The Social Affairs Unit - Web Review http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ The Social Affairs Unit identifies research with a potential to inform public policy and translates it from academic discourse into public debate. The ideas it promotes come largely from historians, sociologists and philosophers but also medical doctors and hard scientists. en-us 2013-04-14T19:01:04+00:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 Margaret Thatcher: Wrong on many things, but right on the one thing that mattered - or so argues Christie Davies http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/002117.php Margaret Thatcher was a great Prime Minister because she was right on the one issue that mattered in her time - the need for socialism to be defeated both in Britain and in the World. The views expressed here are... 2117@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Historical Thoughts 2013-04-14T19:01:04+00:00 The British Empire will outlast the European Union - argues Lincoln Allison http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/002116.php Lincoln Allison - Emeritus Reader in Politics at the University of Warwick - believes the British Empire has more of a future than the European Union. I have two granddaughters called Ava and Sylvie. Their other grandparents were born in... 2116@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Historical Thoughts 2013-03-11T19:39:02+00:00 When the (Fairy) Dust has Settled: Lincoln Allison assesses what the long-term impact of the London Olympics will be http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/002115.php Lincoln Allison - Emeritus Reader in Politics at the University of Warwick and Visiting Professor in sport and leisure at the University of Brighton - was very sceptical of the London Olympics, asking before they started, Are the Olympic Games... 2115@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Sport 2012-12-17T13:36:21+00:00 How to Handle a Witch (or Several): The Daylight Gate - Jeanette Winterson http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/002114.php The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson Pp. 208. London: Hammer, 2012 Hardback, £9.99 About twenty five years ago our family, a married couple and three sons, set off at the end of October on a routine trip to the Pendle... 2114@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Reviews - Books 2012-12-14T13:07:46+00:00 Tom Holland's In the Shadow of the Sword is a great story, bravely told, but it leaves Richard D. North longing for old fashioned academic pedantry: In The Shadow Of The Sword - Tom Holland http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/002113.php In The Shadow Of The Sword: The Battle for Global Empire and the End of the Ancient World by Tom Holland Pp. 544. London: Little, Brown, 2012 Hardback, £25 Tom Holland's account of the fall and rise of empires and... 2113@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Reviews - Books 2012-12-06T17:01:44+00:00 Those who support European integration should support British separation from Europe - argues Brendan Simms http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/002112.php Britain's separation from Europe would strengthen the European project - argues Brendan Simms, Professor in the History of International Relations at the University of Cambridge. Britain is once again at odds with Europe over the budget which Prime Minister David... 2112@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ International Relations 2012-11-09T17:20:10+00:00 Sunday Courts: A Kenneth Clarke proposal that Chris Grayling would do well to shelve http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/002111.php Jan Davies - a solicitor in the criminal courts for over 20 years and the author of Criminal Justice Under Siege - explains why Sunday Courts are a bad idea. Sunday observance has collapsed. This has been one of the... 2111@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Crime & Punishment 2012-09-14T18:50:51+00:00 Lincoln Allison asks, are the Olympic Games the biggest con on the planet? http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/002106.php Lincoln Allison - Emeritus Reader in Politics at the University of Warwick and Visiting Professor in sport and leisure at the University of Brighton - is a huge sports fan, but is no fan of the London, or any other,... 2106@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Sport 2012-07-24T18:45:19+00:00 So how did London become so good? Lincoln Allison argues that much of what went right was due to accidental fortune http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/002105.php Lincoln Allison - Emeritus Reader in Politics at the University of Warwick - contrasts the grey decaying city he knew in the 1960s with the vibrant world city he visits today. In the five years I spent in Oxford in... 2105@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Popular Culture 2012-07-24T16:44:43+00:00 Caro gives us Lyndon Johnson in a form which would have a Shakespeare richly intrigued. This is work worthy of Cicero – or a Robert Harris novel, says Richard D. North: The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, volume 4 - Robert A. Caro http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/002104.php The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, volume 4 by Robert A. Caro Pp. 712. London: Bodley Head, 2012 Hardback, £15.99 I knew I was a fan of LBJ long before I opened Volume 4, the latest, of... 2104@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Reviews - Books 2012-07-23T18:27:48+00:00 Richard D. North on what women want: Manning Up - Kay S. Hymowitz http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/002103.php Manning Up: How the Rise of Women Has Turned Men into Boys by Kay S. Hymowitz Pp. 240. New York: Basic Books, 2011 Hardback, £15.99 This is a good and important book, but its most important messages only come through... 2103@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Reviews - Books 2012-07-12T13:50:33+00:00 Whatever Happened to Social Mobility? Lincoln Allison blames university expansion for its decline http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/002102.php Lincoln Allison - Emeritus Reader in Politics at the University of Warwick - argues that the expansion in the number of those going to university has done the opposite of what its advocates were hoping for. Captain E. J. Smith... 2102@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Wealth & Poverty 2012-07-11T17:38:50+00:00 Racism in Football: Lincoln Allison goes against the sociological consensus to argue that sport in Britain has ameliorated not exacerbated racism http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/002101.php Leading academic expert on sport Lincoln Allison argues that - for all the foul racism seen at grounds in the past - football in Britain has been a powerful force against racism. The Manager of the England football team resigns... 2101@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Sport 2012-06-12T18:51:22+00:00 Europe's Northern Flank: Brendan Simms ponders Norway's security dilemmas http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/002100.php Brendan Simms - Professor in the History of International Relations at the University of Cambridge - explains why the security of Norway is vital to the security of Europe, indeed to the security of the West. The media are awash... 2100@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ International Relations 2012-04-24T17:50:11+00:00 You Don't Remember Anything You Learn at School, Do You? - Lincoln Allison remembers lessons at Lancaster Royal Grammar School and University College, Oxford http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/002099.php The tall Polish shop assistant is talking to the short English one. They are bored as shop assistants often are and the Polish lady is recounting her date of the previous evening. Her complaint is that the gentleman in question... 2099@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Schooling 2012-04-13T18:39:24+00:00