Category: The Conversation – UK

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Thomas Longden, Senior Researcher, Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University

The UK government recently expanded the warm home discount by removing restrictions that had previously excluded many people who can’t always afford to heat their homes. Now, the payment of £150 will be received by 2.7 million more households than last winter.

The UK government has also reversed its decision to limit winter fuel payments to only the poorest pensioners. This could benefit up to 9 million people.

The UK government has two other mechanisms for reducing heating costs over winter. The warm home discount and winter fuel payment are both one-off payments that help people pay their heating bills. The cold weather payment aims to support people during spells of very cold weather.

Recipients of specific means-tested benefits in England, Wales and Northern Ireland automatically receive £25 after cold weather occurs in their region. Another policy applies in Scotland, where some people get a single winter heating payment.

While these changes to the winter fuel payment and warm home discount are welcome, the cold weather payment has long been seen as an outdated, old-fashioned scheme in need of change. For example, it is paid after cold weather happens. Our research indicates that it can be improved by changing this.

The wide use of smart meters means that researchers like us can now produce data-driven studies that improve our understanding of energy use and expenditure during cold weather. Our recent studies of prepayment meter customers’ energy use indicate ways to improve the cold weather payments.

Analysis of electricity and gas smart-meter data from 11,500 Utilita Energy prepayment customers showed that 63% of households self-disconnected from energy supply at least once a year. In this study, published in Energy Research & Social Science, we found that more homes self-disconnected from gas during cold periods than at other times. There was no evidence to show that the cold weather payment as presently designed reduced this risk.

Also using smart meter data from energy company Utilita Energy, a recent study published in the journal Energy Economics shows that prepayment gas customers in regions with high fuel poverty tend to struggle at temperatures below −4°C. Below this temperature, prepayment gas customers need to top up more often and with higher amounts. People using prepayment tend to top-up their credit in advance of cold weather.

In colder weather, more people use emergency credit and disconnect from power more often. Emergency credit is provided by the utility as a short-term loan. Self-disconnections occur when the household has no credit left and they have no energy supply.

The government’s payment is triggered when the average temperature falls below 0°C for seven consecutive days. As this metric is not reported by news media or meteorology services, it’s hard to know when the cold weather payment will be received. The easiest way to find out if a payment will be made, after cold weather, requires people to enter their postcode at a Department for Work and Pensions website.

If people are unsure if severe weather is forecast, they may not increase their top-up in advance. They may, however, self-ration or limit energy use to save money.

The cold weather payment is only paid once even when there are multiple periods of cold. This “overlap penalty” severely affects those living in northern England and particularly Yorkshire, which is a colder region where cold weather spells are more common.

Cause for reform

The payment should be made in advance of cold weather, and utility companies could pay it directly to customers who have smart meters. Credits could be applied for those using other types of meters. This is likely to reduce self-disconnections and self-rationing during very cold nights.

Payments should be triggered by the minimum night-time temperature. The temperature measure used at present is confusing and the money is not paid until up to two weeks after extremely cold weather, which is problematic for those on tight budgets.

To better match the support needed during cold weather, the amount paid should be increased to £10 a day for every day that minimum temperatures are forecast to be below −4°C. This would improve energy security for people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

A policy will only be effective when it is clearly communicated and understood by those it applies to. To prevent self-rationing, people need to know that payment support has arrived, otherwise they may hesitate to turn up the heating on the coldest days of winter, with all the risks that involves.

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Thomas Longden has recently received funding from Energy Consumers Australia and Original Power – a community-focused, Aboriginal organisation. He is a member of the ACT Climate Change Council and the NSW branch of the Economic Society of Australia.

Brenda Boardman is affiliated in the UK with the End Fuel Poverty Coalition and the Labour Party. Her research on pre-payment meter households was co-funded by Utilita Giving.

Tina Fawcett currently receives funding from UKRI. Her research on pre-payment meter households was co-funded by Utilita Giving.

– ref. How the UK’s cold weather payments need to change to help prevent people freezing in winter – https://theconversation.com/how-the-uks-cold-weather-payments-need-to-change-to-help-prevent-people-freezing-in-winter-259339

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Adele Julier, Senior Lecturer in Ecology, University of Portsmouth

Hosepipe bans in summer 2025 will mean many gardeners having to choose which of their plants to keep going with the watering can, and which to abandon. Are these temporary restrictions actually a sign we need to rethink British gardens altogether?

Climate change will bring the United Kingdom warmer, wetter winters and hotter, drier summers. Britain has seen warm periods before, such as in the last interglacial period 130,000 years ago, but the current speed of change is unprecedented. This will have many effects, but it will also change one of the core parts of British life: our gardens.

Rather than fighting the inevitable and trying to keep growing the same plants we have always grown, how might we adapt what we grow and how we grow it?

The first to go, tragically for some, may be the classic British lawn. Already this year across the country, large areas of grass are looking parched and brown in the face of a long drought. The traditional lawn has just a few species of grass and is unlikely to be very drought-resistant. You can maintain a grass lawn that is more tolerant of dry weather by using drought-resistant fescue species of grass, and keeping the lawn well aerated (that means putting small holes in it to allow air, water and nutrients to reach the grass roots). But it may still suffer periods in which it looks unhealthy.

Swapping a lawn for a meadow can increase drought tolerance and decrease maintenance such as regular mowing and watering, because meadows only need to be cut once a year and don’t need as much water. Perhaps instead of lawns we can embrace No Mow May all year round, creating a greater diversity of plant and animal life in gardens.

