Dr Igor Baranov and Dr Michael Weatherburn consider the history of consulting. This suggests that ethical scrutiny usually follows scandal. That is too late. The paper argues that if consulting is now part of the infrastructure through which companies and states make decisions, its ethics must be built into ordinary governance, not rediscovered after each crisis.

Responses to the death of Evelyn Fuller in 1938 point to a long history of public debate around mental health, suicide and assisted dying. Policy makers need to pay attention to that history in order to devise policies that address the social conditions that make some women especially vulnerable to taking their own lives.

Professor David Green argues that the repeal of the 1824 Vagrancy Act in June 2026 was long overdue. Social attitudes to begging and rough sleeping have changed considerably in recent decades. But poverty continues to be one of the most pressing issues of our time.

Unlike Scotland and Northern Ireland, the authorities in England and Wales have never carried out a thorough historical inquiry into the standard of care for children and young people with long-term healthcare needs. Helen Parker-Drabble argues that this is long overdue.

The former leader of the Green Party, Natalie Bennett (Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle) will be among the distinguished speakers at a conference on 5 November organised by History & Policy’s Trades Union and Employment Forum.

Dr Jim Moher has written this account of the special panel discussion convened by the History & Policy Trades Union and Employment Forum at the IHR on 29 April 2026 to launch Jonathan Schneer’s Nine Days in May: the General Strike of 1926.