Category: The Conversation

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Abigail Taylor, Research Fellow, City-Region Economic Development Institute (City-REDI), University of Birmingham

More than a year after the UK government abandoned the phrase “levelling up”, it has now launched a fresh strategy to distribute funding to disadvantaged communities. The promise to these deprived areas is three-pronged: investment in community facilities, enhancing public spaces like parks, and revitalising town centres and high streets.

The “Pride in Place” programme will provide up to £5 billion over ten years to support around 250 communities. A further £150 million will be shared between around 95 places across England, Scotland and Wales through an associated impact fund.

The funding is aimed at building stronger, more empowered communities and enhancing physical infrastructure. It also forms part of the Labour government’s efforts to tackle the electoral threat posed by Reform UK in some of the country’s left-behind areas.

The programme is not a wholly new announcement. In its spending review earlier this year, the government announced that 25 trailblazer neighbourhoods would each receive up to £20 million over the next decade. This funding has now been rolled into the Pride in Place programme. For the additional 144 areas named recently, this will be new funding.

The programme is putting more decision-making power in local hands – and this is certainly a good thing. It includes proposals for facilities for young people, backed by a £66 million fund called #iwill as well as a £175 million Community Wealth Fund.

Another welcome aspect are plans to help communities share learning and best practice, and to empower them to drive change locally. For now though, there is little detail on how this will work.

What’s different about this fund is that it involves allocative rather than competitive funding. This means that there is no bidding or tender process. The plan to allocate funding directly to areas based on need is likely to be welcomed by councils that previously criticised competitive funding processes for being costly and time-consuming to apply for.

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Read more:
The ‘levelling up’ bidding process wastes time and money – here’s how to improve it

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Funding is allocated based on a ranking of neighbourhoods using indices that measure deprivation and community needs. The needs of some areas may have changed since the deprivation index was compiled but compared to the Levelling Up Fund, which was criticised for a lack of clarity, this selection process appears to be clearer and more robust.

Challenges and constraints

But the fund is disappointing in its scale and scope. Specifically, it appears to be focused on smaller-scale cosmetic improvements rather than larger-scale transformational change.

Compared to the New Deal for Communities (NDC) programme, which ran from 1998 to 2011 across the UK, funding for Pride in Place is small. The 39 area partnerships involved in NDC received an average of £50 million – equivalent to nearly £78 million today. By contrast, the highest award from the Pride in Place programme is £20 million.

And the aims of the NDC programme were broader than those of Pride in Place. When NDC was evaluated, litter and anti-social behaviour ranked highly among the issues that people wanted to see addressed. But the funding also supported holistic change by addressing the root causes of challenges such as creating jobs, improving education and training, action against crime, improving the environment and housing and social services.

It was measured against three place outcomes (crime, community, and housing and the physical environment) and three people-related outcomes (education, health and worklessness).

Today, it seems very unlikely that the new programme will offer substantial funding to develop training, education and housing given the sums involved. What’s more, the focus is on revitalising community spaces and boosting local pride rather than tackling inequality in housing or education. All these elements are crucial in driving change in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

Research has emphasised the importance of long-term holistic funding in addressing regional inequalities in other countries. And a recent study that reviewed UK community and economic development programmes emphasised how important it is to create conditions for communities to harness their “agency and resources”.

But it is difficult to predict the impact of this fund on current or future Reform UK voters. Heading off the challenge from Nigel Farage’s party to Labour’s vote is likely to depend on how deeply the impact is seen and felt by voters at a local level.

This in turn depends on the scale and approach of the programme – things like holistic efforts to tackle social issues and a long-term commitment to the communities involved. This, together with events (the budget this autumn, for example), are likely to shape views both in terms of physical improvements to the areas involved and voters’ perceptions of being heard in policy decisions.

Research has found that constituencies that previously received levelling-up funding saw a lower Reform vote in the 2024 general election. This suggests that visible improvements may indeed erode some of the support for Reform.

But many of the planned projects may not bear fruit until after the next general election. So if the programme is to have a significant impact, it will be important that projects have a tangible impact promptly. Reducing litter, for example, could be a quick win.

The twin approaches of youth engagement and citizen participation are positive aspects of the Pride in Place programme. The sum of funding for developing community facilities is large. But at its core, the plan falls short in addressing economic disadvantages such as skills, employment and housing. Developing a more coherent strategy around these issues is vital if the government really wants to help voters feel pride in their communities.

Abigail Taylor has received funding from the Chartered Instiute of Public Policy and Accountancy (CIPFA) for research exploring success factors in how international city regions have made progress in addressing regional inequalities and how these factors map to the UK. Abigail has also received funding from CIPFA, the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and the Japan Foundation Endowment Committee for research examining how regional growth can be enabled outside of national capitals. It draws on lessons from two second cities: Birmingham in England and Osaka in Japan, and focuses on four critical issues: institutional conditions for growth, regional group formation, funding mechanisms, and monitoring and evaluation. Abigail is also a Co-Investigator on the ESRC, AHRC and UKRI funded Local Policy Innovation (LPIP) Hub.

