The government of Keir Starmer wants to enhance public access to the countryside. Previous Labour administrations have passed significant leglislation on this subject, and ministers and officials need to be aware of the lessons of these earlier initiatives. Glen O'Hara argues that these lessons from history include the importance of patience, story-telling, a sense of the local, an emphasis of positive rather than negative rights and the mobilisation of civic society.
The Labour Government's plans for breakfast clubs are just the latest stage in a history of the state feeding children at school which stretches back for over a century. Policy in this area has been prompted by a far wider range of motivations than simply an altruistic concern for children's health, and debates about state-intervention have inevitably become politicised. John Stewart points to the importance of viewing new initiatives within the context of broader policies designed to tackle the structural problem of child problem, one that has proved depressingly persistent.
Both progressives and conservatives might identify short-term opportunities in two recent rulings by the US Supreme Court. While their effect was to restrain the Biden presidency, they could equally be invoked in the future in opposition to Trump. But as Richard J Lazarus argues, the rulings themselves risk depriving the executive branch of government of the authority it needs.
How should the government of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer approach US-UK relations in the light of the recent electoral victory of Donald Trump? Dr Sam Edwards argues that despite the president-elect’s famously ‘transactional’ nature, British diplomats might still find the ceremony and ritual of ‘memory diplomacy’ useful. He also outlines a potential long term diplomatic strategy for the UK government based on the continued importance to the US military of British real estate, a careful diplomatic pivot to Europe, and keen attention to the likely future leadership of the Republicans.
Dame Judith Hackitt, who chaired the Health & Safety Executive from 2007 to 2016, reflects on the conference History and Policy's Trades Union and Employment Forum will be hosting on 25 November on the history of health and safety at work.
On Friday 7 June, St John’s College, Cambridge hosted a special colloquium entitled ‘Health and Wealth: debating demography, gender, politics, welfare and policy’ to mark the retirement of one of History & Policy’s co-founders, Professor Simon Szreter.
H&P is working in partnership with the Prime Minister's Office and the National Archives to help revitalise the history content of the new History of Government Blog website.
H&P commissions and edits the No. 10 Guest Historian series, written by expert historians from the H&P network, as well as creating lively new biographies of previous Prime Ministers.
H&P is based at the Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, University of London.
We are the only project in the UK providing access to an international network of more than 500 historians with a broad range of expertise. H&P offers a range of resources for historians, policy makers and journalists.
