The Consequences of Authoritarian Populism in Britain

Authoritarian Populist was a label often hung on the Thatcher governments of the 1980s. Although the UK political landscape has changed enormously since 1990, the popular sentiments that underpinned Margaret Thatcher?s repeated electoral successes remain remarkably strong among British voters today. The paper uses extensive survey evidence to characterise what Authoritarian Populism means for voters in Britain today. The analysis shows that there is a coherent set of beliefs, held by a surprisingly large proportion of the UK electorate, which can reasonably be described as Authoritarian Pop ulist. These beliefs focus on the strong role that Britain should play in the world, cynicism about the operation of EU institutions, a virulent opposition to human rights, negative views towards immigration, and preferences for lower taxes and a smaller state. The analysis also shows that (controlling for a wide range of other relevant factors) these views have important consequences for patterns of party support, for likely voting in the forthcoming referendum on the EU, for (dis)satisfaction with Briti sh democracy, and for attitudes towards courts

The structure of foreign policy attitudes in transatlantic perspective: comparing the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany

This is the final version of the article. Available from Wiley via the DOI in this record.While public opinion about foreign policy has been studied extensively in the United States, there is less systematic research of foreign policy opinions in other countries. Given that public opinion about international affairs affects who gets elected in democracies and then constrains the foreign policies available to leaders once elected, both comparative politics and international relations scholarship benefit from more systematic investigation of foreign policy attitudes outside the US. Using new data, we find a common set of core constructs structuring both American and European attitudes about foreign policy. Surveys conducted in four countries (the US, the UK, France, and Germany) provide an expanded set of foreign policy-related survey items that are analyzed using exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM). We specifically test for measurement equivalence and find a common four-factor structure that fits the data in all four countries. Consequently, we make valid, direct comparisons of the foreign policy preferences of four world powers. In the process, our four-factor model confirms and expands previous work on the structure of foreign policy attitudes. We also demonstrate the capability of ESEM in testing the dimensionality and cross-national equivalence of social science concepts.Data collection was funded by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council of the United Kingdom (RES-061-25-0405). All data supporting this research are available from the UK Data Archive (Study Number 851142): https://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-851142/

NATO and CSDP: party and public positioning in Germany and France

This is the final version. Available on open access from the NATO Defense College via the link in this recordVolkswagen Foundatio

EUROnu-WP6 2010 Report

This is a summary of the work done by the Working Package 6 (Physics) of the EU project "EUROnu" during the second year of activity of the project.Comment: 82 pages, 51 eps figure

To share or not to share: Public attitudes towards disclosing personal and identifiable medical data and information

In the summer of 2023, we surveyed 2,355 members of the public in England to gauge their opinions on the acceptability of the NHS sharing their personal versus anonymised data or information with other key entities operating within the public health system. These include hospitals, GPs, pharmacists, social care providers, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies for research purposes, and city or county councils. Notably, 84% of respondents indicate it is either acceptable or very acceptable of the NHS sharing personalised data and information with hospitals and GPs. In contrast, the majority of respondents (50%+) find it either unacceptable or very unacceptable of sharing such information with pharmaceutical companies for research purposes or with councils, whether it was personal or anonymised. Interestingly, higher levels of acceptability were observed when the term information was used rather than data with GPs and hospitals. Our findings extend previous understanding by suggesting that, when there are perceived potential personal benefits, people are more willing to share personal rather than anonymised health information/data. This is a new finding that has not been considered before in the discussion of patients’ health information/data sharing. We discuss the managerial implications and provide specific recommendations to the NHS, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and local governments on how they could improve their communication with the general public regarding the sharing of health data and information.Economic & Social Research Council Project Reference: ES/W011913/1, Measuring Trust and its Variance during the COVID-19 Pandemic Using Serial Surveys and Quantitative Text Analysis (https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FW011913%2F1)

A Self-Consistent Microscopic Theory of Surface Superconductivity

The electronic structure of the superconducting surface sheath in a type-II superconductor in magnetic fields $H_{c2}<H<H_{c3}$ is calculated self-consistently using the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations. We find that the pair potential $\Delta(x)$ exhibits pronounced Friedel oscillations near the surface, in marked contrast with the results of Ginzburg-Landau theory. The role of magnetic edge states is emphasized. The local density of states near the surface shows a significant depletion near the Fermi energy due to the development of local superconducting order. We suggest that this structure could be unveiled by scanning-tunneling microscopy studies performed near the edge of a superconducting sample.Comment: 12 pages, Revtex 3.0, 3 postscript figures appende

A Beta Beam complex based on the machine upgrades for the LHC

The Beta Beam CERN design is based on the present LHC injection complex and its physics reach is mainly limited by the maximum rigidity of the SPS. In fact, some of the scenarios for the machine upgrades of the LHC, particularly the construction of a fast cycling 1 TeV injector (``Super-SPS''), are very synergic with the construction of a higher $\gamma$ Beta Beam. At the energies that can be reached by this machine, we demonstrate that dense calorimeters can already be used for the detection of $\nu$ at the far location. Even at moderate masses (40 kton) as the ones imposed by the use of existing underground halls at Gran Sasso, the CP reach is very large for any value of $\theta_{13}$ that would provide evidence of $\nu_e$ appearance at T2K or NO$\nu$A ($\theta_{13}\geq 3^\circ$). Exploitation of matter effects at the CERN to Gran Sasso distance provides sensitivity to the neutrino mass hierarchy in significant areas of the $\theta_{13}-\delta$ plane

The influence of waiting times and sociopolitical variables on public trust in healthcare: A cross-sectional study of the NHS in England

Data availability: Replication code and data are available through the Harvard Dataverse at: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/AQYYNK . The data are in the public domain, under the terms of the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal deed.Objectives: This study aims to assess factors influencing public trust in the National Health Service (NHS) in England, focusing on the impact of waiting times in Accident & Emergency (A&E) departments and for GP-to-specialist cancer referrals. Study design: A cross-sectional survey-based research design was employed, covering the period from July 2022 to July 2023. Methods: Data were collected through YouGov surveys, yielding 7415 responses. Our analysis is based on 6952 of these responses which we were able to aggregate to 42 NHS Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) for A&E waiting times and 106 ICB sub-units for cancer referral times. Multiple regression analysis was conducted, with the dependent variable being trust in the NHS. Results: Waiting times for A&E and cancer referrals did not significantly affect trust in the NHS. However, other sociopolitical factors displayed significant influence. Specifically, being a member of an ethnic minority group, or having voted Conservative in the 2019 general election were associated with lower trust scores. Other variables such as age and local unemployment rate were also significant predictors. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that waiting times for healthcare services have no effect on public trust in the NHS. Instead, trust appears to be largely shaped by sociopolitical factors. Policymakers should therefore look beyond operational efficiency when seeking to bolster trust in the healthcare system.UKRI/ESRC (Grant reference ES/W011913/1) and the JSPS (Grant reference JPJSJRP 20211704)