Alice is the theme led for ‘Inclusive and Sustainable Local Economic Performance’ on the Local Policy Innovation Partnership Hub, funded by the ESRC, AHRC and UKRI. Alice is also currently on a part-time secondment to the Centre for Local Economic Strategies a charity focusing on the promotion of community wealth building for local economies.

Jason Lowther 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. Can Labour’s plan to fund deprived communities see off Reform? What the evidence shows – https://theconversation.com/can-labours-plan-to-fund-deprived-communities-see-off-reform-what-the-evidence-shows-266304

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Ipshita Basu, Associate professor (Reader) in Global Development and Politics, University of Westminster

When asked how she was doing during her second pregnancy, Neethu, 24, told us she felt worried and cautious. “The doctor said the baby is in a sensitive state,” said Neethu who is from the Irula community in Attappadi in Kerala, India, which lies in the biodiversity hotspot of the Western Ghats mountain range.

Neethu’s first child did not survive beyond a few weeks after birth. Between 2012 and 2021 there were 136 officially reported infant deaths in Attappadi (the actual number is expected to be much higher), where Adivasis (Indigenous people) make up an estimated 43% of the population. This is considered high in a state which has the lowest infant death rates in the country.

Although these deaths had a variety of causes, malnutrition is a well documented problem among Indigenous people in this region. And malnutrition more generally is known to contribute to infant mortality by affecting the health of pregnant or breastfeeding mothers and their children.

The Adivasi families we have spoken to in Attapadi firmly believe that these are avoidable deaths. And our research into long-term changes in Attappadi’s landscape confirmed that the loss of land owned by Adivasis has eroded traditional sources of nutrition.

The state government has responded to the issue of infant mortality and malnutrition through an extension of health and agriculture projects. The “tribal multispecialty hospital” in Kottathara in Attapadi, a specialised medical care facility launched in 2007, is a striking symbol of these efforts.

To ensure everyone has access to nutritious food, special provisions are made for the Adivasis. Field-level community health workers regularly visit pregnant and breastfeeding women. Representatives from the local government and volunteers work hard to ensure Adivasi women deliver their newborns in hospitals.

However, the Adivasi residents of Attappadi are not convinced that this is going to resolve the matter. Maariyamma, an elderly Irula woman is a part of the local women’s collective that was formed in the mid 1990s for ecological regeneration and against alcohol trade in Attapadi. She firmly believes that these infant deaths have been caused by the historical curtailment of traditional millet farming, ecological destruction and the more recent land alienation.

Attappadi was exploited for timber since the early 19th century under colonial rule. Although the lands were claimed by an upper-caste, feudal landlord family, it stayed away in the plains, giving the Adivasis significant control over the land and forests.

The Irula, Muduga and Kurumba communities had farmed diverse varieties of millet in a shifting mode whereby patches of forests were slashed and burnt for farming and left fallow until they regenerated. The elderly respondents we spoke to pointed out that on the eastern slopes of the Attappadi hills, where rains are scarce, Adivasi families farmed enough millet in a season to last for the whole year.

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Read more:
Young Indian farmers are turning to an ancient crop to fight water stress and climate change

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Maariyamma fondly remembered old times: “There were hundreds of green leafy vegetable varieties in those days that kept us strong” she said, before breaking into an upbeat song that listed the names of villages and the greens they were known for.

The phase out of millet farming began in the mid-19th century, when the colonial forest department became anxious about conservation, resulting in increased checks on shifting cultivation. In postcolonial times, the widespread distribution of state-subsidised rice slowly started to change food habits. Meanwhile, millet cultivation received no financial state support.

This issue was compounded by two other developments: land alienation and ecological degradation. The arrival of settlers has resulted in many Adivasi communities losing lands. Several oorus (hamlets) lost over 3,000 acres over a span of three generations. This broke down their traditional governance system that managed food sovereignty, consisting of a mooppan (chief), mannukkaaran (soil manager), vandaari (treasurer) and kurunthala (rituals manager).

Reparation and regeneration

Several Adivasi households are now caught up in court cases over land ownership. In the late 2000s, a new wind energy farm sparked a land alienation controversy. A recent tourism boom in Attappadi exacerbates land encroachment by settlers and businessmen, backed by forged land documents.

As Maaran mooppan says, while the link might not be obvious, loss of land and infant deaths are closely connected. Adivasis now depend on cheap rice from fair price shops that have no nutritional value. His words resonate with the demands for food sovereignty being made by Indigenous people in several parts of the world. A 2023 study by the Indian Council of Medical Research pointed at the poor health of the Adivasis in Attappadi, but relegated land alienation (the loss of ownership and access to ancestral lands) as a passing concern in its conclusions.

