What does it mean to be Labour? Understanding the party’s ethos

Particular perspectives influence how individuals think about politics. But how do members and supporters of a single party create a collective perception of its ethos – what it stands for and where its future lies? Karl Pike examines these concepts in relation to the Labour Party, and explains how ethos can affect political direction

Public perceptions of Keir Starmer’s performance suggest he has yet to produce a clear narrative of both the COVID-19 crisis and his leadership

Farah Hussain and Karl Pike use new polling findings to shed light on Keir Starmer’s performance in opposition. They show how unconvinced the public is of his ‘constructive opposition’ strategy

The party has a life of its own: Labour’s ethos and party modernisation, 1983-1997

PhD thesisThis thesis makes a theoretical contribution to interpreting the Labour Party and an empirical contribution to our understanding of Labour’s ‘modernisation’, from 1983-1997. It significantly develops Henry Drucker’s original insight – that Labour has an ethos as well as doctrine – and systematises it into a theoretical framework around four ‘fault lines’ within Labour’s ethos. The fault lines are: the relative prioritisation given to articulating a coherent socialist theory; policies simultaneously regarded as both emblems and outdated shibboleths; tension between autonomy for Labour politicians and participatory approaches to decision-making; and more ‘expressive’ or more ‘instrumental’ political styles. The study argues that both an individual interpretation of the party’s ethos, held by a political actor, and a dominant interpretation of the party’s ethos, perceived by actors to have greater salience in the party as a whole, help to shape the strategic calculations actors make. Ethos is considered a distinct determinant of party change in this regard. The empirical contribution challenges linear narratives of modernisation from Kinnock to Blair. The study argues that different interpretations of the party’s ethos affected the pace and scale of modernisation after 1983. At times this made the political strategy of modernisation cautious and gradualist, sensitised as it was to Labour’s competing traditions. Kinnock’s leadership was inwardly pragmatic, yet outwardly cautious in engaging with Labour’s creed and challenging emblematic policies. This led to periods of inaction, appearing to defy electoral rationality. Blair was more attuned to Labour’s ethos than is sometimes suggested in the existing literature, selective in his challenges to Labour’s traditions, and employing, at times, an expressive style of Labour politics. Through interviews, archival research and document analysis, this study delves into political processes. It examines the beliefs actors held, their judgements of the party and their strategies, to show the effect of ethos on political action

Effective area calibration of the nuclear spectroscopic telescope array (NuSTAR)

The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope ARray (NuSTAR) has been in orbit for 6 years, and with the calibration data accumulated over that period we have taken a new look at the effective area calibration. The NuSTAR 10-m focal length is achieved using an extendible mast, which flexes due to solar illumination. This results in individual observations sampling a range of off-axis angles rather than a particular off-axis angle. In our new approach, we have split over 50 individual Crab observations into segments at particular off-axis angles. We combine segments from different observations at the same off-axis angle to generate a new set of synthetic spectra, which we use to calibrate the vignetting function of the optics against the canonical Crab spectrum

NuSTAR low energy effective area correction due to thermal blanket tear

A rip in the MLI at the exit aperture of OMA, the NuSTAR optic aligned with detector focal plane module FPMA, has resulted in an increased photon flux through OMA that has manifested itself as a low energy excess. Overall, the MLI coverage has decreased by 10%, but there is an additional time-varying component, which occasionally causes the opening to increase by up to 20%. We address the problem with a calibration update, and in this paper, we describe the attributes of the problem, the implications it has on data analysis, and the solution

Audit to strategy: development of a national children and young people lymphoedema service

Lymphoedema in children and young people (CYP) can cause significant impact affecting physical, psychological and social wellbeing. This audit of 286 CYP with Lymphoedema (2015–2018) is the first national cohort reported and provides new information on patient reported outcome (PROM) changes over time. Conservative therapy produced statistically significant change in outcome measures relating to swelling, infection, appearance and compression garments. Almost half of the children had primary lymphoedema of varying types. An overall prevalence of 31 per 100 000 CYP with lymphoedema was found among a population aged 0–25 over a 3-year period. This finding suggests a higher occurrence of lymphoedema in children and young people than previously reported and is important for service planning and health professionals' education

Can a “state of the art” chemistry transport model simulate Amazonian tropospheric chemistry?

We present an evaluation of a nested high-resolution Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS)-Chem chemistry transport model simulation of tropospheric chemistry over tropical South America. The model has been constrained with two isoprene emission inventories: (1) the canopy-scale Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature (MEGAN) and (2) a leaf-scale algorithm coupled to the Lund-Potsdam-Jena General Ecosystem Simulator (LPJ-GUESS) dynamic vegetation model, and the model has been run using two different chemical mechanisms that contain alternative treatments of isoprene photo-oxidation. Large differences of up to 100 Tg C yr^(−1) exist between the isoprene emissions predicted by each inventory, with MEGAN emissions generally higher. Based on our simulations we estimate that tropical South America (30–85°W, 14°N–25°S) contributes about 15–35% of total global isoprene emissions. We have quantified the model sensitivity to changes in isoprene emissions, chemistry, boundary layer mixing, and soil NO_x emissions using ground-based and airborne observations. We find GEOS-Chem has difficulty reproducing several observed chemical species; typically hydroxyl concentrations are underestimated, whilst mixing ratios of isoprene and its oxidation products are overestimated. The magnitude of model formaldehyde (HCHO) columns are most sensitive to the choice of chemical mechanism and isoprene emission inventory. We find GEOS-Chem exhibits a significant positive bias (10–100%) when compared with HCHO columns from the Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY) and Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) for the study year 2006. Simulations that use the more detailed chemical mechanism and/or lowest isoprene emissions provide the best agreement to the satellite data, since they result in lower-HCHO columns

Effective area calibration of the nuclear spectroscopic telescope array (NuSTAR)

The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope ARray (NuSTAR) has been in orbit for 6 years, and with the calibration data accumulated over that period we have taken a new look at the effective area calibration. The NuSTAR 10-m focal length is achieved using an extendible mast, which flexes due to solar illumination. This results in individual observations sampling a range of off-axis angles rather than a particular off-axis angle. In our new approach, we have split over 50 individual Crab observations into segments at particular off-axis angles. We combine segments from different observations at the same off-axis angle to generate a new set of synthetic spectra, which we use to calibrate the vignetting function of the optics against the canonical Crab spectrum