Wildflowers such as yarrow and common knapweed can be great for pollinators and the birds that feed on them. These plants are drought-tolerant too.

As well as challenges in the face of a changing climate, there will be opportunities. Grape vines were grown in Britain in Roman times, and British wine production is once again a growing industry. Regular British gardeners could also grow a wider variety of grape vines, and even make their own wine. Warmer, drier summers could make plants such as citrus and olive trees easier to grow, with fruits more likely to ripen and less likely to be lost to frost in winter. Sunflowers, while they already grow here, could also thrive in the new conditions.

There will be a shift in the best types of decorative plants for gardens, with those needing lots of water, such as hydrangeas, delphiniums and gentians, becoming difficult to grow. We could look to the Mediterranean for inspiration, and choose shrubs such as thyme and lavender, or climbers like passion flowers, that need less water. It is also possible to grow a drought-tolerant garden with plants that are native to Britain, such as species of Geranium and Sedum. Coastal plants such as sea kale and sea holly that grow in harsh, rocky conditions can also make great garden plants in a drier climate.

Finally, the way we garden will need to change. Setting up water storage systems, from simple water butts to larger, more complex systems that could include grey water harvesting (used but clean water from baths and washing up) or underground water storage, will help gardeners to make the most of storms by storing the rainwater for use during droughts. You can set up a dispersion system to recycle lightly used household water, such as from a dishwasher or shower.

Soil health is important too, as soils with more organic matter are better at holding water. Composting food waste to add to soil would be a great way of helping to increase the organic content and make watering more efficient. This has the added value of avoiding peat composts. Peat comes from wetlands and it will eventually run out. Peat harvesting also releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change.

The next few decades will be challenging for gardeners. Britain will probably experience an increase in prolonged droughts and other extreme weather, as well as overall warming caused by climate change. Our gardens may cover a small proportion of land in the UK. But we can use them to experiment and develop sustainable ways of existing, growing not just new plants but also hope in the face of adversity.

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Adele Julier 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. As climate change hits, what might the British garden of the future look like? – https://theconversation.com/as-climate-change-hits-what-might-the-british-garden-of-the-future-look-like-261608

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Alan Dykes, Associate Professor in Engineering Geology, Kingston University

The earthquake near the east coast of the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia on July 30 2025 generated tsunami waves that have reached Hawaii and coastal areas of the US mainland. The earthquake’s magnitude of 8.8 is significant, potentially making it one of the largest quakes ever recorded.

Countries around much of the Pacific, including in east Asia, North and South America, issued alerts and in some cases evacuation orders in anticipation of potentially devastating waves. Waves of up to four metres hit coastal towns in Kamchatka near where the earthquake struck, apparently causing severe damage in some areas.

But in other places waves have been smaller than expected, including in Japan, which is much closer to Kamchatka than most of the Pacific rim. Many warnings have now been downgraded or lifted with relatively little damage. It seems that for the size of the earthquake, the tsunami has been rather smaller than might have been the case. To understand why, we can look to geology.

The earthquake was associated with the Pacific tectonic plate, one of several major pieces of the Earth’s crust. This pushes north-west against the part of the North American plate that extends west into Russia, and is forced downwards beneath the Kamchatka peninsula in a process called subduction.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) says the average rate of convergence – a measure of plate movement – is around 80mm per year. This is one of the highest rates of relative movement at a plate boundary.

But this movement tends to take place as an occasional sudden movement of several metres. In any earthquake of this type and size, the displacement may occur over a contact area between the two tectonic plates of slightly less than 400km by 150km, according to the USGS.

The Earth’s crust is made of rock that is very hard and brittle at the small scale and near the surface. But over very large areas and depths, it can deform with slightly elastic behaviour. As the subducting slab – the Pacific plate – pushes forward and descends, the depth of the ocean floor may suddenly change.

Nearer to the coastline, the crust of the overlying plate may be pushed upward as the other pushed underneath, or – as was the case off Sumatra in 2004 – the outer edge of the overlying plate may be dragged down somewhat before springing back a few metres.

It is these near-instantaneous movements of the seabed that generate tsunami waves by displacing huge volumes of ocean water. For example, if the seabed rose just one metre across an area of 200 by 100km where the water is 1km deep, then the volume of water displaced would fill Wembley stadium to the roof 17.5 million times.

A one-metre rise like this will then propagate away from the area of the uplift in all directions, interacting with normal wind-generated ocean waves, tides and the shape of the sea floor to produce a series of tsunami waves. In the open ocean, the tsunami wave would not be noticed by boats and ships, which is why a cruise ship in Hawaii was quickly moved out to sea.

Waves sculpted by the seabed

The tsunami waves travel across the deep ocean at up to 440 miles per hour, so they may be expected to reach any Pacific Ocean coastline within 24 hours. However, some of their energy will dissipate as they cross the ocean, so they will usually be less hazardous at the furthest coastlines away from the earthquake.

The hazard arises from how the waves are modified as the seabed rises towards a shoreline. They will slow and, as a result, grow in height, creating a surge of water towards and then beyond the normal coastline.

The Kamchatka earthquake was slightly deeper in the Earth’s crust (20.7km) than the Sumatran earthquake of 2004 and the Japanese earthquake of 2011. This will have resulted in somewhat less vertical displacement of the seabed, with the movement of that seabed being slightly less instantaneous. This is why we’ve seen tsunami warnings lifted some time before any tsunami waves would have arrived there.