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Read more:
Thousands of babies needlessly die each year, but women’s groups can save many

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The colonial and postcolonial intrusions by the state and settlers in Attappadi also resulted in deforestation and desertification. The state response in recent times was to initiate the Attappadi Hills Area Development Society, an organisation that divided Attappadi into watersheds and encouraged reforestation to raise the groundwater levels that were earlier depleted.

Although Adivasis nominally participated in this programme, it lacked a vision to ensure the restoration of Adivasis’ food and land sovereignty, producing short-term gains in access to water that were reversed when funding stopped in 2012.

A few recent attempts by the state government, such as the Millet Village initiative to revive millet farming, highlight the pitfalls of welfare interventions that do not address the land question. Though some Adivasi households participated in these initiatives, our respondents insist that the seeds are not native and that the products are aimed at urban consumers for whom millets are marketed as superfoods.

Neethu’s generation, several of whom we talked to and stayed with, display a complete aversion to millet-based meals and affinity towards processed foods, a habit developed in boarding schools where Adivasi children are taught in yet another state-sponsored model of engaging with the Adivasis.

This challenges the idea that Indigenous health can only be improved with increased medical care and highlights how the ecological destruction and loss of land and food sovereignty has affected the health of today’s population.

Ecological reparations involve directly addressing the historical relationship between colonialism and Indigenous health. Our research shows that a sustainable future requires listening to Indigenous peoples’ demands for food sovereignty as the key to improving health resilience.

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Ipshita Basu receives funding from the British Academy on the Knowledge Frontiers grant project titled “Planetary Health and Relational Wellbeing: Investigating the Ecological and Health Dimensions of Adivasi Lifeworlds.”

Sudheesh R.C. receives funding from the British Academy on the Knowledge Frontiers grant project titled “Planetary Health and Relational Wellbeing: Investigating the Ecological and Health Dimensions of Adivasi Lifeworlds.”

– ref. How land restoration could address malnutrition among India’s Indigenous families – https://theconversation.com/how-land-restoration-could-address-malnutrition-among-indias-indigenous-families-263297

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Pooja Saini, Professor in Suicide and Self Harm Prevention, Liverpool John Moores University

Hormonal changes during menopause can drive suicidal thoughts – a crisis that healthcare services have failed to recognise or adequately address. The devastating link is laid bare in research my colleagues and I conducted recently.

The study, which involved interviews with 42 women who experienced suicidal thoughts and behaviour during perimenopause or menopause, exposes a troubling pattern. Women in crisis are being prescribed antidepressants instead of hormone replacement therapy (HRT), despite clear menopause guidelines stating that antidepressants should not be a first-choice treatment for menopause-related low mood.

Over the past two decades, suicide rates have climbed among women in their mid-40s to mid-50s – precisely the age when most experience the menopausal transition. Yet the role of hormonal changes in this mental health crisis has been largely ignored.

Women in the study described feelings of profound hopelessness and entrapment. One participant said: “What’s the point in being alive? What purpose, what function do I have? I’ve got nothing left to give, nothing left to contribute. Why am I still here?”

The perimenopausal depression they described went beyond ordinary low mood, encompassing crushing fatigue, a sense of worthlessness and the feeling of being a burden to loved ones. Many questioned whether their lives had any remaining value or purpose.

A healthcare blind spot

The research revealed alarming gaps in medical knowledge and care. Women reported lengthy delays in receiving appropriate hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and frequent misdiagnoses. Many said their GPs lacked a basic understanding of how hormones affect mental health.

“There was zero knowledge about hormones,” one woman said of her GP. “They were doing their best with what they felt they knew, but they didn’t know anything about this subject whatsoever. It’s not on their assessments to ask about women’s menstrual cycles.”

Even when women explicitly requested hormone treatment, some were refused due to a rigid interpretation of clinical guidelines. Research shows that antidepressants are being prescribed disproportionately to women – a pattern that, in some cases reported in the study, worsened symptoms rather than relieved them.

The hormonal upheaval of menopause doesn’t occur in isolation. In midlife, women often juggle caring responsibilities, career pressures and domestic demands. These are pressures that layer on to the biological changes they’re experiencing, creating an intense mix of physical and emotional strain.

Women are now widely recognised to be losing jobs, relationships and, in some cases, their capacity to make decisions due to menopausal symptoms. Mood swings, anxiety, brain fog, hot flushes and feelings of profound sadness can be debilitating. Yet, for many, these symptoms are dismissed or misunderstood.

This dismissal has deep historical roots. The outdated diagnosis of female “hysteria” – a misogynistic label used to pathologise women’s emotions – once justified treatments as extreme as asylum confinement and electroconvulsive therapy. The word may be gone, but its legacy endures in the way women’s hormonal suffering is still minimised as exaggeration or overreaction.

