Category: Analysis

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Kate McNicholas Smith, Senior Lecturer in Screen, University of Westminster

In October 2025, singer-songwriter Lily Allen released her fifth studio album, West End Girl, to great critical acclaim and commercial success. When she announced an album tour, the first dates sold out in just 20 minutes.

Described by the Guardian as “a gobsmacking autopsy of marital betrayal”, West End Girl is a work of “autofiction”, inspired by Allen’s separation from Stranger Things actor David Harbour, his reported affair and the emotional aftermath.

The concept album documents a relationship and its breakdown from Allen’s perspective (or that of her creative “alter ego”). The singer told Vogue that West End Girl refers to things “I experienced within my marriage, but that’s not to say that it’s all gospel.” So far, Harbour has declined to comment or address the issue.

The title track takes us back to what appears to be the couple’s move to a New York brownstone, before the singer is offered the lead role in a London play (when, she reveals, her partner’s demeanour starts to change).

The reference to the brownstone recalls the couple’s 2023 Architectural Digest video (below) featuring their home. Listeners were quick to return to that video in the wake of the album’s release, retrospectively identifying red flags in the couple’s dynamic and what is said to be Harbour’s “toxic” banter. One commentator quipped: “Harbour really made a trailer for his own cheating scandal during the first 20 seconds.”

With Allen and Harbour both well-known figures, it is unsurprising that the revealing album has captured public attention. But this interest goes beyond celebrity gossip: the album has resonated with audiences for its raw contemplation of contemporary heterosexuality.

In track three, Sleepwalking, Allen asks: “Who said romance isn’t dead?” The album’s evocative storytelling skewers the distinctly unromantic experience of a “modern wife”, navigating the conventional dichotomy of women as madonna or whore while reluctantly attempting an open marriage.

While ethical non-monogamy emphasises consent and boundaries, the reported terms of the couple’s arrangement – to be discreet, only with strangers and involving payment – are broken with the now-infamous “Madeline”, a woman referred to in a song of the same name, who is not a stranger. Though the real identity of Madeline was later revealed in the media, Allen had said she was a fictional character.

Meanwhile, the track Dallas Major documents the singer’s re-entry into the world of online dating as a 40-year-old mum to teenage children. “I hate it here,” she states unequivocally.

Over it

Just five days after the release of West End Girl, social commentator Chanté Joseph published a piece in Vogue asking: “Is having a boyfriend embarrassing now?”. The article, which quickly went viral, describes a distancing from public declarations of coupledom in what Joseph calls an era of widespread heterofatalism. Just a few months earlier, an article in The New York Times Magazine used the same concept to bemoan “the trouble with wanting men”.

The term heterofatalism was coined by writer Asa Seresin (initially as heteropessimism) in 2019 to refer to “performative disaffiliations with heterosexuality, usually expressed in the form of regret, embarrassment or hopelessness about straight experience”.

In other words, heterosexual women are expressing dissatisfaction with the ways in which, despite longstanding feminist critiques, gender inequalities persist in romantic relationships. Such expressions might be performative, Seresin suggests, in that they do not lead to change but rather to resignation.

Reasons for disappointment are backed up by data. Research shows, for example, that women do more unpaid care work than men, resulting in time poverty. In the UK, the Office for National Statistics’ analysis of time use data shows that women do more than double the amount of cooking, childcare and housework than men. The COVID pandemic only deepened these existing inequalities.

Domestic abuse remains shockingly common, and disproportionately affects women. According to Refuge, one in four women in England and Wales will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime.

Meanwhile, the rise of the manosphere has seen a proliferation of online misogyny, with concerning implications for romantic relationships. Such platforms are directly referenced in the song 4chan Stan, where Allen invokes the anonymous online forum associated with a troubling incidence of hate speech.

Into this context, social media movements like #boysober have emerged, where women pledge themselves to “no dating apps, no dates, no exes, no hookups”. In South Korea, the 4b movement sees young women similarly rejecting marriage, childbirth, dating and sex – a sentiment taken up by some US women following the re-election of Donald Trump as president in 2024.

While distinctly contemporary in their communication, these sentiments also evoke older ideas – such as the political lesbianism once proposed by second-wave radical feminists. Like political lesbianism, the 4b movement has been critiqued for trans-exclusionary ideas.

Back in 2013, Allen released the single Hard Out Here. The song critiqued the objectification of women within modern pop culture, but the music video objectified women of colour women and was described by cultural critic Cate Young as “a brilliant example of everything wrong with the current climate of white feminism”. Allen apologised for the video in 2016.

Heterofatalism can be similarly limited in its response to gender inequality, failing to recognise intersectionality – the way that different aspects of someone’s experience and identity can overlap to exacerbate inequalities and discrimination.

Nonetheless, these expressions of dissatisfaction might challenge the assumed inevitability of heterosexuality and the gender inequality it all too often reproduces. West End Girl ends on a defiant note, refusing “shame” and recognising “it’s not me, it’s you”.

While the cheating husband might remain “stuck” in his “fruityloop” of heteronormativity and toxic masculinity, for the singer – and those with whom her story resonates – there may be other possibilities.

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Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

---

Kate McNicholas Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Lily Allen’s West End Girl reflects the idea that women are becoming increasingly disaffected with men – https://theconversation.com/lily-allens-west-end-girl-reflects-the-idea-that-women-are-becoming-increasingly-disaffected-with-men-271864

Source: The Conversation – UK – By James Hay, Research Fellow, Infectious Diseases Modelling, University of Oxford

The NHS is facing severe pressure this winter as flu cases surge earlier than usual, with some calling it “super flu”. Here’s what you need to know about this year’s flu season and how to protect yourself.

What is ‘super flu’?