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Alan Dykes 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 the Pacific tsunami was smaller than expected – a geologist explains – https://theconversation.com/why-the-pacific-tsunami-was-smaller-than-expected-a-geologist-explains-262273

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Brian Brivati, Visiting Professor of Contemporary History and Human Rights, Kingston University

Keir Starmer has announced that the UK will recognise Palestinian statehood by September 2025 unless Israel meets certain conditions, marking a significant shift in UK policy.

For decades, successive UK governments withheld recognition, insisting it could only come as part of a negotiated settlement between Israel and Palestine. This position, rooted in the Oslo accords of the 1990s and aligned with US policy, effectively gave Israel a veto over Palestinian statehood. As long as Israel refused to engage seriously in peace talks, the UK refrained from acting.

Starmer has now broken with this precedent, potentially aligning the UK with 147 other countries. But the Israeli government must take what the UK calls “substantive steps” toward peace. These include agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza, allowing full humanitarian access, explicitly rejecting any plans to annex West Bank territory, and returning to a credible peace process aimed at establishing a two-state solution.

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Read more:
UK to recognise Palestinian statehood unless Israel agrees to ceasefire – here’s what that would mean

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If Israel meets these conditions, the UK would presumably withhold recognition until the “peace process” has been completed. Starmer made clear that Britain will assess Israeli compliance in September and reserves the right to proceed with recognition regardless of Israel’s response. The message was unambiguous: no one side will have a veto.

This is more than just clever internal politics and party management. Anything that puts any pressure on Israel to move towards peace should be welcomed. But will it amount to much more than that?

Starmer has faced criticism over the last few years for resisting recognising Palestine as a state. While Labour’s frontbench held the line for much of the past year, rank-and-file discontent has grown – and with it, the political risks.

At the heart of Labour’s internal tensions lie two irreconcilable blocs. On one side are MPs and activists – both inside the party and expelled from it – who are vocally pro-Palestinian and have been outraged by the government’s failure to act. On the other side are members of the Labour right who continue to back Israel, oppose unilateral recognition of statehood and focus on the terrible crimes of Hamas but not the IDF campaign in Gaza.

Between them sits a soft-centre majority, for whom foreign policy is not a defining issue. They are not ideologically committed to either side but have become increasingly uneasy with the escalating violence and the UK’s diplomatic inertia.

As the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza deepens, public outrage in the UK has grown. Mass protests have put mounting pressure on the government to act. Within parliament, over 200 MPs, including many from Labour, signed a letter demanding immediate recognition of Palestine. Senior cabinet ministers reportedly pushed hard for the shift on electoral grounds, as well as principle.

International dynamics have also played a crucial role. France’s announcement that it would recognise Palestine by September, becoming the first major western power to do so, created additional pressure. Spain, Ireland, Norway and several other European states have already taken the step. Britain chose to align itself with this emerging consensus.

These pressures combined created a sense of urgency and political opportunity. Starmer’s government appears to be using the threat of recognition as leverage –pressuring Israel to return to negotiations and halt annexation plans.

The calculation seems to be that Israel will either meet the UK’s conditions or face diplomatic consequences, including recognition of Palestine without its consent. There is also the possibility that Israel will simply ignore the UK and press on with its campaign for “Greater Israel”.

Challenges ahead

That is why, while this is a meaningful departure from the past, it is not without problems. Chief among them is the principle of conditionality itself. By making recognition contingent on Israeli behaviour, the UK risks reinforcing the very logic it claims to be rejecting – that Palestinian rights can be granted or withheld based on the actions of the occupying power.

Recognition of statehood should not be used as a diplomatic carrot or stick. It is a matter of justice, not reward. Palestinians are entitled to self-determination under international law.

There is also concern that the September deadline could become another missed opportunity. If Israel makes vague or symbolic gestures – such as issuing carefully worded statements or temporarily suspending one settlement expansion – will the UK delay recognition further, claiming that “progress” is being made?

Palestinians have seen such tactics before. Recognition has been delayed for decades in the name of preserving leverage. But leverage for what?

The Israeli government, dominated by ultra-nationalists and pro-annexation hardliners, is unlikely to satisfy the UK’s conditions in good faith. The risk is that the deadline becomes a mirage – always imminent, never reached.

Recognition also comes as part of a proposed new peace plan. This will be supported by the UK, France and Germany, and it allows the government to say it is being consist with its policy that recognition is part of a peace plan.

If, by some miracle, pressure works and Israel meets all the conditions, then the UK can claim that recognition has played a role in bringing Israel back to the negotiating table.

But if recognition is then withheld, there will not be two equal actors at that table. The State of Palestine will not have been recognised by key international players, and a new round of western-run peace processes will begin. These do not have a good track record.

If Israel fails to agree to a ceasefire and let aid into Gaza, then Starmer will be forced to go through with recognition.

For now, he has defused the internal division in his party. It is clever politics, good party management – it remains to be seen if it is also statesmanship.

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Brian Brivati is affiliated with Britain Palestine Project, a Scottish Charity that campaigns for equal rights, justice and security for Israelis and Palestiniains

– ref. Starmer’s move on Palestinian statehood is clever politics – https://theconversation.com/starmers-move-on-palestinian-statehood-is-clever-politics-262239

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Stephen R. Buzdugan, Senior Lecturer in International Business, Manchester Metropolitan University

For the past two years, Tesla has been embroiled in a bitter dispute with the Swedish labour union IF Metall. It is of a scale that the union hasn’t witnessed since the 1930s.