There are signs of change. In 2021, an independent UK government report made ten recommendations to support menopausal women in the workplace and beyond. And, in November 2024, clinical guidelines were updated to recommend psychological support for women experiencing early menopause.

But suicide risk for midlife women has not been adequately highlighted in menopause guidance – a gap that urgently needs addressing.

Many women in the study reported dramatic improvements in mental wellbeing and a reduction in suicidal thoughts after receiving timely HRT and support from healthcare professionals who actually listened. Some described their lives as becoming tolerable again after years of suffering.

Not all women will benefit from hormone replacement, but all deserve to have their hormones checked and to be offered treatment when appropriate. The choice should be theirs – informed, supported and taken seriously.

The silence around menopausal mental health has lasted too long. It’s time healthcare services recognised this crisis for what it is: a matter of life and death.

Pooja Saini is affiliated with NHS organisations, charities and non-for profit organisations.

– ref. The mental toll of menopause – what women really feel – https://theconversation.com/the-mental-toll-of-menopause-what-women-really-feel-261982

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Mark Gatto, Assistant Professor in Critical Organisation Studies, Northumbria University, Newcastle

Warning: this article contains spoilers.

In One Battle After Another, three characters (Bob Ferguson, Colonel Steven Lockjaw and Sergio St Carlos) represent three different models of fatherhood.

Fatherhood is a timely theme. The place of men in society is being debated and challenged by polarising figures from both sides of the political spectrum.

One side promotes a regressive vision of the patriarchal man harking back to ideals of fathers as dominant breadwinners and protectors. The other side argues for caring masculinity, involved fatherhood and men taking responsibility in their communities to break the cycle of intergenerational gender inequity.

This is a battle for hearts and minds, and such battles are rarely won with stats and figures. As the success of TV shows like Adolescence has demonstrated, there is nothing like a great story to cut through political stagnation and reach a wider audience.

One Battle After Another offers another opportunity to reflect on the past, present and future of fatherhood. This is established territory for director Paul Thomas Anderson, whose masterpiece There Will be Blood (2007) depicts the complex and dysfunctional relationship between Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his adopted son, H.W (Dillon Freasier). The gut-wrenching scenes of paternal abandonment in that film offer an enduring example of the all-too-familiar “absent father”.

Lockjaw: the absent father

The absent father is a culturally embedded version of masculinity present in many popular films, that has been experienced by generations of children. TV series like Mad Men (2007) have explored a simultaneously utopian and dystopian version of 1960s fathers as emotionally absent.

In One Battle After Another, actor Sean Penn’s visceral depiction of the aptly named Colonel Steven Lockjaw provides an extreme example of patriarchal fatherhood: absent yet casting a dreadful shadow over a family. Lockjaw is driven to bloody revenge in pursuit of his biological daughter, a daughter he has had no hand in raising.

We know from studies on absent fathers that such absence can have a lifelong effect on children. Lockjaw, with his bizarre behaviours and fawning pursuit of neo-Nazi recognition, offers an allegory for the current rise of alt-right masculinity as jarringly jingoistic and egoist.

Such satire is valuable but also aligns with existing critiques of the manosphere. We need only look to Elon Musk’s infamous hand gesture at the second inauguration of Donald Trump, and his later appearance with his son in the oval office to conjure similarly disturbing visuals of fatherhood. This film breaks newer ground with its depiction of flawed father involvement and the less researched community leadership.

Bob Ferguson: the involved father

Involved fatherhood has been researched for many decades. The triad of a dad’s interaction, availability and responsibility with and for their children is the core criteria.

With Leonardo DiCaprio’s Bob Ferguson, we are introduced to a relatable, “good enough” involved father. He is the product of state hostility to father involvement. Research has shown that the intent of fathers to be involved is often stifled by patriarchal gender norms and workplace stigma.

As an involved father, single dad Bob comfortably meets two of the three criteria – he is physically and emotionally engaged with his daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti). His enduring presence is partial evidence of responsibility. However, we also see the deleterious impact his drug and alcohol abuse has had on his role as responsible caregiver. The roles have reversed for him and 16-year-old Willa. Bob’s version of involvement is symbolic of the father that cares and stays, but is flawed and unsupported.

Sergio St Carlos: the caring father

Finally, we come to Benicio del Toro’s, Sergio St Carlos, a Karate sensei, Willa’s teacher and father to the community. Offering a counternarrative to bombastic male leaders, Sergio calmly resists tyranny. As a leader, he might be interpreted as emblematic of the much-vaunted male role model, yet Sergio is also flawed. He drinks and drives, leaves much domestic care to his family and revels in his role as antagonist to the law. Yet, such flaws allow this caring father to feel recognisable, relatable and attainable.

Researchers have been writing about caring masculinities for years. Central to understanding this idea is the prioritisation of caring values of positive emotion, interdependence and relationality, and the rejection of domination.

In Sergio, we find a father who cares for his family and his community. Through him, we see a new depiction of fatherhood as the role of a caregiver and care receiver in harmony with his wider community.