Professor Meghana Pandit, NHS national medical director, said: “With record demand for A&E and ambulances and an impending resident doctors strike, this unprecedented wave of super flu is leaving the NHS facing a worst-case scenario for this time of year.”

Although this term has now been repeated frequently in the media, it was not intended as a new scientific designation. Although the flu season began early, both the spread of the virus and the severity of illness remain within what experts consider normal for a flu season.

Influenza viruses are constantly evolving to evade our immune system, which is why the flu vaccine must be updated regularly. Some years the virus mutates more than others, and it typically undergoes a major change every four to five years.

The “subtype” of flu that is dominant this year, called influenza A/H3N2, has been around since 1968 and there have been over a dozen such changes in that time. By this definition, we see “super flu” every few years.

Is the situation in the UK really as bad as some headlines suggest?

The situation isn’t unprecedented – it falls within the range of what scientists would expect in a bad flu season.

Because the season started early, it is misleading to directly compare the number of cases and hospitalisations to the same week in previous years. In fact, the situation is comparable to previous years after taking the early season start into account, as a recent analysis my colleagues and I conducted shows.

Which areas of the UK are worst affected?

The most important consideration from a public health perspective is the burden on healthcare systems in different regions, which is determined by what the virus is doing and what resources are available in those regions.

The available data only provides general infection trends at regional levels. England’s influenza season started earlier than in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, so we might expect the situation to turn earlier in England than elsewhere.

Based on the data for England from the UK Health Security Agency, the north and the Midlands are possibly experiencing higher flu rates – but not significantly so.

Why are we seeing more flu cases in younger people?

Children and teens are more likely to get infected due to their high contact rates in schools, where a lot of spread happens, and also because their immune systems are less experienced at dealing with flu viruses.

Adults are less likely to become infected overall, as they typically have lower contact rates and their immune systems have more experience with influenza. However, people over 64 are more likely to have existing health conditions that put them at higher risk of severe illness if they do become infected, and their immune systems have started to weaken in a process called immunosenescence.

Babies are also at greater risk of severe illness as their immune systems are still undeveloped.

People of a similar age tend to have been infected with similar flu viruses, which might explain why certain age groups are more affected by flu than others in some seasons. It might be that the virus this year happens to have found an immunity gap in children that isn’t present in other age groups.

Vaccine effectiveness is lower for older people, so should they still get the jab?

The latest data shows that the flu vaccine reduces the risk of being hospitalised with flu by about 30 to 40% in older people. That’s lower than vaccines against some other viruses, but similar to previous years for flu.

The recommendations this year are therefore unchanged: vaccination is still the best thing you can do to protect yourself and help reduce the burden on the NHS.

Why does the vaccine have different effectiveness in different age groups?

This season’s vaccines are offering effective protection against severe flu. Children are around 70 to 75% less likely to attend or be admitted to hospital with flu if vaccinated, and, as mentioned above, adults are around 30 to 40% less likely to attend or be admitted.

Children are offered a nasal spray, whereas adults are given an injection. Studies have shown that the nasal spray vaccine works better in children and less well in adults, which is why the recommendations are different. So one reason for the difference is that we are comparing estimates from different vaccines as well as different age groups.

Another reason is differences in existing immunity. Adults have already been exposed to many flu viruses over their lives, so the incremental gain of one extra vaccine is probably smaller – but still beneficial – than for a child.

What should I do if I think I’ve caught it: call 111, stay home, or go to A&E?

Stay home if you are sick, rest, and take sensible precautions to avoid spreading the virus to others. Getting influenza is very unpleasant, but everyone will get it roughly once every five years. In the vast majority of cases, people get better on their own, without any medical treatment.

Are there test kits (lateral flow) I can buy at the pharmacy, as there were for COVID?

Yes, very similar tests exist for the flu and you can buy these at pharmacies and online. Although it’s interesting to know if it’s influenza or some other virus that is making you sick, if you have flu symptoms the advice is the same regardless of which virus caused it.

Is it too late to get the vaccine – given that it takes two weeks for the vaccine to properly kick in?

No, it’s not too late, and the sooner the better! Even after the epidemic has peaked, it will take a few months before cases reach low levels again. There is still a risk of infection in that time, so any extra protection from the vaccine is still helpful.

James Hay receives funding from the Wellcome Trust (grant 225001/Z/22/Z).

– ref. What is super flu? And other questions answered – https://theconversation.com/what-is-super-flu-and-other-questions-answered-271959

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Kate McNicholas Smith, Senior Lecturer in Screen, University of Westminster

In October 2025, singer-songwriter Lily Allen released her fifth studio album, West End Girl, to great critical acclaim and commercial success. When she announced an album tour, the first dates sold out in just 20 minutes.

Described by the Guardian as “a gobsmacking autopsy of marital betrayal”, West End Girl is a work of “autofiction”, inspired by Allen’s separation from Stranger Things actor David Harbour, his reported affair and the emotional aftermath.

The concept album documents a relationship and its breakdown from Allen’s perspective (or that of her creative “alter ego”). The singer told Vogue that West End Girl refers to things “I experienced within my marriage, but that’s not to say that it’s all gospel.” So far, Harbour has declined to comment or address the issue.

The title track takes us back to what appears to be the couple’s move to a New York brownstone, before the singer is offered the lead role in a London play (when, she reveals, her partner’s demeanour starts to change).

The reference to the brownstone recalls the couple’s 2023 Architectural Digest video (below) featuring their home. Listeners were quick to return to that video in the wake of the album’s release, retrospectively identifying red flags in the couple’s dynamic and what is said to be Harbour’s “toxic” banter. One commentator quipped: “Harbour really made a trailer for his own cheating scandal during the first 20 seconds.”