At the heart of the dispute is Tesla’s refusal to sign a collective bargaining agreement. This is a pillar of the “Swedish model” of labour relations, which is prized by Sweden’s citizens due to its perceived contribution to social wellbeing and shared prosperity.

Instead, Tesla has opted to circumvent striking union workers and bring its cars into the country using non-unionised labour and labour from neighbouring countries. Tesla’s actions to undermine a system that Sweden strongly supports are what we call “anti-societal”. That is, they might be said to undermine democratic norms and the broader public interest.

More broadly, it isn’t unusual to see corporations acting in ways that negatively affect the public interest, with effects such as environmental degradation, poor working conditions or violations of anti-trust laws. Multinational corporations are often in the news for violating or avoiding government regulations and working behind the scenes to influence regulation to their advantage.

Among many examples is the Volkswagen group’s “Dieselgate” emissions scandal. The German carmaker cheated on vehicle tests to make diesel cars seem less polluting than they were in reality. The company later acknowledged it had “screwed up” and breached customers’ trust.

And it is believed that oil and gas giant Exxon had evidence in the 1970s that fossil fuels contribute to climate change, but mounted a a campaign of disinformation in order to stifle regulation of their products. (In 2021, Exxon CEO Darren Woods told US politicians that the company “does not spread disinformation regarding climate change”.)

These examples raise the question of why corporations engage in activities against the public interest. Yet browse through any standard textbook used in a university business or management course, and you will struggle to find answers.

Instead, for several decades the standard viewpoint has been that multinational corporations are mainly economic entities without any particular interest in doing either harm or good. Any anti-societal corporate behaviour has typically been chalked up to a few “bad apples”.

The fact that corporations have political power and systematically use it in their interests in ways that harm society has been largely left out of the picture.

Our recent research shows that the underlying nature of the global economy can influence any corporation to behave anti-societally. We argue that under certain circumstances, a corporation like Tesla might face a threat that compromises its market position, assets or even its existence.

IF Metall, for example, poses a significant threat to Tesla’s business model. If the Swedish trade union wins this dispute it could strengthen the bargaining position of trade unions across Europe. In this case, a corporation like Tesla will exert its power to protect itself. But this often comes with negative consequences for society.

We call this the “self-preservation perspective” of the multinational corporation. It illuminates the ways in which corporations use political power to their advantage, often to society’s cost.

The balance of power

The self-preservation perspective can help people to understand how corporate political power should be challenged through both regulation and activism. Trade union action, for instance, can act as a powerful political force to balance corporate power.

The idea of “self-preservation” comes from international relations theory and an overlooked argument by the late Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith .These suggest that any organisation – a nation state or a multinational corporation – will seek primarily to preserve itself in the face of threats.

We apply the idea of self-preservation to modern multinational corporations that seek to survive in a global economy marked by fierce competition and complex regulation.

This perspective predicts that, when faced with a regulatory threat, a multinational corporation will weigh up four strategic options.

First, it may try to influence the regulation through sometimes ethically questionable political activities. Second, it may consider avoiding or ignoring the regulation by exploiting loopholes or by taking strategic legal action. Third, it can decide to comply with the regulation. And last, it can think about exiting the market altogether.

We predict that the corporation’s choice depends on its relative level of political power and resources, as well as the profitability of the market it is operating in. However, it also depends on how powerful it is in relation to governments, trade unions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

If government enforcement or societal pressure are very strong, this may steer a corporation toward adapting to the regulation, rather than more negative influencing or avoiding behaviour. One example is Apple’s recent changes to its App Store rules in Europe, to comply with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act.

In the case of Tesla versus the Swedish union, Tesla has exerted its power to avoid regulation. In doing so it has considered the scale of the threat to its business model across Europe and its perceived power relative to the trade union. This possibly stems from Tesla’s strong ties to the technology sector, where engagement with unions is often seen as an unnecessary threat to innovation.

If Tesla’s avoidance strategy succeeds, it would effectively dissolve the Swedish model, creating a system that’s less secure for workers. From our self-preservation perspective, IF Metall’s success in the dispute will depend on how well – and how widely – the unions, government and citizens can galvanise opposition. By balancing corporate power in this way, societies might hope to protect their interests against the might of multinational giants.

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David Freund receives funding from Handelsbanken Research Foundation.

Ulf Holm receives funding from Handelsbanken’s Research Foundations.

Stephen R. Buzdugan 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 do corporations act against the public interest? We may have the answers (it’s not just greed) – https://theconversation.com/why-do-corporations-act-against-the-public-interest-we-may-have-the-answers-its-not-just-greed-261866

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Stefan Stern, Visiting Professor of Management Practice, Bayes Business School, City St George’s, University of London

Are two heads better than one? This is a question that members of the Green party will be asking themselves over the summer as they take part in the election of a new leader … or leaders.

Former co-leader Carla Denyer MP announced in May that she would not be standing again. Her co-leader, Adrian Ramsay MP, is now joined on the prospective leadership ticket by another Green MP, Ellie Chowns. (It is a Green party rule that where there is a joint leadership the job holders must be of different genders.)