Such admirable qualities may seem utopian and fantastical, yet these dads exist. Close to where I live, North East Young Dads and Lads offers a community lifeline to young dads: many later become support workers. One Battle After Another reminds us that community fathers can make a real difference.

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Mark Gatto received funding from BA Leverhulme from 2022-2024.
Mark Gatto is an Academic Board member for Working Families

– ref. One Battle Another: Sean Penn, Leonardo DiCaprio and Benicio Del Toro explore three visions of fatherhood – https://theconversation.com/one-battle-another-sean-penn-leonardo-dicaprio-and-benicio-del-toro-explore-three-visions-of-fatherhood-266858

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Ross Walker, Lecturer in Sports Management, University of Stirling

On September 8, the day before my holiday in Nepal was scheduled to end, police in the capital, Kathmandu, and other cities opened fire on young members of the public who were protesting against government corruption. At least 19 people were killed across Nepal that day, and over 300 more injured. Images of police brutality quickly spread throughout the country and internationally.

More people took to the streets the following morning to show their dissatisfaction with the government. My walk from the tourist area of Thamel in Kathmandu to Tribhuvan International Airport put me in the front lines of these protests.

The country descended into anarchy. Nepal’s parliament and the homes of several politicians were set alight, and 13,500 inmates escaped from prisons. For the best part of a day, the sky was filled with smoke and all I could hear was constant gunfire.

Protesters gathered at the airport to try to stop government officials fleeing the country. Alongside the smoke from burning buildings, this forced flights to be suspended indefinitely. With nowhere to go, I befriended some local people who helped me find somewhere to stay.

Next morning, heading back to my hotel in Thamel, we travelled through a local housing area. Between the buildings was a large, muddied patch of land with people of all ages playing football.

Throughout my time in Nepal, which also saw me travel to the Everest region in the country’s north-east, this was the most I had seen anyone playing sport in public. In general, public spaces seemed to be used for anything but sport, often becoming car parks during the day.

However, as the tensions escalated, I saw more people playing sport across the Kathmandu valley. Almost all of the Nepalis I spoke to suggested they were out enjoying sport because, after the protests and police crackdowns, people needed a purpose – something to fill them with joy, because the past 48 hours had been an expression of sadness.

For those who indulged, sport had become a beacon of hope during a time of uncertainty. Two of my most compelling memories were seeing people out on their morning run, and a local football team practising on a rural, mountainous pitch.

The power of sport

Research, including my own, suggests that sport can play a role in improving the quality of life for people and communities – and even build the capabilities of entire nations. The power of sport as a tool for development and peace – especially during times of civil unrest, conflict and tension – has been evident for decades.

One famous example occurred during the first world war. Soldiers along the western front arranged unofficial ceasefires around Christmas 1914, five months after the hostilities had begun, before meeting in no man’s land to play football.

A more recent example can been found in war-torn South Sudan. The success of the men’s national basketball side, which qualified for the 2023 Basketball World Cup and 2024 Paris Olympics, has seen the country forge a new identity. South Sudan remains unstable, but basketball is now one of the country’s most celebrated exports.

The impact was highlighted by Luol Deng, a South Sudanese former professional basketball player, who told BBC Sport Africa ahead of the Olympics: “Since I was born, I have known nothing but conversations about war.” Yet now, he said, people in South Sudan can’t wait to tell you about basketball, even if they don’t play the game. “It’s a relief. Finally, we have something positive to say.”

During my extended stay in Kathmandu, I got to know a local gym owner and competitive bodybuilder, members of a Kathmandu boxing club, and several trekking guides. People also approached me in the street.

These conversations taught me about the passion and pride Nepalese people are starting to take in sport. At the Paris Paralympics, Palesha Goverdhan won a bronze medal in para-taekwondo – Nepal’s first ever Paralympic or Olympic medal.

Cricket is one of the fastest-emerging sports in Nepal. In 2024, its men’s team qualified for the T20 World Cup for only the second time, and they are currently playing the West Indies in a T20 series. In the new year, Kathmandu will host a 21-day qualifying tournament for the 2026 women’s T20 World Cup.

Some of the Nepalese people I spoke to fear that images of the protests will discourage people from visiting their country, which is heavily dependent on tourism. At a time when the Nepal’s future remains unclear, sport can unite the country and make a statement for its people on the world stage.

Not long ago, Nelson Mandela used the 1995 Rugby World Cup to help unite a divided post-apartheid South African nation. As the first president of South Africa, he famously wore the country’s green rugby jersey during the tournament. Mandela also delivered the trophy to the team’s captain, Francois Pienaar, after South Africa won the final.

These powerful symbols laid the foundation for the Rainbow Nation, the term now used to reflect South Africa’s diverse and multicultural society. The legacy of Mandela’s efforts remain evident, despite the various societal challenges South Africa continues to face.