With Allen and Harbour both well-known figures, it is unsurprising that the revealing album has captured public attention. But this interest goes beyond celebrity gossip: the album has resonated with audiences for its raw contemplation of contemporary heterosexuality.

In track three, Sleepwalking, Allen asks: “Who said romance isn’t dead?” The album’s evocative storytelling skewers the distinctly unromantic experience of a “modern wife”, navigating the conventional dichotomy of women as madonna or whore while reluctantly attempting an open marriage.

While ethical non-monogamy emphasises consent and boundaries, the reported terms of the couple’s arrangement – to be discreet, only with strangers and involving payment – are broken with the now-infamous “Madeline”, a woman referred to in a song of the same name, who is not a stranger. Though the real identity of Madeline was later revealed in the media, Allen had said she was a fictional character.

Meanwhile, the track Dallas Major documents the singer’s re-entry into the world of online dating as a 40-year-old mum to teenage children. “I hate it here,” she states unequivocally.

Over it

Just five days after the release of West End Girl, social commentator Chanté Joseph published a piece in Vogue asking: “Is having a boyfriend embarrassing now?”. The article, which quickly went viral, describes a distancing from public declarations of coupledom in what Joseph calls an era of widespread heterofatalism. Just a few months earlier, an article in The New York Times Magazine used the same concept to bemoan “the trouble with wanting men”.

The term heterofatalism was coined by writer Asa Seresin (initially as heteropessimism) in 2019 to refer to “performative disaffiliations with heterosexuality, usually expressed in the form of regret, embarrassment or hopelessness about straight experience”.

In other words, heterosexual women are expressing dissatisfaction with the ways in which, despite longstanding feminist critiques, gender inequalities persist in romantic relationships. Such expressions might be performative, Seresin suggests, in that they do not lead to change but rather to resignation.

Reasons for disappointment are backed up by data. Research shows, for example, that women do more unpaid care work than men, resulting in time poverty. In the UK, the Office for National Statistics’ analysis of time use data shows that women do more than double the amount of cooking, childcare and housework than men. The COVID pandemic only deepened these existing inequalities.

Domestic abuse remains shockingly common, and disproportionately affects women. According to Refuge, one in four women in England and Wales will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime.

Meanwhile, the rise of the manosphere has seen a proliferation of online misogyny, with concerning implications for romantic relationships. Such platforms are directly referenced in the song 4chan Stan, where Allen invokes the anonymous online forum associated with a troubling incidence of hate speech.

Into this context, social media movements like #boysober have emerged, where women pledge themselves to “no dating apps, no dates, no exes, no hookups”. In South Korea, the 4b movement sees young women similarly rejecting marriage, childbirth, dating and sex – a sentiment taken up by some US women following the re-election of Donald Trump as president in 2024.

While distinctly contemporary in their communication, these sentiments also evoke older ideas – such as the political lesbianism once proposed by second-wave radical feminists. Like political lesbianism, the 4b movement has been critiqued for trans-exclusionary ideas.

Back in 2013, Allen released the single Hard Out Here. The song critiqued the objectification of women within modern pop culture, but the music video objectified women of colour women and was described by cultural critic Cate Young as “a brilliant example of everything wrong with the current climate of white feminism”. Allen apologised for the video in 2016.

Heterofatalism can be similarly limited in its response to gender inequality, failing to recognise intersectionality – the way that different aspects of someone’s experience and identity can overlap to exacerbate inequalities and discrimination.

Nonetheless, these expressions of dissatisfaction might challenge the assumed inevitability of heterosexuality and the gender inequality it all too often reproduces. West End Girl ends on a defiant note, refusing “shame” and recognising “it’s not me, it’s you”.

While the cheating husband might remain “stuck” in his “fruityloop” of heteronormativity and toxic masculinity, for the singer – and those with whom her story resonates – there may be other possibilities.

---

Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

---

Kate McNicholas Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Lily Allen’s West End Girl reflects the idea women are becoming increasingly disaffected with men – https://theconversation.com/lily-allens-west-end-girl-reflects-the-idea-women-are-becoming-increasingly-disaffected-with-men-271864

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jagannadha Pawan Tamvada, Professor of Entrepreneurship, Kingston University

Many businesses in the UK saw the 2025 budget as a tightening of the screw in a period of already difficult conditions. While the government insists it is not raising taxes on companies overall, disquiet among businesses could have an impact on jobs, wages and the wider economy.

It’s true that corporation tax (paid by businesses on their profits) will stay at 25%. But other moves are coming. From April 2026, changes to tax allowances that companies can claim on plant and machinery are expected to increase the tax take by more than £1 billion in the first year.

Things such as equipment, vehicles and office fixtures qualify for this allowance, and it means businesses can reduce their tax bill as the value of their assets depreciates. This allowance will fall from 18% to 14% in 2026.

And hospitality and retail firms have complained that changes to business rates (levied on commercial premises) could raise their annual costs by tens of thousands of pounds.

The reduction of income-tax relief for venture capital trusts (VCTs) risks making it costlier for young ambitious businesses to secure money from venture capitalists to help them grow. Tax relief for VCTs will now fall from 30% to 20%, meaning some may choose to back less risky ventures.

And from 2029, national insurance exemptions on salary-sacrificed pension contributions will be capped. This will affect nearly 290,000 employers and act as an ongoing cost increase for firms that use these schemes.

The problem for a government that wants to encourage growth but also needs to raise revenues is that increased taxes on businesses can dampen future investment.

Even if headline corporation tax is unchanged, the mix of allowance cuts, higher employment taxes and sector-specific hits (on pubs, for example) is likely to feed a “tax-raising, not pro-growth” narrative in the business community. And evidence suggests that higher effective corporate tax rates are associated with lower business investment.

