Scotland once punched far, far above its weight. In the 16th century, despite having a population under a quarter the size of its neighbour, England, whose king Henry VIII tried repeatedly to subdue it, it was the smaller nation that prevailed. It is the blood of the cunning and patient James VI and I, and […]
With the Post Office scandal in the news, some people have argued that Parliament cannot undo the convictions of those wrongfully accused, because this would be ‘unprecedented’. Pardoning the sub-postmasters, or overturning their guilty verdicts, they say, is a matter for the courts. Now, I’m no lawyer or constitutional expert, but I am a historian […]
Universities are an important source of inventions and scientific breakthroughs, especially in the UK. But for us to benefit from them, those academic breakthroughs need to be turned into the useful goods and services. That can happen in a passive way, with inventors simply leaving it to others to apply their ideas, but increasingly researchers […]
What should schools teach? We obviously want kids to be literate and numerate, and to have at least some knowledge of how the world works. And we often encourage them to demonstrate some capacity for analysing and evaluating arguments. But very often it can seem like our ambitions for schools have narrowed, with more and […]
There’s a technological revolution taking place in the sky above us. Most people’s experience of drones will be as a fun way to take aerial photographs, or even just a toy to fly about in their gardens, but they are capable of so much more. Indeed, drones are already being used for inspections of buildings, […]
Most innovation policy focuses on those who are already innovating, simply tinkering with the incentives they face or funding they receive so that they apply themselves to particular industries. Yet to increase the total number of innovators, we must look further upstream, to the decisions young people make when embarking upon their careers. Encouraging people […]
On Saturday, to coincide with the Queen’s official birthday, we learned the names of the hundreds of people newly admitted to the Order of the British Empire. Many of them are already household names, like Prue Leith, now a Dame, and footballers Raheem Sterling and Jordan Henderson, now both MBEs. The past few honours lists […]
On New Year’s Day, there was more to celebrate than just the end of 2020. It was also the day that thousands upon thousands of works, by creators long dead, finally entered the public domain. Among them were George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, and George Orwell’s classics Animal Farm and 1984. Why? Because the authors died […]