Siya Kolisi became the first black captain of the South African rugby team in 2018, leading his nation to World Cup victory the following year. I hope that sport can, in a similar a way, help build a more united Nepal in the future.

Ross Walker 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. Caught in Nepal’s protests, I witnessed how sport can bring people hope during times of crisis – https://theconversation.com/caught-in-nepals-protests-i-witnessed-how-sport-can-bring-people-hope-during-times-of-crisis-263295

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Yuval Katz, Lecturer in Communication and Media, Loughborough University

When US president Donald Trump recently announced his 20-point peace plan for Israel and Hamas, he claimed the moment was: “Potentially, one of the great days ever in civilisation … and I’m not just talking about Gaza … the whole deal, everything getting solved. It’s called peace in the Middle East.” But there’s a massive gap between the diplomatic stage and the harsh reality faced by ordinary people in both Israel and Gaza.

Two years after October 7, one Israeli wrote on X about the shock he experienced when the war began: “When the first reports started rolling in that the [IDF] outposts had been captured … I, a former observation platoon commander, knew that in those outposts there were also young female observers, without weapons, without real protection.

“A few months earlier, I managed to quit using [anxiety drug] Clonazepam. When I read the messages, heard the voices, I felt I was going to pass out. I took two tablets. On the same day, in the afternoon, I found myself checking the door to my flat multiple times. Not to lock it, just to make sure, as if checking would protect me.”

This personal story, from a person in Tel Aviv, who was geographically far away from where the Hamas attack was taking place, is common among Israelis. To a people raised on stories of countless pogroms and the horror of the Holocaust, October 7 brought echoes of Israel’s collective memories of innocents being yanked out of their homes by brutal killers.

The atrocities of October 7 and their horrific and detailed documentation, ubiquitously disseminated on traditional and social media have created a nation stuck in a loop, unable to move on and largely unable to acknowledge all the horrific things it has done since. The reason for this inability to move forward and reflect backwards is the endlessness of the war.

Another Israeli wrote the following on X: “The 7th of October will never end (at least not in our lifetime); it is a wound that will remain … Even in 15 or 50 years, we will feel those itches in our bodies as the date approaches … But amidst all this, our most basic desire is to try and heal, because that’s what humans do – things get destroyed and ruined, and people try to rebuild. As long as the war continues and the hostages are still in Gaza, even that attempt cannot happen.”

In the meantime, the destruction and death in Gaza Israeli soldiers have witnessed or taken part in haunts them when they return home after their tours of duty. PTSD and suicide cases have spiked. Thousands are in treatment in military hospitals, while many thousands more are thought to be suffering untreated.

Palestinians struggle to survive

But for the people of Gaza, returning home is currently an impossibility. Hungry, exhausted and repeatedly displaced, ordinary people are fighting a daily struggle to survive. A video posted on X by Arab 48 (a Palestinian news website based in Haifa) provides powerful testimonials collected during the war.

One person from Rafah, sitting outdoors with his family to cook food, explains (in Arabic – my translation): “If the occupation ends, there will be no wars or struggles … we can live in peace, we [the Palestinians] will have a state, they [the Israelis] have a state, there will be no problem, the suffocating [situation] will end, our lives will stabilise.”

In one particularly heartbreaking scene in this report, one Palestinian family roaming Gaza with the few belongings they have left stops next to a pile of rubble which was once their home. The father reflects on: “A year of war, a year of anxiety, a year of sorrow, of fear, of homelessness. We left our beautiful, calm, safe, stable home, for a life of homelessness, suffering and anxiety, carrying all that we have with us. [We suffer from] a lack of food, poor health, and have no security.”

Another video within this report shows a man returning with a backpack to a big tent where his wife is waiting for him. He immediately collapses on a chair, dehydrated, as she splashes water on his face to help him regain strength. The caption to this segment reads: “His ‘peaceful’ return to his tent after trying to secure food for his family from the relief trucks.”

Peace for this man has been reduced to coming home alive from a trip to the food distribution centres, now dangerous places where many Palestinians have been shot by IDF soldiers.

After two years of conflict, there must be a way to bridge the unfathomable distance between these two visions of peace. Trump’s grandiose vision of peace as the “greatest day in civilisation” for which he is congratulating himself in advance. And the reality for two million people in Gaza, for whom peace is merely living to see another day without starvation.

Yuval Katz 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. October 7 two years on: Israelis and Palestinians caught between two conflicting ideas of peace – https://theconversation.com/october-7-two-years-on-israelis-and-palestinians-caught-between-two-conflicting-ideas-of-peace-266922

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Matt Walsh, Head of the School of Journalism, Media and Culture, Cardiff University

The BBC’s livestreaming of the Glastonbury performance by punk-rap duo Bob Vylan broke editorial guidelines on preventing harm and offence to viewers, according to the corporation’s complaints unit. More than 5,000 people complained about the broadcast after the duo chanted “death, death to the IDF” and made other derogatory comments.