For example, dropping the main rate of capital allowance on plant and machinery from 18% to 14% means these investments take longer to pay for themselves. While this is a net revenue-raising move for government, business can perceive this as policy that is tough on productive investment.

The autumn budget relied heavily on fiscal drag (frozen income-tax and national insurance contribution thresholds) and a series of smaller revenue-raisers like the pension salary-sacrifice cap. For the government, there is the risk that this creates a fear that it will keep coming back to “small print” tax measures.

And of course not all businesses will be able to absorb extra costs – many will look to pass these on to their customers. Sectors with thin profit margins (such as pubs, hospitality and small retailers) are warning that business-rate hikes plus higher wage bills force them either to push up prices or cut service and headcount.

While firms with more power will try to raise prices, more squeezed firms may hold prices but trim pay growth or hiring. This aligns with evidence that suggests consumers and workers are most affected by increases in business taxes.

Substituting workers with AI

Other evidence suggests that firms in high-wage sectors and countries adopt more AI, both to replace tasks and to make workers more productive. As the cost of labour rises, businesses are likely to have a stronger incentive to automate. This has already been a trend during periods of cost pressure or downturn – explicitly as a substitute for expensive labour.

As such, it makes financial sense for firms, especially large, capital-rich ones, to respond by increasing spend on AI tools that automate white-collar tasks such as accounting, human resources, marketing and customer support. And they may also choose to offshore or digitise back-office functions where UK labour is now relatively costly.

Without parallel policies to enhance AI skills, retraining and investment allowances for tech that complements labour, the government may be nudging firms towards automation and offshoring. This, of course, can reduce the domestic tax base over time.

When it comes to the super-rich, reports of an exodus from Britain may be exaggerated. But billionaire steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal did leave the UK just before the budget was announced, reportedly for tax purposes. And the founders of tech firm Improbable and fintech giant Revolut announced plans to do the same thing earlier in the year.

A small number of very wealthy individuals leaving won’t collapse the economy, but a policy mix seen as hostile to entrepreneurship can, at the margins, reduce the UK’s attractiveness as a base for high-growth founders and investors.

Think tanks, including the Adam Smith Institute, highlight that the people who leave tend to be “liquid millionaires” – founders who have sold businesses and are mobile. If too many of that very specific group leave the country, the UK could lose the mentoring networks, angel capital and soft power shoring up its “entrepreneurial ecosystem”.

This could lead to a slow erosion of the UK’s reputation as a place where ambitious and entrepreneurial people want to build things.

To restore trust that the government is not just pro-welfare but also pro-business, it should publish a multi-year tax roadmap for businesses, limiting surprise “salami-slice” changes. It could also offer incentives for firms using AI that complements workers – for example, through tax relief for AI systems that augment workers and job quality.

And to have a broad-based approach to wealth creation, it should support youth and student entrepreneurship and innovation. This could shift the narrative back to business creation, growth and prosperity.

Jagannadha Pawan Tamvada does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. The quiet rise in the tax burden for UK businesses will hit workers and consumers too – https://theconversation.com/the-quiet-rise-in-the-tax-burden-for-uk-businesses-will-hit-workers-and-consumers-too-271965

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jane Wright, Commissioning Editor, Arts & Culture, The Conversation

Subject line: A second chance for Austen’s most melancholy heroine

This week saw the launch of the final episode of our hit podcast Jane Austen’s Paper Trail (although a bonus Q&A episode is coming in January for any Austen fans experiencing withdrawal).

Episode six is devoted to Austen’s last novel – and my favourite – Persuasion, which tells the story of lovelorn Anne Elliot who has missed her chance of happiness after being persuaded to give up the man she loves for lack of wealth and prospects. Seven years later, Anne is still pining and aching with regret, when Frederick Wentworth re-enters her life as a rich and successful naval captain.

Considered Austen’s most melancholy novel, it is little wonder one of our academic experts, John Mullan, states in the podcast: “If you’re under 40 your favourite Austen novel is Pride & Prejudice, after 40, it’s Persuasion.” It is a novel that resonates with those who have experienced the pain of loss and heartbreak.

More widely, the episode asks the question: was Jane Austen happy? As she remained a lifelong spinster, many might assume not. But this groundbreaking writer was a woman of substance, someone who filled her life with meaning through interests, friendships, socialising, travel, and most of all, a purpose.

I travelled to Lyme Regis with Nada Sadaaoui of Northumbria University to ponder this question on the very spot where the pivotal scene of Persuasion takes place: on the Cobb, a wide limestone breakwater that snakes out into the English Channel.

It is here in the novel that Anne and her captain reignite the spark of their love. And it was here we sat buffeted by the wind, listening to the waves and the cries of the gulls, imagining Austen herself walking here, exhilarated by the sense of freedom bestowed by the elements.

As Nada explains, walking alone for women in the early 19th century was a simple but radical act, a rare chance to be unshackled from men, chaperones and expectations. To feel invigorated, alive and most of all, free. It was a wonderful day spent by the seaside with this enthusiastic young academic thrilled to be walking in the footsteps of Jane Austen.

Question

As we come to our final podcast episode, having explored themes of love, romance, friendship, politics, and happiness in the life and work of Jane Austen, we’re curious to know: which is your favourite Austen novel?

a) Sense and Sensibility

b) Pride and Prejudice

c) Mansfield Park

d) Emma

e) Northanger Abbey

f) Persuasion

Eternal love and bear necessities

Who would you choose to spend the afterlife with? This is a question explored in the new romcom Eternity in which Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) has to choose between two husbands, the grumpy old one, Larry (Miles Teller) with whom she spent most of her life, and the handsome chiselled one, Luke (Callum Turner), who died young a war hero. (Luckily, in eternity your looks are restored to the period when you were happiest.) Who should Joan pick and why? We invited philosophy academic Tony Milligan to give his take exploring what really matters when it comes to love.

