Exploring the mens rea requirements of the Serious Crime Act 2007 assisting and encouraging offences

This article examines the mens rea requirements of the new assisting and encouraging offences set out in Part 2 of the Serious Crime Act 2007. Analysing the case of Rv.S&H [2011] EWCA Crim 2872, a case in which the Court of Appeal attempted to clarify this complex and troublesome area, it is demonstrated how and why the court (as well as other academic commentators) have erred in their interpretations of the statute. Moving to clarify these areas of uncertainty, the article then seeks to cast light on concerns about the future operation of these offences, concerns previously hidden by that uncertainty

Missional Churches in Secular Societies: Theology Consults Sociology

The church is missionary by nature. But what about public church mission in secular societies? Furious religion mobilizing against rebarbative secularity? Withdrawal to seek exemplary perfection? To the contrary, theologically principled consultation with the sociology of J. Casanova on deprivatized religion leads to public witness in modern societies. Public theology can interpret deprivatized religion as an expression of prophetic and kingly elements in church mission. However, sociology leaves the priestly element as if private. What might ecclesiology, missiology, and public theology say about a public aspect of the priestly element in the church’s witness in modern societies

Ethics and OR: Operationalising Discourse Ethics

Operational researchers help managers decide what they ought to do and yet this is generally evaluated in terms of efficiency or effectiveness, not ethicality. However, the combination of the tremendous power of global corporations and the financial markets, and the problems the world faces in terms of economic and environmental sustainability, has led to a revival of interest in ethical approaches. This paper explores a relatively recent and innovative process called discourse ethics. This is very different from traditional ethical systems in taking ethical decisions away from individuals or committees and putting them in the hands of the actual people who are involved and affected through processes of debate and deliberation. The paper demonstrates that discourse ethics has strong connections to OR, especially in the areas of soft and critical systems, and that OR can actually contribute to the practical operationalisation of discourse ethics. At the same time, discourse ethics can provide a rigorous discursive framework for “ethics beyond the model"

Systems practice in engineering: reflections on doctoral level systems supervision

The Industrial Doctorate Centre (IDC) in Systems, a collaboration between the University of Bristol and the University of Bath, offers an Engineering Doctorate (EngD) in Systems Programme which is aimed at high-calibre engineers from graduate level to early/mid-career stage with the purpose of developing the systems-thinking capabilities of future leaders in industry. Research Engineers on this programme are based ~75% of their time in industry and focussed on a research project defined by their sponsoring company. This paper presents a personal reflection on the role of the systems supervisor on this programme with a focus on four areas of particular interest to the author i) alignment of industry needs and academic research, ii) developing an appreciation for the need for systems thinking, iii) navigating the systems literature, and iv) teaching research methods for doctoral research in systems. The purpose is to encourage and engage in debate on the development of systems practice in engineering

Supporting strategy : a survey of UK OR/MS practitioners

This paper reports the results of an on-line survey conducted with practitioner members of the UK Operational Research (OR) Society. The purpose of the survey was to explore the current practice of supporting strategy in terms of activities supported and tools used. The results of the survey are compared to those of previous surveys to explore developments in, inter-alia, the use of management/strategy tools and „soft‟ Operational Research / Management Science (OR/MS) tools. The survey results demonstrate that OR practitioners actively support strategy within their organisations. Whilst a wide variety of tools, drawn from the OR/MS and management / strategy fields are used to support strategy within organisations, the findings suggest that soft OR/MS tools are not regularly used. The findings also demonstrate that tools are combined to support strategy from both within and across the OR/MS and management / strategy fields. The paper ends by identifying a number of areas for further research

The great U.K. depression: a puzzle and possible resolution

Between 1913 and 1929, real GDP per person in the UK fell 1 percent, while this same measure of economic activity rose about 25 percent in the rest of the world. Why was Britain so depressed in a decade of strong economic activity around the world? This paper argues that the standard explanations of contractionary monetary shocks and an overvalued nominal exchange rate are not the prime suspects for killing the British economy. Rather, we argue that large, negative sectoral shocks, coupled with generous unemployment benefits and housing subsidies, are the primary causes of this long and deep depression.Depressions ; Unemployment