However, the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit cleared the BBC of breaching rules on impartiality, saying: “Coverage of a music festival is clearly not on the same footing as coverage of news and current affairs; […] a wide tolerance for expressions of opinion by performers or audiences would be in keeping with audience expectations for events it does cover.”

This aligns with a pattern revealed by our ongoing research into impartiality at Cardiff University – viewers have significant concerns about BBC impartiality and frequently lodge complaints about it. But those complaints are rarely upheld.

We tracked all the complaints to Ofcom and the BBC between January and August 2025.

Ofcom received 33,108 complaints about all UK broadcasters. Of those, 71.7% were about ITV programming, with over 50% related to Love Island. In the latest series, audiences made thousands of complaints alleging gaslighting and bullying on screen. The regulator rejected all of the complaints.

By comparison, news programming such as GB News – which often attracts headlines for allegedly breaching rules on impartiality – and Sky News received far fewer complaints (making up 5.1% and 4.7%, respectively).

Ten most complained about broadcasters (Ofcom)

The most common complaint category was “generally accepted standards”. This is an Ofcom complaint category designed to protect the public from harmful or offensive material, including offensive language, discrimination, and sexual or violent content. More than half of all complaints fell into this category.

By contrast, there were far fewer complaints related to the impartiality of broadcasters: due accuracy (4.5%), due impartiality/bias (3.3%), and due impartiality (just four cases).

BBC complaints

Unlike other UK broadcasters, the BBC operates its own complaints process, BBC First. Under this system, concerns must be raised with the BBC directly before they can be escalated to Ofcom.

If broadcasters are found in breach of the rules, Ofcom can impose a range of penalties including fines and even revoking a broadcaster’s licence.

Between January and August 2025, the BBC received 9,602 complaints. More than half (52.5%) concerned BBC iPlayer, followed by BBC One (19.6%), BBC Radio 4 (12.6%) and BBC News (8.7%).

Ten most complained about services (BBC)

As with Ofcom, entertainment and music were the biggest drivers of complaints for the BBC. These were dominated by Glastonbury and Bob Vylan’s performance, which made up 52% of complaints. News and current affairs followed (32.5%), with BBC News and Today among the frequently complained about.

Ten most complained about series (BBC)

Our analysis reveals a major difference in the types of complaints the BBC receives about its output compared to those made to Ofcom about other broadcasters.

For the BBC, impartiality overwhelmingly dominated, accounting for 72.9% of all complaints. By comparison, fairness (4.6%), gender discrimination/offence (4.4%) and accuracy (4.4%) were far less prominent.

This suggests audiences strongly associate the BBC with impartiality, and complaints are more likely where it is believed one party or political issue was favoured over another.

Complaints rarely upheld

Despite differences in what audiences complain about to the BBC and Ofcom, the outcome of complaints was broadly similar across both organisations. In both cases, it was extremely rare for the regulator or broadcaster to uphold the complaints (find the content to have breached standards).

At Ofcom, only eleven complaints were upheld (0.03%). At the BBC, 4.6% were upheld and 0.2% upheld in part. However, outcomes for 21.9% of BBC complaints remain unknown, as the organisation does not always publish full details online.

Our review of the specifics finds that complaints which are upheld are often concerning concrete, provable breaches. For Ofcom, this included offensive language likely to be heard by children, and programming giving undue prominence to a product. At the BBC, upheld complaints were most often about accuracy, such as the misrepresentation of political figures.

When it comes to impartiality specifically, the majority of complaints were halted early.

Complaints dealt with by Ofcom, show 97.9% related to due accuracy, 100% related to due impartiality, and 77.4% related to due impartiality/bias were not pursued. At the BBC, 98.8% of impartiality complaints, 99.5% of bias complaints, and 83.4% of accuracy complaints were resolved at the initial stage.

A small number of cases did progress. Between 2021 and 2025, Ofcom recorded just ten confirmed breaches of impartiality. GB News accounted for five of these cases, followed by the BBC with three, and then isolated incidents involving other broadcasters such as Times Radio and ITV.

Our systematic examination of complaints and whether they were upheld reveals a clear distinction between the importance of impartiality in the public’s perception of broadcasters and actual regulatory outcomes. Despite thousands of complaints, audience concerns are rarely deemed to officially be breaches of broadcasting standards.

Matt Walsh receives funding from the AHRC for research into broadcasters’ impartiality.

Keighley Perkins receives funding from the AHRC for research into broadcasters’ impartiality.

Maxwell Modell receives funding from the AHRC for research into broadcasters’ impartiality.

– ref. Bob Vylan Glastonbury complaints upheld: here’s what viewers complain to Ofcom and the BBC about most – https://theconversation.com/bob-vylan-glastonbury-complaints-upheld-heres-what-viewers-complain-to-ofcom-and-the-bbc-about-most-266726

Source: The Conversation – UK – By David J. Bailey, Associate Professor in Politics, University of Birmingham

The UK government has announced plans for police to get new powers to restrict “repeat protests”, including banning such protests outright. The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said that police should be able to consider the “cumulative impact” of protest activity when placing conditions on where and when protests can take place.