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They are being challenged by Zack Polanski, currently deputy leader of the party and a member of the London Assembly, who has positioned himself not merely as a solo candidate but also as a rather more radical one. While his politics have little in common with those of Reform party leader Nigel Farage, Polanksi has suggested the Greens could learn from his approach.

The contest presents us with an intriguing conundrum – or even a paradox. In the real world – that is, away from Westminster – expecting a single human being to display all the qualities and attributes required to lead a complicated business or organisation is rightly seen as unrealistic. Leadership is a team activity, to be carried out collectively.

This is one reason why it’s so troubling to see excessive pay packets being delivered to bosses who should not be taking all the credit for the success of a business.

Of course, the leadership provided by the ultimate boss matters, but good corporate governance involves testing the suggestions and instincts of the chief executive with the ideas of other senior executives or directors. This is known, perhaps rather euphemistically on occasion, as “challenge”.

But in Westminster politics a rather more traditional (we could say old-fashioned) view of leadership prevails. Here the orthodoxy holds that something called “strong leadership” stems mainly from a dominant single figure who is firmly in charge.

This belief is based in part on the mythology which surrounds the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, the “Iron Lady” who supposedly never took a step back (although she did), and who dismissed “wets” and “moaning minnies” who expressed doubt about her policy choices. Tony Blair in turn paid homage to this mythology, famously once declaring: “I’ve got no reverse gear”.

In Westminster changing your mind, even in the light of new evidence, is invariably labelled a U-turn, and is considered to be bad. This is also how the British media frames their actions.

So here is the Green party’s conundrum: against this backdrop, they would arguably get better media coverage and perhaps win more support from voters if they installed a single leader in the more conventional way. This is the case that could be made for Polanski.

But at the same time, the Greens are not meant to be just like all the other parties. They have a different view of the world, so why should they conform to the other people’s view of what leadership looks like?

Behind every strong leader

Successful businesses have often been led by double acts. Behind some swaggering CEOs there is often a cautious and competent chief financial officer making sure the numbers add up.

When the Granada media group was growing to a dominant market position in the 1990s, its CEO, Gerry Robinson, got most of the attention but his trusted managing director, Charles Allen, was an equally important, if less prominent, figure. Berkshire Hathway, one of the world’s most successful investment vehicles, has been led by the well-known Warren Buffett for decades, but for most of that time he had his old but less famous friend Charlie Munger at his side (Munger died in 2023).

Westminster’s latest prototype party, the alliance of independent pro-Gaza MPs, is also considering a joint leadership structure with former Labour MPs Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn at the helm. The difficulty here is that it is not yet clear exactly how the two figures would share their leadership duties. The much-discussed launch is planned for later this year.

Voting for the new Green party leader(s) will take place through all of August, with the result declared on September 2. We will see if the arguments in favour of a more conventional leadership structure (albeit with more radical policies and tone) prevail over the less conventional structure (but with a steadier political approach).

Either way, the Greens will continue to provide an alternative voice and approach in our still developing multiparty era. And maybe that’s a good thing too. When you look around the world at some other self-styled “strong leaders” – Trump, Putin, Netanyahu, to name but three – a break from having similar aspiring “strong leaders” at Westminster might be welcome.

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Stefan Stern 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. From the Green party to Corbyn’s new launch – is it time Westminster took joint leaders more seriously? – https://theconversation.com/from-the-green-party-to-corbyns-new-launch-is-it-time-westminster-took-joint-leaders-more-seriously-262058

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Beth Johnson, Professor of Television & Media Studies, University of Leeds

Keeley Hawes’s new Channel 4 and Prime Video drama, The Assassin, introduces a premise that feels both bold and overdue. It follows Julie (Hawes), a menopausal woman, overlooked and emotionally stalled, who worked as a hitwoman in her youth and unexpectedly comes out of retirement to return to the profession.

It’s pulpy, stylised and laced with dark humour. But beneath the genre trappings lies something more striking – a cultural pivot in how menopause and midlife womanhood is being written and visualised on British television.

Historically, menopause has been television’s silent transition. Onscreen, it was something female characters either didn’t have, didn’t talk about, or, when acknowledged, were mocked for. Sitcoms of the 1980s and 1990s, such as Birds of a Feather or Absolutely Fabulous, played menopausal symptoms for laughs.

In drama, menopause tended to arrive invisibly: women stopped being protagonists, were subtly phased out of storylines, or returned only as wives, mothers, or medical cases.

Television has always been shaped by industry ideas about youth, sex appeal and marketability – ideas that left little room for midlife women unless confined to supporting roles – or contained within the domestic, ensemble structures of soap operas.

While shows like New Tricks (2003), Last Tango in Halifax (2012) and Call the Midwife (2012) gradually shifted the dial, menopause itself remained offscreen: considered either too niche, too biological, or too awkward to dramatise.

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What The Assassin offers is not just a menopausal character, but midlife as premise. Rather than sidelining her life stage, the show lets its rhythms – emotional turbulence, internal chaos, flickers of disorientation, flashes of wit and a deep, simmering strength – seep into the storytelling itself.

The story ties her hormonal shifts to emotional volatility, a sense of personal invisibility, fractured family life and existential grief. And then she snaps. But it’s not collapse; it’s re-ignition. She becomes lethal — not in spite of midlife, but because of it.

I research the way midlife female protagonists are presented in British television drama. I’ve recently written about Russell T. Davies’ work in particular, arguing that his dramas (such as It’s a Sin, 2021, and Nolly, 2023) reclaim neglected figures by placing their emotional complexity and cultural marginalisation at the centre.