Twenty-nine children’s books and three movies later, our favourite little Peruvian finally becomes an all-singing, all-dancing bear in Paddington the Musical, currently delighting audiences in London’s West End. Fortuitously, we sent professor of Greek Culture Emma Stafford to review it and, by Zeus, she has decreed that Paddington is actually a hero in the classical mould, bearing comparison with the likes of Aeneas and Odysseus. Armed with his bear necessities – a trusty marmalade sarnie and a truly terrifying stare – our plucky little hero completes his journey with a real family, spreading his message of love and tolerance this Christmas.

Beauty and sorrow

Patti Smith has just published her latest memoir Bread of Angels at the age of 78, which took her a decade to write, “grappling with the beauty and sorrow of a lifetime”. This eloquently told story charts a life filled with adversity, creativity, tragedy and loss, but, says our reviewer Julia Toppin, “to read how Patti Smith has endured while staying true to herself is an uplifting experience”.

Now streaming on Netflix, Train Dreams is a new film adapted from the unsettling novella of the same name by Dennis Johnson, charting the frontier days and settler colonialism that shaped the building of America as it emerged as a superpower. Clint Bentley’s film revolves around a man haunted by regret, and is a stunning meditation on grief and loss – and an important account of the early days of environmental crisis, when huge swaths of forest were decimated to build America’s railroads.

Something good to read

Who doesn’t love a nice glass of mulled wine this time of year? This deeply warming tipple spiced with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves has become synonymous with the Christmas period, but did you know it was brought to our shores by the Romans? Or that it is mentioned in the biblical poem, the Song of Solomon, and in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales? Discover more fascinating facts about mulled wine as we take you through the history of this fine festive drink which is now firmly associated with yuletide thanks to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

– ref. Persuasion, Paddington and Patti Smith: what to listen to, read, see, and sing along to this week – https://theconversation.com/persuasion-paddington-and-patti-smith-what-to-listen-to-read-see-and-sing-along-to-this-week-271957

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Ambarish Karamchedu, Lecturer in International Development, King’s College London

When you next bite into a chicken sandwich, consider this: 2,400 of these birds are being slaughtered somewhere in the world every second. From street stalls in Mumbai to supermarkets in Beijing, chicken has become the world’s most consumed meat. In 2023 alone, humans slaughtered an astonishing 76 billion chickens.

This didn’t arise naturally. It is the result of a system of industrial efficiency, designed by corporations to maximise profits from the birds.

The industry’s complexity often obscures who actually pulls the strings. But our new research maps, for the first time, the previously unpublicised architecture of chicken production, revealing an industry dominated by a handful of firms and their financial backers.

Feed represents up to 70% of meat production costs. That’s why firms have transformed chickens into living machines for converting feed into meat, faster than any other land animal.

The average broiler chicken is five times heavier than in the 1950s, while the time it takes to reach slaughter weight has been slashed by two-thirds. These birds grow so fast their skeletons and organs cannot keep pace, leaving them in chronic pain until their premature death.

Industrial chicken farming also devours resources. It consumes 27% of global soybean production and nearly 20% of the world’s corn – driving deforestation, pesticide use, and biodiversity loss in some of the planet’s most fragile ecosystems.

Who controls the chicken?

Our research found that 376 companies produced 75% of the world’s chicken in 2023. The top ten companies made up 28% of production, dominated by firms from Brazil, China and the US.

Our work focused in particular on four emerging countries – Brazil, Mexico, India and China.

In Brazil, JBS reigns supreme. As the world’s largest meat producer, it slaughtered 4.1 billion chickens in 2024 – about 9% of global production. Its dominance is underwritten by US asset managers, alongside pension funds and international investors. Its main rival, BRF, is also supported by Wall Street players.

Mexico tells a similar tale. Industrias Bachoco, still largely family-owned, competes with Pilgrim’s de Mexico, a subsidiary of JBS.

In India, production is dominated by private firms such as Suguna, which owes much of its growth to the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s investment arm. Between 2006 and 2020, the IFC invested US$96 million (£71 million) to help Suguna expand across South Asia and Africa.

China’s industry is more fragmented. Nineteen companies, many of them publicly traded, slaughtered 7.2 billion chickens in 2024. American agribusiness Cargill is a major player in China.

(Cargill is currently fighting a legal action in the UK over claims its chicken farms polluted the River Wye. The company denies the allegations).

Industrial chicken has fed millions of people globally at “cheap” prices. It has made chicken the most common meat on earth. Yet the system is not controlled by farmers or countries. It is controlled by a small group of corporations, and the financial institutions that bankroll them.

This concentration of power tends to undermine food sovereignty, leaving countries dependent on foreign corporations for staple protein. It risks perpetuating animal suffering by prioritising speed and profit over welfare. And it fuels ecological destruction, as vast amounts of crops, land and water are diverted to meat production.

Taking back control

Industrial chicken production is a clear example of how global finance and corporate power can reshape something as basic as food into a vehicle for profit, despite the cost to animals, people, or the planet. Yet the same concentration that makes the system so destructive also makes it vulnerable. A small number of firms and investors hold the keys.

If people want a food system that values justice, sustainability and compassion, they’ll need to wrest control back from the corporations that currently dictate its terms. Pressure can come from shareholders demanding better welfare and environmental standards; from investigative journalists and lawyers exposing allegations of corporate wrongdoing; from lawmakers better regulating the food industry; and from changes in our own consumption.

