DEMOS

• The Last Post In what sense is the job in Basra done? asked The Guardian before Christmas. It’s an important question and one that all politicians who voted for the war in Iraq must be able to answer.  While the security situation has become increasingly benign in contrast to earlier this year, when militia fought running street battles and rockets rained down on British forces and officials at the International Airport, the security environment remains fragile. continue reading Posted by Charlie Edwards on 2nd January 2009 in Basra Journal Comments (1)
• Building Community Resilience: The Voluntary Effect On the 16th January we will be holding the first of our Resilient Nation podcasts. The podcast will explore the role of volunteers and volunteering in helping to build community resilience.
  We have a cracking list of speakers including: Rosanna Briggs, Deputy County Emergency Planning Officer, Essex County Council; Mary Donahue, Chief Executive of the National Flood Forum; Jacqui Campbell, Head of Community and Culture, Dacorum Borough Council; Moya Wood-Heath, Emergency Planning and Civil Protection Adviser, Red Cross; and Kathy Settle, Deputy Director, Local Response Capability, Cabinet Office. continue reading Posted by Charlie Edwards on 31st December 2008 in Resilient Nation
• Cruel parenting is not a class issue I expect that my ongoing fascination with Karen Matthews long after the tabloids have dropped her is predictably middle class. Her crime may be heinous, but she has captured our imagination in her role as working class anti-hero: a reminder of how some people (the 'other half') live in today's Britain. continue reading Posted by Julia Margo on 17th December 2008
• Skills Paradox launch and audio Last Thursday we hosted the launch of our new pamphlet The Skills Paradox. We welcomed a fantastic panel for the event, with Demos director Richard Reeves chairing: David Lammy MP, Minister of State for Higher Education and Intellectual Property, Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills; David Willetts MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities & Skills; Andrew Sich, Head of Corporate Affairs, City & Guilds; and Don Macdonald, Director of Work and Learning.
  
  You can download the audio of the talks from the event page here. continue reading Posted by Peter Bradwell on 16th December 2008
• Bowdlerisation for the 21st Century In his video for It's a Material World, Tom looked at street art and interviewed one artist who raised the question of what kind of heritage and legacy was being lost when images are painted out or cleaned up.  Last week, the Street Art Awards were held.  The public could nominate works for consideration, and then an open party was held in which the winners were chosen.The third placed image - by Banksy - speaks to some of the discussion in the video. continue reading Posted by Samuel Jones on 12th December 2008 in Saved for the Nation
• European Defence: The conference Blink and you’ll have missed it. The 10th Anniversary of St Malo, the historic Anglo-French agreement promoting greater cooperation on European Defence passed with little more than an op-ed. But ten years is too important to let pass without comment and too significant not to be celebrated.  Traditionally, tin or aluminium is given on a  tenth wedding anniversary. Both are pliable metals;  flexible and durable – two characteristics which neatly describe European Defence. Flexible in the military sense with member states pushing towards more collaborative structures and shared platforms with EU members and with NATO. And durable politically: European member states still bear the the scars from fighting over the conflict in Iraq continue reading Posted by Charlie Edwards on 12th December 2008
• Compelling teen mothers to work could be Labour's worst social policy idea yet One of the themes to emerge from debates last week about the Karen Matthews/Baby P/shocking state of social services scandals was the ongoing saga of Britain's teenage birth rate, or more precisely the so-called benefit claiming class of teenage single mothers who suck up state resources and services, do not work, but procreate freely and supposedly by active choice... continue reading Posted by Julia Margo on 11th December 2008
• Seeing the challenges of visualisation A couple of years back, Pete wrote a blog about emotion maps.  They're also the subject of this article in the IHT on visualisation. It is a way of representing - and aggregating - people's different experiences of a space like a city.  As the article explains, 'visualization comes in the form of still images, moving ones and three-dimensional models that depict elusive, often abstract phenomena such as the movement of Internet traffic, scientific theories or a...' continue reading Posted by Samuel Jones on 9th December 2008
• Another wrong move in the war against teenage binge drinking Much recent research has explored the causes of youth binge drinking. Work at Sheffield University has suggested that “cheap alcohol is the single biggest driver of alcohol harms”, so shortly the government will unveil plans to ban the sale of cheap alcohol and thus end the Binge Drinking Culture. I doubt this will work. continue reading Posted by Julia Margo on 8th December 2008
• Censor-tive Content regulation or censorship online has been steadily climbing up the agenda for a while. Any story around censorship is touch-paper stuff in the context of the Internet. And the issue has really flared up since yesterday with the news that the Internet Watch Foundation has been involved in blocking some Wikipedia content... continue reading Posted by Peter Bradwell on 8th December 2008 in Video Republic

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