Nolly offered a compelling reappraisal of Noele Gordon (played by Helena Bonham Carter), the soap star unceremoniously dumped from her own show – a decision now widely understood to be rooted in sexism and ageism. Davies refused to let her disappear quietly, instead making her menopause-era strength and defiance the dramatic core of his show.

Similarly, my work with Professor Kristyn Gorton on Sally Wainwright’s series Happy Valley (2014) explores how Catherine Cawood (played by Sarah Lancashire) embodies emotional realism, grief, rage and midlife fatigue – not as flaws, but as substance. These female characters don’t just react to events; they are the story. Their emotions are not incidental but generative, propelling the narrative, shaping its tone and demanding audience recognition.

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Read more:
Happy Valley: the art of Sally Wainwright’s perfect TV ending

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The Assassin fits this trajectory. It joins a growing body of British TV that blends genre hybridity with emotional and political resonance. Like Killing Eve (2018) or I Hate Suzie (2020), it uses the structure of the thriller to think critically about gender, ageing and identity.

The menopausal hitwoman is, of course, a metaphor as much as a plot. She is rage personified: a woman no longer governed by the social niceties that often temper female representation. She’s also funny, erratic and uncontained.

A menopausal reckoning

Importantly, The Assassin doesn’t simply celebrate her transformation. It stages it as messy, uncomfortable and morally complex. This is menopause not as a redemptive arc but as a reckoning, with a body that’s changing, a past that won’t stay buried, and a society that prefers women neat, young and silent.

There’s still work to do. British television remains far more comfortable exploring middle-aged male protagonists than women in the same life stage. But what’s changing, and what I frequently explore in my research, is the tone and ambition with which female midlife is now being scripted. Where menopause was once a punchline or absence, it’s becoming a story. And not just any story, but one shaped by genre, irony, feeling and risk.

Thanks to its long-form, visual medium, television can explore the ordinary in ways that resonate deeply, from the exhaustion of grief to the frustration of being dismissed. Menopause, long under-explored, offers rich dramatic territory: emotional volatility, bodily transformation, the redefinition of self. What The Assassin understands is that these aren’t signs of decline. They’re tools of narrative power.

By giving us a menopausal character who is central, subversive and narratively in control, The Assassin signals a broader shift. It reminds us that midlife is not an endpoint, but a site of potential – for drama, for comedy and for cultural critique. British television is, at last, beginning to give menopause the storylines it deserves.

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Beth Johnson 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 Assassin: Keeley Hawes drama is a milestone for menopause on screen – https://theconversation.com/the-assassin-keeley-hawes-drama-is-a-milestone-for-menopause-on-screen-262101

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Paul Rogers, Professor of Peace Studies, University of Bradford

Keir Starmer says unless there’s a ceasefire and a peace process leading to a two-state solution, Britain will recognise the state of Palestine at the UN in September. The UK prime minister is following a similar, alebit unconditional, pledge from the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

They are reacting to what Starmer referred to as the “intolerable situation” in Gaza. In Scotland, Donald Trump has also complained at the humanitarian catastrophe of people starving in Gaza, saying: “We’ve got to get the kids fed.”

Does this mean western politicians are finally prepared to act? Quite possibly. Will it have any discernible effect on Benjamin Netanyahu? Doubtful.

Trump still appears to trust Netanyahu to feed the people of Gaza, or so he told reporters as he flew back from his weekend of “golf buggy diplomacy” on July 29. And as long as the US president supports Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister can act with few restraints.

True, the vigorous international reaction to the food crisis in Gaza has finally had some effect. But the Israeli response so far has been largely symbolic.

It has comprised air drops of aid by Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and some “tactical” or “humanitarian” pauses in the assault in parts of the Gaza Strip to allow for the delivery of aid. Air drops are good for publicity, but the amount of aid they actually deliver is very small and hugely expensive.

How did we get to this point? The current phase of the conflict started in mid-March, when the Israeli government began blocking all aid to Gaza.

That lasted two months until some shipments were allowed. In recent weeks, an average of about 70 trucks a day have crossed the border. But the reality is 500-600 trucks a day are required to support and restore heath to 2 million people.

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed – mostly shot – since May while trying to get food at one of the four overcrowded distribution sites run by the private, US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Before being replaed by the GHF system, UN agencies ran 400 distribution points across the territory.

What the daily pauses in some areas, which began on July 27, actually represent is far from clear, given that fighting continues in much of the Strip. There is little sign that Netanyahu’s government wants an early end to the war. From its perspective, there can only be peace when all the hostages are returned and Hamas has been destroyed.

But Hamas is proving far more resolute than expected. Its survival is little short of remarkable given the huge force the Israelis have used to try and destroy it.

The usual Israeli military priority in dealing with an insurgency is to follow what is known colloquially as the “Dahiya doctrine”. If an insurgency cannot be handled without serious casualties, then the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) directs its operations at civilian infrastructure and the general population to undermine support for the insurgents.

The tactic is so called because it was developed as a way of dealing with a Hezbollah stronghold in the Dahiya suburb of west Beirut in 1982. The reduction of much of Gaza to ruins is taking the doctrine to extremes, yet it is failing – Hamas is still there.

This is reportedly common knowledge in IDF circles, but rarely admitted in public. A notable exception is the senior retired IDF officer, Major-General Itzhak Brik.