Ultimately, the best way to end the suffering of broiler chickens is to eliminate industrial farming altogether. This is won’t happen overnight, but – much like the transition from fossil fuels to renewables – can be achieved through a managed, gradual shift that keeps all the moving parts working together.

The most realistic path forward would be to reduce both the production and consumption of chicken meat, while accelerating the development of lab-grown alternatives. This transition would be supported by reducing subsidies for the industrial chicken sector while investing in new industries and in retraining farmers and other meat industry workers.

This would be good news for chicken, but would mean humans radically confronting our own consumption – and accepting that, ultimately, there will be less chicken available for us to eat.

All this is complicated by the fact that chicken on your plate is the endpoint of a global chain of decisions that shows who really holds power in our world. The question is: who do we want making these decisions – big corporations, or all of us?

Ambarish Karamchedu received funding from the Tiny Beam Fund Burning Questions Fellowship from the Tiny Beam Fund, a US non-profit, to conduct this research.

Benjamin Coles received funding from the Tiny Beam Fund Burning Questions Fellowship from the Tiny Beam Fund, a US non-profit, to conduct this research.

– ref. Who owns your chicken? We’ve mapped the corporate power behind the world’s favourite meat – https://theconversation.com/who-owns-your-chicken-weve-mapped-the-corporate-power-behind-the-worlds-favourite-meat-267486

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Oladayo Bifarin, Senior Lecturer School of Nursing and Advanced Practice, Liverpool John Moores University

After waiting more than a year to see an NHS specialist, Sam’s assessment for ADHD took less than two hours. It happened over video, involved a short checklist and brief history, and ended with a swift decision.

Within weeks, Sam had a diagnosis, a prescription and a discharge letter back to the GP. But when symptoms worsened and medication side-effects appeared a few months later, no one seemed sure who was responsible for follow-up. As we know from our clinical and research work, stories like this are increasingly common in UK mental health and neurodevelopmental services.

Against this backdrop, the UK health secretary, Wes Streeting, has ordered an expert review of ADHD, autism and mental health diagnoses. Much of the public conversation focuses on overdiagnosis to suggest that normal distress is too quickly labelled as medical illness. Media coverage has linked these concerns to rising benefit claims related to depression, anxiety, autism and ADHD.

The debate is not only about clinical accuracy. It is also about who is considered too sick to work and what that means for the state. Some commentators suggest that people pursue diagnoses for advantages such as disability benefits or workplace adjustments. Critics argue that this framing implies people are gaming the system, rather than asking why so many are struggling in the first place.

While the public debate often focuses on individual motives, health services point to structural strain. NHS data shows record demand and severe pressure on mental health teams. Patients and families report long waits, repeated assessments and referrals that are rejected or misdirected, leaving some people lost in the system altogether.

Streeting’s recent opinion piece in the Guardian captured this tension. He acknowledged that his earlier remarks on overdiagnosis were divisive, and accepted that many people cannot access support when they need it. At the same time, he pointed to a steep rise in referrals for mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions, and argued that the review must uncover what is driving this.

The Centre for Mental Health, an independent UK charity that researches mental health policy and practice, welcomes the review but stresses that evidence already points to a genuine rise in distress linked to poverty, insecure housing, austerity and the pandemic. In a recent statement, its chief executive, Andy Bell, said there had been a clearly rising trend in mental health needs and that he had seen no evidence that mental health problems were being overdiagnosed.

Others argue the debate is misplaced. Miranda Wolpert, director of mental health at Wellcome, argues that the real challenge is not deciding who counts as mentally ill, but how to match different forms of distress to appropriate support. That support might be clinical therapy or medication, but it might also involve housing help, debt advice or peer support.

Professionals have been warning about system design for years. British psychiatry specialists have raised concerns about an overreliance on generic models and a drift away from specialist expertise. Mental health nurses have voiced similar concerns, warning that increasingly broad nurse training risks diluting skills and weakening continuity of care.

Seen in this context, what is often described as overdiagnosis looks more like the predictable outcome of the system itself. NHS care is structured around a sequence of triage, referral, assessment, diagnosis and treatment. People move through brief assessments and short packages of care before being discharged.

This model rewards speed and immediate certainty. It favours quick assessments, clear diagnostic labels and protocol-driven treatments – for example, offering cognitive behavioural therapy or SSRI medication, a common type of antidepressant, when someone scores above a threshold on a questionnaire. This makes planning and auditing easier, but encourages services to treat each case as a short episode that ends abruptly, rather than an evolving set of needs that may require ongoing support.

Diagnosis becomes the main tool for unlocking help. When this is the only mechanism that gives access to medication, therapy or educational support, diagnosis rates rise not because people are exaggerating distress, but because the system leaves them no other route to assistance.

And once an episode of care ends, responsibility is often unclear. Patients are discharged with short letters and must start again if their needs change. Referrals may be rejected because teams are overwhelmed and must focus on people at immediate risk.

Clinicians in primary care face similar pressures. Distress linked to financial strain, workplace problems or bereavement may be recorded as depression or anxiety, because diagnosis allows GPs to prescribe or refer.

Fragmentation across services deepens the problem. Patients are divided between multiple teams, with each handling only part of their needs. Checklists designed for screening rather than diagnosis can become shortcuts. Guidelines on depression, for example, specifically warn against relying on symptom counts alone.

Workforce strain further undermines continuity. In our experience, nurses, psychologists, occupational therapists and social workers often deliver complex care without consistent supervision. Burnout and vacancies weaken the system’s ability to offer stable, ongoing support.

The planned review arrives at a critical moment because its conclusions will shape who receives help and how services are redesigned. Counting diagnoses will not address the underlying issues. Rising rates reflect system pressures more than patient behaviour.

