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Was this the chancellor’s last chance? A final opportunity to persuade voters that the UK economy really has turned a corner – that the future looks bright as long as we all vote blue?
Certainly Jeremy Hunt’s spring budget of 2024 was much anticipated, particularly by those who wanted (and those who feared) income tax cuts. In the end, they didn’t happen. But with an election looming, there was still plenty of detail to dig into – for both the Tories and Labour. And as always, our panel of experts were on hand to make sense of it all.
The Pacific ocean has become famous for its giant floating garbage patch, but did you know the North Atlantic is also full of hotspots where gathering plastic pollution poses a particular risk to wildlife – including the waters around the UK? And as a new TV show brings Dick Turpin to life, we hear why he wasn’t really the dandy highwayman that popular culture makes him out to be.
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Luke Salkeld
Commissioning Editor
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Box of delights?
amanda rose/Alamy Stock Photo
Rob Branston, University of Bath; Alper Kara, Brunel University London; Andrew Burlinson, University of Sheffield; Hilary Ingham, Lancaster University; Jonquil Lowe, The Open University; Peter Sivey, University of York
What the chancellor’s plans mean for families, businesses and the British economy.
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So much ocean plastic originates from sources on land, but once floating in the sea it poses a risk to marine wildlife and habitats.
Rich Carey/Shutterstock
Samantha Garrard, Plymouth Marine Laboratory
As it travels around the ocean, plastic litter can harm wildlife and marine habitats in many ways. This study highlights five key hotspots where floating plastic poses the biggest risk.
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Noel Fielding in The Completely Made-up Adventures of Dick Turpin.
Apple+
Julie Gammon, University of Southampton
Not the dandy highwayman of popular imagination, Dick Turpin was a violent and, according to records, ugly criminal.
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Politics + Society
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Martin Smith, University of York; Dave Richards, University of Manchester; Sam Warner, University of Manchester
It may not be an election winner but the budget contained multiple traps for Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves.
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Eric Heinze, Queen Mary University of London
The police presence needed to ensure free expression costs taxpayers money.
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Chih-Ling Liu, Lancaster University; Robert Kozinets, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
It’s never just a box of chocolates.
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William Rees, University of Exeter
A world where the US has fewer allies would be an even more dangerous place.
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Leïla Choukroune, University of Portsmouth
Children are particularly at risk from malnutrition as food supplies in Gaza run out.
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Mari Wiliam, Bangor University; Marc Collinson, Bangor University
The strike saw different political factions uniting, which eventually led to a more collaborative form of politics in Wales.
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Arts + Culture
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Anna-Louise Milne, University of London Institute in Paris
Ernaux’s sparse writing about everyday encounters gains a new quality against photos from the MEP’s collection
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Fiona McCall, University of Portsmouth
It was sometimes thought that men who had sex with men would give birth to monsters.
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Business + Economy
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Miranda Sheild Johansson, UCL
In the UK, taxpayers see paying income tax as part of contributing as a citizen.
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Chisom Ubabukoh, O.P. Jindal Global University; Kunal Sen, United Nations University
Africa’s largest economy is in crisis, and unrest is growing.
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Environment
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Jack Marley, The Conversation
A new series will investigate what’s happening to nature’s calendar.
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Denise Baden, University of Southampton
Climate stories that focus on solutions are more likely to inspire positive environmental action.
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Health
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Robin Lewis, Sheffield Hallam University
Older adults in poorer areas would benefit more from seeing the same GP, but often find continuous primary care harder to access.
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Fiorentina Sterkaj, University of East London
I believe that young people today face unprecedented pressures to excel academically, professionally and socially.
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Adam Taylor, Lancaster University
‘Make sure you always wear clean pants’ isn’t just something your mum used to say – keeping your underwear scrupulously clean could stop you from getting ill
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Science + Technology
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Yang Gao, King's College London
The next generation of spacesuit needs to do more than simply protect an astronaut from the vacuum of space.
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