Happiness, Economics and Public Policy: a critique

If politicians and their advisers want to promote the well-being or happiness of citizens they have three ways to find out what they should do. (1) They can analyse the behaviour and the decisions of citizens to find out what they want, in other words: they can try to identify their “revealed preferences”. This is common practice in economics. (2) They can analyse the “stated preferences” of people as they express them explicitly in inquiries, referenda, polls and elections. (3) They can analyse the conditions that make people happy by comparing the conditions of people at different levels of happiness. Economists, like Helen Johns and Paul Ormerod, have an outspoken preference for the first option and they are sceptical about the third. Their argument is unbalanced because they are too critical about the authenticity and complexity of self-reported happiness and not critical enough about the authenticity and complexity of revealed preferences. Economists should appreciate the comparative advantages and additional value of each option and try to find optimal combinations with synergistic effects. Economists should appreciate happiness research as an option to assess the nature and magnitude of “externalities” within their own discipline

Founts of knowledge or delusions of grandeur? Limits and illusions of tourism research impact: A reply to Wood

The starting point of our paper (Thomas & Ormerod, 2017) was to assess the extent to which academic research influenced policy and practice. Others have undertaken this task and come to a broadly similar conclusion; collectively, tourism researchers appear to have little impact on anyone other than fellow academics (and perhaps their students). Whether this is ‘good’ or ‘bad’, important or unimportant, depends on your perspective. In addition to illustrating the novel use of digital methods, the main contribution of our research lay in its attempt to explain why some academic researchers appear to have more non-academic impact than others. Our theorising of impact was, therefore, designed to identify variables that influenced impact and to show their inter-relationships. Readers will reach their own conclusions about the extent to which we were successful in our ambition, but few will deny that we had a very comprehensive data set to work with, albeit limited to the UK

UK World War I and interwar data for business cycle and growth analysis

This article contributes new time series for studying the UK economy during World War I and the interwar period. The time series are per capita hours worked and average capital income, labor income, and consumption tax rates. Uninterrupted time series of these variables are provided for an annual sample that runs from 1913 to 1938. The authors highlight the usefulness of these time series with several empirical applications. The per capita hours worked data are used in a growth accounting exercise to measure the contributions of capital, labor, and productivity to output growth. The average tax rates are employed in a Bayesian model averaging experiment to reevaluate the Benjamin and Kochin (1979) regression.Business cycles ; Economic development ; Real-time data

Framework for better living with HIV in England

Duration: April 2007 - May 2009 Sigma Research was funded by Terrence Higgins Trust to co-ordinate the development of a framework to address the health, social care, support and information needs of people with diagnosed HIV in England. It has now been published as the Framework for better living with HIV in England. The over-arching goal of the framework is that all people with diagnosed HIV in England "are enabled to have the maximum level of health, well-being, quality of life and social integration". In its explanation of how this should occur the document presents a road map for social care, support and information provision to people with diagnosed HIV in England. By establishing and communicating aims and objectives, the framework should build consensus and provide a means to establish how interventions could be prioritised and coordinated. The key drivers for the framework were clearly articulated ethical principles, agreed by all those who sign up to it, and an inclusive social development / health promotion approach. Sigma Research worked on the framework with a range of other organisations who sent representatives to a Framework Development Group (see below for membership). The framework is evidence-based and seeks to: Promote and protect the rights and well-being of all people with HIV in England. Maximise the capacity of individuals and groups of people with HIV to care for, advocate and represent themselves effectively. Improve and protect access to appropriate information, social support, social care and clinical services. Minimise social, economic, governmental and judicial change detrimental to the health and well being of people with HIV. Alongside the development of the framework, Sigma Research undertook a national needs assessment among people with diagnosed HIV across the UK called What do you need?. These two projects informed and supported each other. Framework Development Group included: African HV Policy Network Black Health Agency George House Trust NAM NAT (National AIDS Trust) Positively Women Terrence Higgins Trus