to assist in slowing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, but compliance varies among individuals. This UK study uses latent profile analysis to identify four classes of individuals on factors believed to influence compliance. Those who sought health information from authoritative sources and actively sought information from multiple sources were most compliant. Profile differences in compliance and vaccination status were also primarily driven by trust in healthcare institutions over trust in government. These findings contribute to understanding compliance profiles and emphasise the importance of authoritative information and trust in healthcare systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to critically examine the effects of COVID-19 social discourses and policy decisions specifically on older adult volunteers in the UK, comparing the responses and their effects in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, providing perspectives on effects of policy changes designed to reduce risk of infection as a result of COVID-19, specifically on volunteer involvement of and for older adults, and understand, from the perspectives of volunteer managers, how COVID-19 restrictions had impacted older people's volunteering and situating this within statutory public health policies. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses a critical discourse approach to explore, compare and contrast accounts of volunteering of and for older people in policy, and then compare the discourses within policy documents with the discourses in personal accounts of volunteering in health and social care settings in the four nations of the UK. This paper is co-produced in collaboration with co-authors who have direct experience with volunteer involvement responses and their impact on older people. Findings: The prevailing overall policy approach during the pandemic was that risk of morbidity and mortality to older people was too high to permit them to participate in volunteering activities. Disenfranchising of older people, as exemplified in volunteer involvement, was remarkably uniform across the four nations of the UK. However, the authors find that despite, rather than because of policy changes, older volunteers, as part of, or with the help of, volunteer involving organisations, are taking time to think and to reconsider their involvement and are renewing their volunteer involvement with associated health benefits. Research limitations/implications: Working with participants as co-authors helps to ensure the credibility of results in that there was agreement in the themes identified and the conclusions. A limitation of this study lies in the sampling method, as a convenience sample was used and there is only representation from one organisation in each of the four nations. Originality/value: The paper combines existing knowledge about volunteer involvement of and for older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interdisciplinary collaboration fuels research innovation and funders are increasingly offering long-term grants prioritising partnerships. However, a gap remains regarding the effective development, evaluatation, and sustainment of research partnerships; particularly those supporting marginalised populations like sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY). There is a concomitant need to expand research internationally to cross-culturally conceptualise SGMY's experiences, which information and communication technologies (ICTs) may facilitate. The International Partnership for Queer Youth Resilience (INQYR) is a research consortium comprising over 40 academic and community representatives investigating and addressing issues faced by SGMY in Canada, the United Kingdom (UK), United States of America (USA), and Mexico from an interdisciplinary perspective by: (a) conducting and disseminating interventions and exploratory research on SGMY's ICT use, and (b) training cohorts of SGMY scholars and practitioners. This article details INQYR's rationale and formation, including its objectives and organisational framework. Facilitators and barriers are discussed through reflection on INQYR's first operational phase from 2018–2021, considering collaboration with diverse stakeholders and settings; shared goals; language and technology barriers; personal and workload barriers; infrastructure; and power and historical tensions. Implications for other research partnerships and concrete tools such as author guidelines for large-scale research partnership formation, operation, and evaluation are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most people are familiar with claims concerning entire generations. Whether used to praise the legacy of past generations or to protect posterity, the emphasis on generational aspects is common in the realm of politics. Regardless of their prevalence, generations are rarely studied from a conceptual perspective. This article both demonstrates the need to place more emphasis on generational concepts and proposes a theoretical approach for doing so. By discussing mid-eighteenth-century British petitions, it demonstrates how historical actors operationalized generational concepts (generation, ancestor, forefather, posterity, and descendant) in practice. As a conclusion, the article suggests that their uses are best understood through Michael Saward's notion of representative claim-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the neglect of race and racism in the discipline of British politics. I outline why this has happened, the consequences of such neglect and how it might be remedied. The article proceeds in four stages: First, it makes the case that British politics has neglected race and racism. I do this by showing that race does not feature within the core concerns of the discipline, and that despite the fact that race may be noted in the relationship between demography and representation, its status as a social construct is not addressed. Second, the article explores the question of disciplinary reflexivity. Drawing on Emirbayer and Desmond's (2012) racial reflexivity framework, I delineate the disciplinary and scholastic unconscious of British politics, showing that the reliance on the Westminster Model obscures questions of race. Next, the article discusses the Sewell Report (2021), explicating its post-racism narrative, and draws parallels between the findings of the report and the study of British politics. The final section of the article outlines a framework for a British politics of race. The framework draws on critical race theory, and Britain's imperial history of colonialism and empire-building and thus puts the study of race at the centre of the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diets deficient in fibre are reported globally. The associated health risks of insufficient dietary fibre are sufficiently grave to necessitate large-scale interventions to increase population intake levels. The Danish Whole Grain Partnership (DWP) is a public–private enterprise model that successfully augmented whole-grain intake in the Danish population. The potential transferability of the DWP model to Slovenia, Romania and Bosnia-Herzegovina has