There is a clearer route forward. Research shows that when services are built around separate diagnosis-specific pathways, people can face delays and fragmented care because they are moved between teams that only deal with one part of their needs. Studies instead recommend approaches that focus on a person’s distress and support needs, rather than forcing them into rigid diagnostic categories.

Better coordination across different professions would also help teams spot overlapping issues, such as speech and language difficulties in autism or how ADHD medication might interact with antidepressants.

Shifting the focus away from strict criteria for emergency help would make it easier for people to receive support earlier and avoid preventable crises. A review that looks closely at how referrals work, how digital tools are used, how the workforce is trained and supported, and how continuity of care is maintained would give a more accurate picture of the system’s weaknesses and what needs to change.

The system is not failing because too many people seek help. It is failing because brief, discrete episodes of care cannot manage long-term, complex needs. Until that changes, debates about overdiagnosis will keep obscuring the real issue: building a mental health system that stays with people, instead of processing them and moving on.

Oladayo Bifarin receives funding from National Institute for Health and Care Research. The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.

Dan W Joyce receives funding from the National Institute of Health and Social Care Research (NIHR) and the Wellcome Trust.

– ref. What looks like ‘overdiagnosis’ is really a system struggling to provide continuous care – https://theconversation.com/what-looks-like-overdiagnosis-is-really-a-system-struggling-to-provide-continuous-care-271667

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Petra Alderman, Manager of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science

The border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, which had previously flared up in July, resumed on December 7. More than 20 people, including four Thai and 11 Cambodian civilians, have reportedly been killed in the resumed hostilities since then. Half a million more people have been evacuated from border areas across both countries.

This comes less than two months after the Thai prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, and his Cambodian counterpart, Hun Manet, signed a peace deal on the sidelines of a meeting for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Malaysia. The US president, Donald Trump, who helped broker the end of the conflict, called the deal “historic”. So, why are the two countries fighting again?

For Anutin, the peace deal presented a clear domestic challenge as the border conflict had led to an outpouring of ultra-nationalist sentiment. He had recently replaced Paetongtarn Shinawatra as prime minister, after Shinawatra was removed from the premiership for being too conciliatory towards Cambodia.

Anutin rose to power in early September with the support of the progressive People’s party. He agreed to lead a minority government and call a snap election within four months of taking office. Since then, he has worked to maximise his party’s electoral fortunes by courting the powerful military and the more conservative segments of the Thai electorate.

As both of these groups have been buoyed by the conflict, Anutin could not afford to show weakness. He learned that in November when he had to apologise for publicly admitting that Thailand, like Cambodia, had encroached on its neighbour’s territory.

Within weeks of taking power, Anutin upped the nationalist ante by announcing he would put two bilateral memoranda of understanding on the border conflict from the early 2000s to a popular vote. The memoranda commit both countries to working together on demarcating their disputed land and maritime borders. Polling showed that many Thais would back a referendum to suspend them.

Then, on November 10, Anutin fuelled the nationalist fire further by suspending the implementation of the peace deal. He accused Cambodia of laying new land mines in the disputed border area after several Thai soldiers were injured during a routine patrol.

The human tragedy and some compelling evidence aside, this was an opportune moment for Anutin to bolster his nationalist credentials and curry favour with the military. He visited the injured soldiers, wept at their hospital beds, and authorised the military to use their full force to protect Thailand’s sovereignty.

Thailand’s military has never been under full civilian control. However, Anutin’s willingness to let the armed forces deal with the border conflict without exploring further diplomatic options played to a longstanding Thai narrative that depicts the military as the selfless guarantor of the nation. This allowed Anutin to tap into their soaring domestic popularity.

Anutin’s recent mishandling of floods in the southern province of Hat Yai, along with a fresh controversy linking him and other senior government figures to alleged transnational scam criminal Benjamin Mauerberger, added to these domestic calculations.

Anutin’s popularity dropped significantly in the wake of the floods, while his alleged links to Mauerbeger attracted much criticism and undermined his anti-corruption narrative. The escalating border tensions have provided a temporary domestic distraction. But on December 11, just five days into the renewed fighting, Anutin dissolved parliament.

The dissolution was not expected until the end of January, but Anutin faced a possible no-confidence vote over disagreements with the People’s party as to how Thailand’s 2017 military-drafted constitution should be amended. Leading a minority government, Anutin was unlikely to survive the no-confidence vote, so he pulled the plug preemptively.

Cambodia’s distraction tactics

As for Cambodia, Hun Manet is also not immune to domestic pressures. He is dealing with slowing economic growth that is at odds with his developmentalist agenda.

The border conflict has contributed to this but so have US tariffs and decreased investments from China, Cambodia’s largest trading partner and foreign investor. For now, Hun Manet can leverage the rally-around-the-flag effect of the border conflict to distract people from these issues.

Cambodia’s global reputation has also suffered due to its ever-expanding network of scam centres. Recent US and UK sanctions against Chen Zhi, a leading scam industry figure with close links to senior figures within the ruling Cambodian People’s party, have shone more negative light on the regime and have added to the country’s economic woes.

They have also threatened Hun Manet’s domestic anti-corruption narrative. Against this backdrop, Hun Manet may seek to leverage the renewed conflict to repair some of this damage. Cambodia has benefited from internationalising the conflict before.

As a smaller and militarily weaker country, Cambodia has always favoured international mediation of its border disputes with Thailand. This tactic has often paid off. Various rulings by the International Court of Justice have affirmed Cambodia’s ownership of the ancient Preah Vihear temple and its surrounding areas, a site of frequent border clashes with Thailand.

Anutin’s house dissolution complicates the escalating border conflict. As Anutin assumes limited caretaker duties, Thailand prepares for a possibly chaotic snap election within two months. This not only creates a temporary power vacuum that does not bode well for peace, but also provides further incentives for Anutin and conservative-leaning parties to use the conflict as an election mobilisation strategy.

