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Despite the fact that it is central to so many people’s lives, too often, social care is an afterthought for UK political parties. In the first TV debate of the 2024 general election, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer devoted only 36 seconds to this issue.

A growing number of councils in England have declared bankruptcy since 2018, most recently Nottingham, Woking, Thurrock and Birmingham. With the situation in the devolved nations of the UK looking similarly precarious, the question of quite what has happened to local government finances in the UK is an urgent one.

In 1783, the City of London was gripped by a court case which symbolised the brutal economics of slavery. Two years previously, the Liverpool slave ship Zong had set out from Accra, in present-day Ghana, with 442 men, women and children crammed in its hold.

There is a poverty crisis in the UK. But when outlining his 110 growth measures aimed at getting “the British economy working” during his autumn statement, the chancellor’s measures to tackle the cost of living crisis were limited to economic support payments focused on short-term wins.

The early years sector – nurseries and childminders who offer services to children under the age of five – waited expectantly for news of investment in the UK chancellor’s recent autumn statement. But this was not delivered, even though Jeremy Hunt presented 110 economic measures designed to boost UK growth…

Authoritarian leaders might be good at damaging democracy, but unless they are pure dictators they often still need to worry about winning elections. In the last few years, Europe has seen the rise of a number of authoritarian populists who rely on winning mass support among ordinary people – as…

In many nations in the immediate post-war period, women were more often supporters of rightwing parties than men. This “traditional” gender gap was supposedly underpinned by women’s greater religiosity and lower exposure to the social institutions of the left, such as trade unions.

Identifying domestic abuse victims earlier could help to reduce future emergency medical admissions. Our new research shows how this could be done before a victim even involves the police by connecting information gathered by the police and hospitals.

The routine of commuting five days a week to and from an employer’s office now seems somewhat old fashioned. Flexible and remote working have become much more common – and popular.

Research shows that in the past 50 years, social class mobility – how a person’s occupation, social class or income compares with that of their parents – has either increased or stayed static in the UK.

If you have a child born in the summer, the prospect of starting school can pose a conundrum. In England, for example, children typically start school in the September after they turn four, which for some can mean just a few months, weeks or even days later.