Quantitative easing and labour market restructuring underline the ‘regressive recovery’

A combination of loose monetary policy and sustained wage deflation underpinned the Conservative’s economic recovery in the last parliament. These processes have consolidated rather than overcome weaknesses at the heart of Britain’s growth model, write Scott Lavery and Jeremy Green

Book Reviews

The Role of Imagination in Culture and Society: Owen Barfield’s Early Work. Astrid Diener. Reviewed by David Lavery. To Michal from Serge: Letters from Charles Williams to His Wife Florence, 1939-1945. ed. Roma King. Reviewed by Scott McLaren

New geographies of European financial competition? Frankfurt, Paris and the political economy of Brexit

The UK’s exit from the EU is unlikely to challenge the City of London’s position as Europe’s leading international financial centre (IFC). However, Brexit does create opportunities for alternative financial centres located inside the remaining EU member states. In this article, we assess the strategic positioning of private and public actors within two European IFCs - Frankfurt and Paris - in the period following the Brexit vote. Agents within these centres are seeking to differentially benefit from Brexit in two distinct ways: by mobilising to attract ‘low hanging fruit’ – vulnerable financial sub-sectors – away from the City and by utilising Brexit as a ‘bargaining chip’ to leverage domestic and European regulatory reforms. In light of these findings we argue that existing approaches to financial centre relations - in particular ‘Globalisation and World Cities’ research - should engage with the ways in which political actors shape European financial relations. Whilst private actors inside financial ‘networks’ may agitate for continued ‘cooperation’ and regulatory convergence after Brexit, new competitive orientations are also in evidence as political actors seek to privilege their territories relative to rival spaces

Automatic active acoustic target detection in turbulent aquatic environments

This work is funded by the Environment and Food Security theme Ph.D. studentship from the University of Aberdeen, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra grant NE/J004308/1), and the Marine Collaboration Research Forum (MarCRF). We would like to gratefully acknowledge the support from colleagues at Marine Scotland Science.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

UK Regions and European Structural and Investment Funds

In advance of the referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union (EU), this Brief considers the distribution of EU ‘structural and investment funds’ to the UK’s constituent regions and nations. The regional dimension of the UK/EU relationship has received relatively little attention in the public debate around the implications of ‘Brexit’ with much of the attention focusing on whether the UK as a whole will be ‘better off’ or ‘worse off’ as a result of voting to exit or remain within the EU. Further, whilst the UK’s financial contribution to the EU has been widely debated there has been considerably less attention on the funding that the UK receives from the EU, and how that funding is distributed. Analysis of the regional distribution of EU structural and investment funds suggests that the possible implications of Brexit would vary across the UK’s constituent regions and nations, which experience significantly different economic and social inequalities and have a high degree of variation in their economic performance. The Brief highlights a series of key questions relating to the future of European structural and investment funds that require examination in advance of the referendum, and that policymakers would need to swiftly address should the UK vote to leave the European Union on June 23rd

UK Regions, the European Union and Manufacturing Exports

In advance of the referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union (EU), this Brief considers the differences in how the UK’s constituent regions and nations interact with other EU countries, focusing upon trade in goods. The regional dimension of the UK/EU relationship has received relatively little attention in the public debate around the implications of ‘Brexit’, yet the evidence examined here suggests that the notion of whether the UK will be ‘better off’ or ‘worse off’ as a result of voting to exit or remain within the EU is too simplistic. An examination of the different trade relationships that different UK regions and nations have with the EU helps us to consider both how the UK will be affected by Brexit, and who will be most affected. In particular, the Brief reflects upon the possible implications of Brexit for the policy agendas around ‘rebalancing’ and ‘the Northern Powerhouse’, which are predicated upon a resurgence of manufacturing industries in the North of England

'Defend and extend': British business strategy, EU employment policy and the emerging politics of Brexit

As the British government embarks upon the process of exiting the European Union (EU), it will have to navigate the preferences of powerful business interest groups. However, the British politics and political economy literatures have tended to neglect the question of business agency in general and its relation to EU integration in particular. This article analyses British business strategy in relation to EU employment policy between 2010 and 2016. Through a document analysis of business responses to the Balance of Competences Review on EU Employment Policy and Confederation of British Industry (CBI) policy documents, the article argues that British business has attempted to ‘defend and extend’ a liberalising agenda within the EU in the recent past. Brexit fundamentally undermines this strategic orientation. The article accordingly outlines some of the key strategic dilemmas which the ‘Leave’ vote generates for British capital within the emerging politics of Brexit

The South Asian genome

Genetics of disease Microarrays Variant genotypes Population genetics Sequence alignment AllelesThe genetic sequence variation of people from the Indian subcontinent who comprise one-quarter of the world's population, is not well described. We carried out whole genome sequencing of 168 South Asians, along with whole-exome sequencing of 147 South Asians to provide deeper characterisation of coding regions. We identify 12,962,155 autosomal sequence variants, including 2,946,861 new SNPs and 312,738 novel indels. This catalogue of SNPs and indels amongst South Asians provides the first comprehensive map of genetic variation in this major human population, and reveals evidence for selective pressures on genes involved in skin biology, metabolism, infection and immunity. Our results will accelerate the search for the genetic variants underlying susceptibility to disorders such as type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease which are highly prevalent amongst South Asians.Whole genome sequencing to discover genetic variants underlying type-2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and related phenotypes amongst Indian Asians. Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust cBRC 2011-13 (JS Kooner [PI], JC Chambers)

Finance fragmented? Frankfurt and Paris as European financial centres after Brexit

Brexit creates an opportunity for alternative European financial centres. However, no comprehensive empirical analysis of the strategic positioning of actors within these financial centres has been conducted. In this article we outline findings from an extensive research project which we conducted in Frankfurt and Paris, two of the main ‘rivals’ to the City of London, in the aftermath of Brexit. We outline the core findings from this project and argue that the emerging competition between Frankfurt and Paris is shaped through four related axes: diversity, path dependency, territory and regulatory stability. Our analysis has implications for two bodies of literature within EU studies. First, inter-governmentalist and supra-nationalist approaches would benefit from interrogating more closely the contested sub-national politics of financial centres. Second, our analysis adds to a growing body of literature on European disintegration by interrogating the interaction of fragmentary and integrative dynamics in the sphere of European finance