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Democracy, power and governance

Climate change and criminal justice: Emerging harms and challenges for prevention

Ahead of COP31, Rob White, author of 'Climate Harms and Criminal Justice', examines the implications for policing, prisons, courts, harm prevention and human rights.…Read more

A budget for the winter, not for the decade
by Lee Gregory, Jonathan Wistow, Natalija Atas, Sebnem Eroglu-Hawksworth, Thomas Bundschuh and Vicky Bromley  |  5th November 2026

Academics Stand Against Poverty UK argues that the Budget offers inadequate, short-term poverty relief instead of lasting action on social security, housing and inequality, urging the government to tax wealth fairly and establish a stronger financial safety net for households. In September, ASAP UK Trustees urged Andy Burnham to treat tackling poverty as the foundation Read More

2026 midterm elections: Are Trump’s culture wars losing their political power?
by Shaun Wallace and Sam Hitchmough  |  3rd November 2026

The 2026 midterms show that economic concerns have overtaken anti-CRT, DEI and “woke” culture-war politics, though the divisions they created remain deeply embedded in American society.…Read more

Too much news: why people are switching off and why it matters for democracy
by Hallvard Moe and Brita Ytre-Arne  |  26th October 2026

Hallvard Moe and Brita Ytre-Arne, authors of 'Too Much News', suggest that news saturation is rising as the constant mix of distressing and trivial content in attention-driven digital feeds overwhelms audiences, highlighting the need for journalism that informs without exhausting people. …Read more

POLICY BRIEFING: What will it take? Policy making for a food bank free future

In this policy briefing, Heather Buckingham, author of 'A Taste for Change' examines how more than 2.5 million people in the UK lived in households that used a food bank in 2024–25. This highlights the urgent need to tackle poverty, improve access to secure, fairly paid work and strengthen social security so that everyone can afford the essentials…Read more

Andy Burnham wants to run a ‘cost of living government’ – here’s what he can learn from families living through the crisis

Uisce Jordan explores how Andy Burnham’s government can tackle the cost-of-living crisis by listening directly to low-income families and using their experiences to shape policies that meaningfully reduce hardship and child poverty.…Read more

Can AI tolerate a disruptive democracy?
by Markus Holdo  |  1st October 2026

Markus Holdo, author of 'The Responsibility to Disrupt', argues that AI’s threat to democracy is its intolerance of thinking and questioning.…Read more

Trump is selling a 50-millisecond head start on Truth Social: Democracy could pay the price

Reed Van Schenck, author of 'The Reactionary Web', argues that Truth Social’s paid Truth API gives wealthy traders advance access to Trump’s market-moving announcements, highlighting how the commodification of information can undermine economic fairness and democracy.…Read more

Faster, not wiser: The rise and risks of military AI
by Luke Moffett  |  21st September 2026

Luke Moffett, author of 'Algorithms of War', discusses how the growing use of AI on the battlefield is reshaping the way life-and-death decisions are made, risking dehumanising civilians by reducing them to data points.…Read more

by Lee Gregory, Natalija Atas, Sebnem Eroglu-Hawksworth and Gideon Calder  |  15th September 2026

ASAP UK urges Andy Burnham to make tackling poverty a central priority through stronger social security, child-poverty action, decent wages, social housing and treating poverty as a health issue.…Read more