Brik’s publicised view is that Hamas has already replaced its thousands of casualties with new recruits. They may not be trained in the conventional sense, but they have learnt their craft while surviving in a war zone and seeing so many of their friends and family killed and wounded.

No end in sight

Israel’s demands may be that it will end the war if Hamas surrenders and disarms, then goes into exile. The problem with this is Hamas doesn’t think Israel would end the war.

Instead, it believes Gaza would be forcibly cleared and resettled, and the occupied West Bank would see a huge increase in settlers. In this scenario, a two-state solution would be a pipe dream, and Israel would be the regional superpower able to rise to any future challenge.

So, is there any prospect of Israel being forced to compromise, to accept a UN-monitored ceasefire and seek a negotiated settlement? External political pressure is certainly rising, especially the potential formal recognition of the state of Palestine by the UK and France.

But in both cases, the conditions for the road to peace are such that they are effectively non-starters. Macron envisages a “demilitarised Palestine” living alongside Israel. Starmer has called for Hamas to disarm and play no role in the future governance of Palestinians. Neither plan has the slightest chance of getting off the ground.

In any case, without Trump’s full backing it would still mean little. Economic and social sanctions by a state or group will have little impact because there will always be states or organisations sufficiently supportive of Israel to bypass them.

We are left with two possible routes to a settlement. One is that Trump is sufficiently motivated to insist Netanyahu negotiates.

That is unlikely, unless the US president somehow gets the idea that his own reputation is being damaged. Even then, the influence of the Israel lobby in the US, especially the support for Israel of tens of millions of Christian Zionists, is formidable.

The other route to a peace deal is if the war is becoming problematic for the Israeli military. If more of the IDF’s top brass recognise that this war, right from the start, was always going to be unwinnable, this might yet move the conflict in the direction of a settlement.

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Paul Rogers 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. UK and France pledges won’t stop Netanyahu bombing Gaza – but Donald Trump or Israel’s military could – https://theconversation.com/uk-and-france-pledges-wont-stop-netanyahu-bombing-gaza-but-donald-trump-or-israels-military-could-262131

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jen Wilson, Senior Exercise and Health Practitioner, Nottingham Trent University

The “100 kettlebell swings a day” challenge is the latest viral fitness endeavour on social media. The challenge is simple: pick up a kettlebell and do 100 swings (bringing the kettlebell from between your legs and using your core and glutes to swing it up to chest or shoulder height) every day. These can be done either in one stint, or broken up throughout the day.

Proponents of the challenge say it leads to fat loss, improved muscle mass and a stronger posterior chain (glutes, back and hamstrings) – all in a short daily session.

At first glance, it sounds like a time-efficient, no-fuss approach to getting fitter with minimal equipment. But while there’s some merit in consistency, this type of challenge often ignores fundamental principles of exercise and training – and could even do more harm than good.

Here’s a few reasons why it might be best to skip the kettlebell challenge – and what you can try instead.

1. It’s not personalised to you

One of the biggest flaws in the 100 kettlebell swings challenge is that it treats everyone the same, regardless of experience level, injury history, mobility or training goals. What’s manageable for an advanced athlete could cause problems for a beginner with poor hip mobility or lower back issues.

Daily, high-rep dynamic movements which use explosive power, such as kettlebell swings, require good technique, good posture and body awareness. Without that, you’re simply reinforcing poor movement patterns. Worse, you could be inviting injury when such movements are done repeatedly.

Effective training should be personalised – or at least adapted to your movement abilities and fitness requirements in order to have the most impact.

2. No room for progress

The human body adapts quickly. If you do the same 100 reps with the same amount of weight every single day, the challenge becomes less effective over time. That initial burn you felt in week one? It’ll be gone by week three.

In well-designed training programmes, there’s a principle called “progressive overload”. This involves gradually increasing stress on the body, either through the amount of weight you’re lifting, the number of repetitions you do of an exercise, the number of sets you complete or the complexity of your movements.

The 100-swing challenge skips this entirely. This means you’ll probably hit a plateau fairly quickly.

3. Risk of injury

Doing 100 swings every day, especially without rest or proper technique, can lead to injuries such as muscle strains or joint pain in the back and shoulders.

Too much repetitive movement, insufficient recovery time and inexperience can also lead to an increased risk of an overuse injury – a condition caused by repeated stress on muscles, joints or tissues. This often results in pain, swelling, or stiffness and could potentially mean taking weeks or even months off from working out to fully recover.

Picking up this challenge might be appealing but it also ticks a lot of boxes for overuse injury.

4. It undermines recovery

Recovery between workouts is not optional. In fact, it’s where the actual adaptation happens. Training breaks the body down, while recovery builds it back stronger.

Kettlebell swings, especially if performed explosively and with heavier loads, place stress on your central nervous system. Doing them every single day without rest days, mobility work (such as stretching) or variation can lead to chronic fatigue, poor sleep, nagging injuries and even reduced performance in other areas of training.

If you’ve started the challenge and find you’re constantly sore, tight or worn down, the challenge may be doing more harm than good.

5. It’s a one-dimensional solution

Fitness isn’t just about repetition. True strength and conditioning involves a variety of movements, such as pushing, pulling, squatting, rotating and stabilising.

The 100-swing challenge trains only one plane of motion and one movement pattern. While that’s better than nothing, it’s nowhere near comprehensive. Moreover, doing the same task over and over can become mindless. You’re not necessarily getting stronger or fitter – you’re just going through the motions.

