Report of the working party

ERAF: A3.CAP356Fire and rescue operations at Heathrow Airpor

The re-regulation of broadcasting: Or the mill owners’ triumph

Discusses the driving forces behind the Communications Bill 2001 of Great Britain. Terms of the bill; Arguments concerning the re-regulation

Globalization intentions in tension: The case of Singapore

10.1177/0020872810371202International Social Work535671-68

Package Opening: An Evaluation of Opening Tools for the Elderly Population

Opening packages is becoming more difficult with manufacturers making packaging harder to tamper with. Consumers must apply greater force or use tools to aid them in opening. With aging, the amount of force that can be applied reduces considerably which makes it important to view the packaging problem from the perspective of the older population. The objective of the current study was to determine the effectiveness of opening tools in opening different kinds of packages. The study revealed that the tools are mostly ineffective and do not improve performance beyond the use of the hands alone. In addition, the more complex the tool, the less effective the tool was as an aid to open packaging.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Banks and Insolvent Corporate Customers: Experience of the Rescue Culture

This is a conference paper given at the 3rd Financial Services Industry Symposium, 2004.Over the last twenty years UK banks have reviewed and streamlined traditional credit assessment techniques for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. In pursuit of margin and market share, today’s due diligence relies increasingly on centralised data and statistical “certainty” than on the more qualitative approach of the local bank manager. During this same period the nature of the banks’ “safety net”, the sanction of insolvency proceedings has changed too. The effect of this is not only to increase the potential for recovery, in respect of bad debts, but also to increase the moral hazard problem. However, increased risk is masked by creditor power in recovery situations. This paper draws on theoretical and empirical research from legal, ethical and economic viewpoints and suggests that a reappraisal of this aspect of the banker-customer relationship is essential to restore trust, prudence and long-term profitability

Living In Cold Homes After Heating Improvements: Evidence From Warm Front, England's Home Energy Efficiency Scheme.

Objective: To investigate explanatory factors for persistent cold temperatures in homes which have received heating improvements. Design: Analysis of data from a national survey of dwellings and households (in England occupied by low-income residents) that had received heating improvements or repairs under the Warm Front Scheme. Methods: Over the winters of 2001–02 and 2002–03, householders recorded living room and main bedroom temperatures in a diary. Entries were examined for 888 households, which had received high level heating interventions. Two hundred and twenty-two households were identified as occupying cold homes, with mean bedroom temperature below 16 °C or mean living room temperatures below 18 °C. Binary logistic regression was used to model dwelling and household features and then occupants’ behaviour and attitudes in the ‘cold homes’ sub-set compared with the remainder of the high intervention group. Seventy-nine supplementary, structured telephone interviews explored reasons given for lower temperatures. Using graphical and tabular methods, householders preferring cooler homes were distinguished from those who felt constrained in some way. Results: Cold homes predominate in pre-1930 properties where the householder remains dissatisfied with the heating system despite major improvements funded by Warm Front. Residents of cold homes are less likely to have long-standing illness or disability, but more likely to experience anxiety or depression. A small sample of telephone interviews reveals those preferring lower temperatures for health or other reasons, report less anxiety and depression than those with limited control over their home environment. Their ‘thermal resistance’ to higher temperatures challenges orthodox definitions of comfort and fuel poverty

Energy model, boundary object and societal lens: 35 years of the MARKAL model in the UK

Abstract Technical energy models operate within social systems and those that perform particular social as well as technical functions are more likely to be used. We illustrate this with the example of the MARKAL energy system model in the UK, a model that is also widely used internationally. In the UK, MARKAL modelling has a long history helping underpin government energy and climate policy. We trace the use of the model from its initial development in the mid-1970s to the present day, highlighting attributes that contribute to its role as a successful ‘boundary object’ for different but interconnecting energy policy communities. We suggest that changing images of the energy policy problem have enabled MARKAL to shift from an initial role in identifying technologies to reduce oil dependency to playing a key role in target-oriented climate policy. Furthermore, we argue that the ability of MARKAL to perform different roles for different groups has served to embed and institutionalise the model in the energy policy community. Moreover, the capacity of the model to represent detailed technology options has accorded with a technological focus that has suited prevailing, shared conceptions of the energy-climate policy problem

The Rover Task Force:a case study in proactive and reactive policy intervention?

The paper examines the policy responses in the UK West Midlands to the successive crises at the car maker MG-Rover. Whilst the firm’s eventual collapse in 2005 was a substantial shock to the West Midlands economy, the impact was much less than was anticipated when the firm was first threatened with closure in 2000 at the time of its break-up and sale by the German car firm BMW. Although the firm struggled as an independent producer, the five years of continued production until 2005 and the work of the initial Rover Task Force (RTF1), enabled many suppliers to adjust and diversify away from their hitherto dependence on MG-Rover resulting in as many as 10,000–12,000 jobs being ‘saved’. This first intervention was later followed by a programme to help ex-workers to find new jobs or re-train and assist supply firms to continue trading in the short term. Examination of the effectiveness of these emergency initiatives enables a wider discussion about the nature of industrial policy in the region and the work of the local regional development agency’s cluster-based approach to economic development and business support. Whilst the actions taken were successful in a number of aspects, there were a number of significant ‘failures’ at both national and local level. The MG-Rover case also illustrates a number of critical issues pertaining to regionally based cluster policies and the organization of cluster management groups where the ‘cluster’ in question not only crosses both administrative and ‘sector’ boundaries but is also subject to the imperatives of the global market car market