The move comes after two people were killed at a Manchester synagogue on October 2. Following the attack, pro-Palestine groups were asked to reconsider planned marches and “respect the grief of British Jews”. The demonstrations nevertheless went ahead. The organisers said that cancelling a peaceful protest would be to “let terror win”.

The home secretary then announced the plans for new powers over the weekend, saying that large and repeated protests left communities “feeling unsafe and intimidated”.

Having researched protest and dissent over many years, I find the the position the government is taking on repeat protests, and the threat it poses to democratic rights, highly concerning.

Sustained campaigns are widely considered necessary for democracies to function. Successful attempts by the public to influence politicians are often the direct result of repeated actions seeking to hold the powerful to account through protest.

In recent research I conducted into environmentalist protest campaigns, “perseverance” was one of the most important factors determining whether a campaign would be successful. Those campaigns that lasted for at least one year, and staged repeated protests throughout their campaign, were highly likely to be successful.

The decision to halt fracking in the UK in 2019 came at the end of an anti-fracking campaign that involved repeated protests over the course of a decade. The controversial drilling method was ended once it became clear that it risked causing earthquakes for nearby residents.

The Reclaim the Power campaign against the UK’s largest opencast coal mine in Ffos-y-fran, south Wales, involved multiple protests over several years. Eventually the Merthyr Tydfil council refused the mine operator’s licence extension. Now that the mine has been closed, its full impact – on local residents’ wellbeing and on the environment – is finally being acknowledged.

There are plenty of similar examples both in the UK and elsewhere. Earlier this year, the government announced it would hold the Battle of Orgreave national inquiry. This followed sustained pressure by the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign that lasted 13 years and involved multiple repeat protests and demonstrations.

In Israel, massive national protests took place from January to October 2023, in opposition to judicial reforms that threatened to weaken the power of the country’s supreme court. While the reforms went ahead, they remained contested, and were subsequently reversed.

History is full of prolonged protest campaigns producing significant democratic outcomes. The national independence movement in India lasted for three decades. The fall of the Berlin Wall was partly due to an ongoing campaign of weekly Monday demonstrations.

The suffragette protest campaign calling for the vote for women in Britain lasted for nearly ten years. The British state repeatedly imprisoned and force fed protesting women before eventually granting them the vote.

The important contribution to democratic life that sustained and repeated protests can have – typically as a direct result of their “cumulative impact” – is not only recognised by academics and civil liberty campaigners.

The current deputy prime minister, David Lammy, made exactly the same point in 2021 when Labour opposed the first attempt to curtail protest by the previous Conservative government. At that time he remembered how the “anti-apartheid movement, of which I was part, marched continuously on Trafalgar Square for black and white people to be treated as equal”.

The (restricted) right to protest

The home secretary has argued that the latest proposals are not a ban on protest, but “about restrictions and conditions”.

Similar language was also used by the previous Conservative government when it introduced a first round of anti-protest legislation in 2022. In defending that legislation, the Conservative government repeatedly promised that it was not banning peaceful protest.

Conservative home office minister Victoria Atkins claimed at the time: “Peaceful protest is absolutely fundamental to a free society. The right to peaceful protest will not be, and will never be, in question by this Government.”

Yet, the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 introduced a range of restrictions to prevent noisy or disruptive protests. This has had a concerning impact on the right to protest, and led to some of the most draconian sentences for environmental protest that the UK has ever seen.

The Labour party opposed that earlier anti-protest law. David Lammy (then shadow justice secretary) described how the legislation was “giving the police the power to prohibit the fundamental freedoms of protest that the British public hold dear”.

Since entering office, however, the Labour government has further tightened restrictions on the right to protest. The crime and policing bill currently going through parliament will ban the wearing of face masks during certain protests.

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Read more:
Banning face coverings, expanding facial recognition – how the UK government and police are eroding protest rights

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The recent proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation has led to hundreds of arrests of peaceful protesters, and been widely criticised by civil liberties groups. The UN’s high commissioner for human rights described the banning of the organisation as “at odds with the UK’s obligations under international human rights law”.

If “cumulative impact” is now to be grounds for limiting or prohibiting protest, it could mean certain protests are only allowed on a restricted number of occasions. As the evidence suggests, this risks permitting only those protests that have no chance of success. In curtailing or removing the potential for those in power to be held to account through public demonstration, the UK would lose a crucial democratic and human right.

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David J. Bailey 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. Labour wants to restrict repeat protests – but that’s what makes campaigns successful – https://theconversation.com/labour-wants-to-restrict-repeat-protests-but-thats-what-makes-campaigns-successful-266825