A smarter way to use kettlebells

In fairness, the challenge does have some value in the right context. For beginners who need structure, it can help establish a daily habit. It requires minimal equipment, little space and can raise heart rate, build endurance and activate the posterior chain.

But for it to be sustainable and effective, a few things must be in place:

• Your form must be solid
• The kettlebell weight must be appropriate for your fitness level
• You should vary the volume or intensity over time
• You should include rest days
• It should be part of a broader training plan – not your only form of training

If you enjoy kettlebell swings, there are more intelligent and safer ways to include them in your training than doing 100 reps every day.

Try incorporating swings into interval sessions, circuits or strength workouts with varied repetitions and loads. Instead of doing 100 swings alone, aim for 100 total reps using a mix of exercises, such as goblet squats, rows and presses. This approach not only keeps things more balanced, but also reduces the risk of injury from overuse and gives different muscle groups time to recover .

The “100 kettlebell swings a day” challenge might sound appealing in its simplicity, but simple doesn’t always mean smart. Without personalisation, progression and recovery, it can quickly turn into a repetitive grind that risks doing more harm than good.

Yes, training should be challenging, but it should also be strategic. Your body deserves more than just a checkbox of daily repetitions – it needs the right moves done the right way.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Viral ‘kettlebell challenge’ could do you more harm than good – here’s why – https://theconversation.com/viral-kettlebell-challenge-could-do-you-more-harm-than-good-heres-why-260010

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Dan Baumgardt, Senior Lecturer, School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol

The phrase “summer long balls” might sound like locker-room slang, but it’s increasingly being mentioned on social media and online forums as a seasonal curiosity. In hot weather, men’s scrotums which contain their testicles can appear looser or more pendulous – hence the name.

Male readers may have noticed how the testes sometimes seem to hang lower in the summer, yet retreat upwards with the slightest cooling breeze. (I’ll stick with the term testes for anatomical accuracy, although we all know the slang terms are many and varied.)

While you may think of rising and falling as the domain of soufflés, when it comes to testes, their ability to move up and down is a key part of an elegant, biological temperature-control system.

For some, low-hanging testes are simply a cosmetic issue affecting swimwear choices or confidence, but others can suffer discomfort. Supportive underwear may help, although finding the right fit might require more effort than your average trip to Calvin Klein.

To understand what’s going on in male bodies, we need to go back to the beginning. Both testes and ovaries start life in the abdomen and migrate downward. But whereas the journey for ovaries stops in the pelvis, testes go further, exiting the abdominal cavity entirely to reside in the scrotum – a move that’s crucial for sperm production.

The testes produce and mature sperm cells and generate androgens, such as testosterone, which govern sexual development and behaviour. These processes are temperature-sensitive. Inside the pelvis is too warm for optimal sperm production – hence the descent to the cooler scrotum, usually in teenage years when your “balls drop”.

But to reach the scrotum, testes must pass through layers of the abdominal wall. Sometimes this journey doesn’t go as planned, resulting in an undescended testis, where one (or both) remain stuck in the abdomen or groin. Surgery may be required to correct this.

Even when testes do land in the right place, they don’t stay still. The scrotum and surrounding tissues adjust their position in response to temperature. That’s where the cremasteric muscle comes in. Found within the spermatic cord, it can contract and pull the testes closer to the body when needed – for warmth and perhaps protection.

One strange but testable reflex? Try stroking the inner thigh. If functioning normally, the testis on that side will rise slightly. This reflex can also be affected by neurological disease or testicular torsion, a surgical emergency.

The dartos muscle, located in the scrotal wall, plays a similar role. When temperatures drop it contracts, drawing the testes up for warmth. In heat, it relaxes – lowering the testes and helping them cool off.

Fertility issues

This thermal sensitivity is critical for fertility. Sustained overheating can impair sperm quality, which is why an undescended testis stuck in the abdomen or groin requires an operation.

Similarly, men who are struggling to conceive may be advised to avoid tight underwear or cycling shorts, switch to looser boxers, and reduce time spent cycling because of saddle friction.

The heat, pressure and tight fit of padded cycling shorts have all been suggested as potential risks to sperm health – though the evidence remains inconclusive. It’s not necessarily the padding but rather the compression and sustained heat in the groin area that may affect testicular function.

Temperature regulation doesn’t stop there. The pampiniform plexus, a network of veins around the testicular artery, acts like a radiator. It draws heat from arterial blood to cool it before it reaches the testes, preventing overheating.

Sometimes, these veins swell into a varicocele — a condition often described as feeling like a “bag of worms”. It becomes more noticeable when standing and affects around 15% of men. While often harmless, this can also affect fertility through loss of heat regulation. Some patients may also notice a dull ache in the testes, particularly after exercise or at the end of the day.

So, “summer long balls” are rooted in real physiology. During hot weather, a relaxed dartos muscle and loose scrotal skin allow the testes to hang lower – sometimes enough to notice a visible difference. If that’s true for you, this isn’t a malfunction but your body doing exactly what it’s supposed to. While this condition might sound like something from a comedy sketch, it’s actually a sign your reproductive system is working as nature intended.

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Dan Baumgardt 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. Summer long balls? A health expert explains why hot weather can be tough on testicles – https://theconversation.com/summer-long-balls-a-health-expert-explains-why-hot-weather-can-be-tough-on-testicles-261600