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Last night’s election Question Time special on BBC 1 saw Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer, Ed Davey and John Swinney face questions from the British public in one of the final live grillings of this election campaign.
They were asked to get specific about their plans to cut NHS wait times, to explain how they will pay for their funding pledges and, above all, to account for the breaches in trust that have plagued politics in recent years. Here we look at what experts have to say about these issues, helping to put last night’s claims into context ahead of the big day in less than two weeks’ time.
All week, Conservative politicians have been warning that Labour is about to win a “supermajority” that will bestow on it unimaginable powers. Kings College London’s Nigel Fletcher wants to point out that this is nonsense. There is no such thing as a supermajority in the UK. There is, however, such a thing as an opposition weakened beyond recognition.
And for those excited for the new season of Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, we thought it would be fun to investigate how fire breathing might work in practice if the mythical giant lizards really did roam the Earth.
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Laura Hood
Senior Politics Editor, Assistant Editor
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Alamy/PA/Stefan Rousseau
Laura Hood, The Conversation
Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer, Ed Davey and John Swinney faced a live studio audience, some of whom ended up losing their temper with the politicians.
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Keir Starmer speaks during Prime Minister’s Questions in December 2023.
UK Parliament/Flickr
Nigel Fletcher, King's College London
The Conservatives are claiming that allowing Labour a huge majority is constitutionally dangerous but in reality, it would have no extra powers.
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House of the Dragon features fire breathing dragons.
HBO
Mark Lorch, University of Hull
A chemistry professor attempts to bridge the gap between the magical and the biological by exploring the biochemistry of dragon fire.
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World
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Dafydd Townley, University of Portsmouth
Discussions about introducing conscription are happening around the world.
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Nitasha Kaul, University of Westminster
Charging one of India’s best-known public intellectuals sends a message to all Modi critics.
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Jonathan Este, The Conversation
A selection of our coverage of the war in Ukraine from the past fortnight.
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Politics + Society
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Oliver Heath, Royal Holloway University of London; Humphrey Southall, University of Portsmouth
Boundary changes are making this election difficult to map, so we turned to the census.
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Louise Thompson, University of Manchester
Winning just a few seats would mean Reform would qualify for ‘short money’ – public funding for its operations – and would no longer have to rely on its own small donations pool.
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Sharon Wright, University of Glasgow
The next government should restore the value of benefits to cover the costs of living.
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Arts + Culture
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Emlyn Dodd, School of Advanced Study, University of London
Shouting, squelching, singing, constantly moving, ancient urban wineries were an assault on the senses
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Jane Henderson, Cardiff University
Increased arts funding, more devolved powers and a strong sense of Welsh culture and pride.
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Business + Economy
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Chris Parry, Cardiff Metropolitan University
As mortgage costs rise more first-time buyers are choosing longer-term loans to keep the monthly payments down.
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Karen Turner, University of Strathclyde
A social tariff, as proposed by the SNP, would mean lower bills for low-income households as well as elderly and disabled people.
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Environment
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Emma Higgins, University of South Wales
New research documents how drones were used to track the temperatures of the Bay Islands anole lizard on the Honduran island of Utila.
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Lindsay Hamilton, University of York
Research shows that consumers place their trust in animal welfare certificates on food.
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Jack Marley, The Conversation
An ethical diet is more likely to be low-carbon.
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Health
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Alice Bullas, Sheffield Hallam University
BRI quantifies body fat levels by looking at height and waist circumference.
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Justin Stebbing, Anglia Ruskin University
The risk of getting a secondary cancer after Car-T cell therapy is low, a new study confirms.
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Science + Technology
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Bianca Shuster, Universität Wien; Jennifer Cook, University of Birmingham
A lack of dopamine seems to directly cause social problems.
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Podcasts
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Gemma Ware, The Conversation
Nando Sigona and Michaela Benson argue Britain’s Rwanda plan was brought about as a result of a Brexit-made policy failure. Listen on The Conversation Weekly podcast.
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19 April - 21 June 2024
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Colchester
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10 - 21 June 2024
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Colchester
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19 - 20 June 2024
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London
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20 June 2024
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Walton Hall
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