Meanwhile, the Thai military has freedom to deal with the conflict as they see fit. As the humanitarian, economic and reputational costs mount, both countries and their people will lose out from the escalating conflict.

Petra Alderman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Why domestic politics keeps complicating the conflict between Thailand and Cambodia – https://theconversation.com/why-domestic-politics-keeps-complicating-the-conflict-between-thailand-and-cambodia-271660

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Mikael Fauvelle, Associate Professor and Researcher, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Lund University

Around 2,400 years ago, before the emergence of the Roman empire, a small armada of boats approached the island of Als off the coast of southern Jutland in modern-day Denmark. The armada carried around 80 warriors armed with spears and shields. Some of them were officers, and these men carried iron swords.

The seafarers had travelled across what is now the Baltic Sea in sleek plank boats some 20 metres long. The planks were sewn together as boats at this time did not use metal nails, and the seams were caulked (waterproofed) with tar.

At some point along the voyage, they had stopped to repair their vessels. One of them left a partial fingerprint in the soft, newly applied caulking material between the plank seams. This sea-warrior – age and gender unknown – was inadvertently leaving a message for scientists (including me) who, more than two millennia later, would finally recognise the fingerprint’s significance using cutting-edge technology.

The small army was planning a quick marine assault on their enemies in Denmark – but their plans failed. Soon after they jumped on to the beach, these warriors were killed by the local defenders.

To give thanks for their victory against this invading force, the locals filled one of the boats with the weapons of the invaders and sank it into a local bog as an offering to the gods. Their decision to sink the boat in the bog has allowed future archaeologists to piece together clues about the events surrounding the attack, as well as the technology and society of these ancient people.

Today, this island bog in southern Denmark is known as the Hjortspring bog. In the late 19th century, the remains of the ancient boat were discovered, well preserved in its low-oxygen environment. At the time, the region had recently been conquered by Prussia and was part of the German empire, so the local Danes who found the boat kept their discovery secret until Als rejoined Denmark in 1920.

The boat was finally excavated in 1921, and has been on display at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen ever since. The excavation used the best archaeological methods that were available in the 1920s – but the scientific techniques of modern archaeology were not yet available.

In 2023, researchers from Lund University and the University of Gothenburg began a collaboration with the national museum in order to use modern scientific methods to study the materials pulled out of the Hjortspring bog over a century earlier. Some of these samples had never been studied since the original excavation – meaning that a major mystery had surrounded the Hjortspring boat ever since. Where did these invading warriors from the 4th century BC come from?

A surprising result

The weapons such as swords and spears found in the boat were used widely across northern Europe during the early Iron Age, giving few clues as to the boat’s provenance. Most archaeologists had assumed the boat came from somewhere nearby in Jutland, or perhaps from northern Germany.

By analysing the boat’s caulking material using a technique called gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, we were able to determine what chemical compounds the caulking tars were made from – a combination of animal fat and pine pitch.

This was surprising, since nearly all the pine forests in Denmark and northern Germany had already been cut down to make room for agriculture during the Neolithic period. We know this because geologists have studied ancient pollen in lakes and bogs to determine what species grew in different parts of Europe and at what times.

While the people who built the Hjortspring boat may have traded items to acquire their tar, it was at that time possible to waterproof boats using materials local to Jutland such as linseed oil and tallow (cow fat). So our investigation suggests the Hjortspring boat probably did not come from Jutland or northern Germany – but rather, from a more distant location with access to abundant pine forests.

The closest large pine forests during the 4th century BC were located along the coasts of the Baltic Sea to the east of modern-day Denmark. This means the crew of the Hjortspring boat, and their fellow seafarers, may have travelled hundreds of kilometres across open sea to launch their attack on Als.

We already knew that such long-distance voyages took place during the Bronze Age, when Scandinavians travelled far from home in search of copper. Iron was locally produced in Scandinavia, however, making the economic need for such voyages less obvious during the Iron Age.

Nonetheless, our results indicate that long-distance trading and raiding continued well after the end of the Bronze Age. While we will never know exactly what drove the warriors to launch this particular attack, our research suggests that back then – just as today – political conflicts spanned regional borders and led young warriors to travel far from home.

We were also able to carbon-date some of the lime bast rope used on the boat, giving the first absolute date from the original excavation material. The cordage dated to between 381 and 161 BC, confirming the boat was from the pre-Roman Iron Age.

While selecting tar samples for our scientific analysis, we made another fantastic discovery: the “secret message” left by one of the crew in the form of a partial fingerprint left by one of the mariners on a small clump of tar.

Using X-ray tomography, we have made a digital 3D-model of the fingerprint, accurate to the nanometer scale. From our analysis of the print, we believe it was left by an adult, although we cannot say much more at present about who this individual was. This exciting find gives us a direct connection to this ancient warrior who once voyaged across the Baltic Sea.

Within the next year, we hope to be able to extract ancient DNA from the caulking tar on the boat, which could give us more detailed information about the ancient people who used this boat.

At present, our results show that the practice of long-distance maritime trading and raiding, which came to characterise the famous Viking Age, persisted over nearly 3,000 years of Nordic history. By studying this ancient boat, we can peer deeper into Scandinavia’s origins as a seafaring society.

Mikael Fauvelle received funding for this research from the Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation (Complex Canoes project), and the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (Maritime Encounters programme).

– ref. How we unlocked the secrets of Denmark’s oldest plank boat – with the help of an ancient fingerprint – https://theconversation.com/how-we-unlocked-the-secrets-of-denmarks-oldest-plank-boat-with-the-help-of-an-ancient-fingerprint-271977