|
In response to effectively declaring bankruptcy in September 2023, Birmingham city council votes today on measures set to save £149 million. On the table are proposals to, among other things, raise council tax by 21% over the next two years, shut down 25 of the city’s 35 public libraries and entirely defund its arts sector. Adult social care and children’s services, too, are under threat.
In the coming months, as street lights are dimmed and bins less often emptied, local residents will no doubt be grasping for answers as to why Birmingham is in the state it is in. From the outset, the insolvency has been blamed on equal pay claims amounting to around £700 million. But, as financial reporting expert James Brackley has shown through his investigations, the council’s own minutes tell a different story.
The city is scrambling to fix an ongoing IT disaster that is now £91 million over budget and yet has left it unable to monitor its own budget effectively. Not even the sum of £149 million that the present budget cuts aim to save has a reliable accounting basis. It raises serious questions about how the council has represented its financial woes.
Elsewhere, a psychologist examines the problematic bias shown in Channel 4’s The Jury: Murder Trial. And in altogether more heartening news, two biologists highlight the surprisingly high numbers of honey bees to be found in the
wild.
For over a deacde, the Conversation has been an example of increasing collaboration and cross-fertilisation between the spheres of journalism and academia. But what challenges remain? In 2011, as we considered the launch of The Conversation, the decline of print was a critical matter. In 2024, it has largely been eclipsed in debate by topics such as disinformation and AI. Spanning the period though, is the degree to which both media and academia maintain a level of trust between each other, and, critically, with the public at large. These issues will be at the heart of an academic conference in Dublin later this week, co-hosted by University College Dublin’s Clinton Institute and The Conversation.
|
Birmingham city.
Clare Louise Jackson|Shutterstock
James Brackley, University of Sheffield
Birmingham’s spiralling budget deficits are the result of a decade of austerity and a disastrous implementation of a new Oracle IT system.
|
Courtesy of Channel 4
Lee John Curley, The Open University
As my research into jurors and jury decision making shows, our system is far from perfect.
|
Minko Peev/Shutterstock
Francis Ratnieks, University of Sussex; Oliver Visick, University of Sussex
Wild honey bee colonies outnumber those managed in commercial hives.
|
Politics + Society
|
-
Claudia Hillebrand, Cardiff University
Daniela Klette was working as a maths tutor in Berlin under an assumed name.
-
Gemma Horton, University of Sheffield
Even those who seek out the spotlight have a legal right to privacy.
|
|
Arts + Culture
|
-
Anna Marie Roos, University of Lincoln
Screaming mandrakes, purloined potatoes and heat-giving sunflower seeds were thought to have healing properties.
-
Nathan Abrams, Bangor University
25 years after the death of the legendary director, a new book offers fresh insights into Stanley Kubrick’s personal and professional life.
|
|
Business + Economy
|
-
Steve Schifferes, City, University of London
Can the chancellor move the dial on the Tories’ grim polling?
-
Robert Gausden, University of Portsmouth
A short history of reducing tax burdens and winning elections.
-
Kirk Chang, University of East London; Alina Vaduva, University of East London
The effects of AI’s growth on global security could be difficult to predict.
-
Jose Caballero, International Institute for Management Development (IMD)
Russia has looked for new trading partners as sanctions bite, but also suffered a brain drain.
|
|
Environment
|
-
Dania Albini, University of Exeter
Sewage fungus is actually not a fungus. Our expert explains what it is, where it lives and what can be done to reduce outbreaks in polluted rivers.
|
|
Health
|
-
Mary Ni Lochlainn, King's College London
A daily fibre supplement improved brain function in twins over 65s in just 12 weeks.
-
Pete Wilde, Quadram Institute
A large new review finds UHPs implicated in many health conditions, but we still don’t know which foods are the key culprits.
-
Benjamin Goodair, University of Oxford
Our review shows that evidence to support further privatisation of healthcare services is weak.
|
|
Science + Technology
|
-
Beatriz Monge-Sanz, University of Oxford
Cold snaps can affect everyday services and infrastructure, putting lives at risk.
-
Andrew Coates, UCL
Only about 12kg of oxygen is produced per second on Europa, which is on the lower side of previous estimates from about 5kg to 1,100 kg per second.
|
|