recently been explored. Here, we outline the feasibility of adopting the approach in the UK. Drawing on the collaborative experience of DWP partners, academics from the Healthy Soil, Healthy Food, Healthy People (H3) project and food industry representatives (Food and Drink Federation), this article examines the transferability of the DWP approach to increase whole grain and/or fibre intake in the UK. Specific consideration is given to the UK's political, regulatory and socio-economic context. We note key political, regulatory, social and cultural challenges to transferring the success of DWP to the UK, highlighting the particular challenge of increasing fibre consumption among low socio-economic status groups – which were also most resistant to interventions in Denmark. Wholesale transfer of the DWP model to the UK is considered unlikely given the absence of the key 'success factors' present in Denmark. However, the DWP provides a template against which a UK-centric approach can be developed. In the absence of a clear regulatory context for whole grain in the UK, fibre should be prioritised and public–private partnerships supported to increase the availability and acceptability of fibre-rich foods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agnogenic practices—designed to create ignorance or doubt—are well-established strategies employed by health-harming industries (HHI). However, little is known about their use by industry-funded organizations delivering youth education programmes. We applied a previously published framework of corporate agnogenic practices to analyse how these organizations used them in three UK gambling industry-funded youth education programmes. Evidential strategies adopted previously by other HHI are prominent in the programmes' practitioner-facing materials, evaluation design and reporting and in public statements about the programmes. We show how agnogenic practices are employed to portray these youth education programmes as 'evidence-based' and 'evaluation-led'. These practices distort the already limited evidence on these educational initiatives while legitimizing industry-favourable policies, which prioritize commercial interests over public health. Given the similarities in political strategies adopted by different industries, these findings are relevant to research and policy on other HHI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How liberal governments manage knowledge, ignorance, prediction and uncertainty has attracted increased attention across the social sciences. In this paper, we analyse the strategy and rhetoric of the UK government during the COVID-19 pandemic, with particular attention to the first half of 2020. We see the initial UK policy response – as well as its later legitimation – as a form of 'politics of impossibility', effecting political change through claims of incapacity or impotence. We argue this approach departs from the uses of knowledge and ignorance in both classical liberalism and neoliberalism, and suggests the emergence of a new, hybrid form of governance which can be dubbed liberal fatalism. We discuss the relevance of this new form of governance for political futures of an increasingly volatile world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID‐19 pandemic has had both a psychological and physiological effect on the human race. For those working in health care, particularly in critical care, the pandemic has put unprecedented strain on staff. Witnessing suffering during crisis in an organizational setting can be a traumatic experience and critical care nurses often risked, not only their own lives, but their psychological well‐being, so that those infected with the virus might have a better chance at survival. Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the challenges to mental health and psychological well‐being experienced by Critical Care Nurses during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Study Design: A longitudinal, qualitative study involving semi‐structured interviews with 54 critical care nurses across 38 hospitals in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Four key themes were identified which represent the challenges faces by critical care nurses during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Lack of control, Psychological trauma, Unexpected leadership, Public‐political betrayal. Conclusions: While public‐political praise may lead to a short‐term lift in morale for front line workers; where it is not accompanied by practical support in terms of appropriate equipment, leadership, emotional support and renumeration it is likely to be damaging in the longer term. Relevance to Clinical Practice: This study has provided a greater understanding of the factors which affected the well‐being and mental health of critical care nurses during a global pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational identification underpins a range of important outcomes in the workplace, including workers' well‐being. Drawing on the social identity approach to health (SIAH), here we explore whether certain organizational forms—specifically, organizational decentralization—can boost organizational identification and, in this way, employee well‐being. We test this possibility in four high‐powered samples of workers in the UK, US and Italy (N total = 1960). Results confirm that workers are more likely to identify with an organization when they perceive power to be decentralized. Importantly, we find the expected indirect effects between increased decentralization perceptions and ratings of improved well‐being (including job satisfaction, work engagement and reduced burnout) through organizational identification. These results were consistent across samples, proving the generality of the findings across different cultural contexts. Empirical and practical implications of shared decision‐making power to increase workers' well‐being are discussed. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employment subsidies are important active labour market policy (ALMP) tools, suited to a variety of labour market challenges. This paper engages with recent ALMP categorisation debates by appraising Cronert's (2019) recent typology of employment subsidies. It uses empirical material to assess the typology's explanatory power and produce insights to inform further typological development. The illustrative case of the British ' Wage Incentive' (2012-2014) is used to assess the typology's analytical purchase. Cronert's typology helpfully identifies key distinctions in the distributional profiles of employment subsidies, but further understanding of the category is impeded by the practice of defining them as demand-side interventions. The paper argues for a reappraisal of their supply-side characteristics, maintaining that the (potential) worker should be included in the analysis, and that employment subsidies' relationship with training and job creation should be acknowledged. It proposes a redefinition of employment subsidies reflecting their real-world use, and suggests a framework for further exploring varieties of employment subsidy design from the perspective of beneficiaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]