In the news
Vice-Chancellor Michael Arthur continued to vigorously lobby against further cuts to the higher education budget. He was interviewed on Radio 4’s Today programme and Radio Leeds, and in the Sunday Times, discussing the potentially devastating effects that government cuts to the higher education budget could have on the country’s future prosperity. Together with Russell Group’s director general Wendy Piatt, he authored a major article for the Guardian on the same theme, the main points of which were reported on the paper’s front page. The key messages were also reported across other media, including the Financial Times, the Yorkshire Post and the Independent.
The legacy of Thatcherism is the subject of a new book by Dr Dan Coffey of Leeds University Business School (LUBS) and Carole Thornley, of University of Keele, Globalization and Varieties of Capitalism: New Labour, Economic Policy and the Abject State. An article by Dr Coffey outlining the premise of the book – that the introduction of free market principles in the 1970s did not ‘rescue’ Britain and, in fact, created some of the economic problems we are experiencing today – appeared in the Yorkshire Post. The book was also the subject of a feature in the Independent on Sunday.
Dr Kara McKechnie (School of Performance and Cultural Industries) contributed to a BBC Radio Leeds feature celebrating Alan Bennett’s 75th birthday. She was interviewed on the Graham Liver show talking about Bennett, his recent work and a new documentary. She is the author of the 2007 monograph Alan Bennett, part of the television series, for Manchester University Press and has published widely on Bennett’s work.
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/ p005bmyt/Graham_Liver_04_12_2009/
Dr Matthew Treherne, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, was interviewed about Dante for the BBC Three Counties radio programme an Encyclopaedia of Everything.
Kevin Theakston, Professor of British Government, School of Politics and International Studies, featured in Radio 4’s Beyond Westminster being interviewed about a report he produced for the Association of Former Members of Parliament. Researched and co-authored with colleagues Ed Gouge and Vicky Honeyman, the report looks at the experiences of retiring and defeated MPs. Professor Theakston discussed the issues MPs leaving Parliament at the 2010 election will face as they adjust to life after politics.
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00phzvl/Beyond_Westminster_02_01_2010/
Professor Duncan McCargo (School of Politics and International Studies) was interviewed for the BBC World Service about the ongoing tax feud between Cambodia and Thailand. An article by Professor McCargo about the little reported Malay Muslims’ separatist campaign in the southern provinces of Thailand appeared in the Guardian.
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/01/thailandmalay-muslims
Radio 4’s In the News featured an interview with Professor John Fisher (iMBE) in its programme New Age. The programme examined whether the increasing number of older people poses a threat or presents an opportunity for different kinds of new business to help people age more healthily and happily.
Giuseppe Fontana (LUBS) contributed to an article in the Yorkshire Evening Post looking at whether seasonal spending increased and, if it did, whether this was a good sign. “This is a medium-to-long-term issue. A recent study showed that the economy will not return to pre-recession levels until at least 2013. The trouble is that it takes a long time for the effects of the economic downturn, like high unemployment, to filter down to the ordinary man in the street”.
Professor David Looseley, Professor of Contemporary French Culture in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, took part in a live TV debate on the French news channel, France 24. The programme, Culture: A Public Realm, looked at how the French model of cultural policy (ie, funding and other support for the arts) differs from the British and US models, asking “Is France right to try and protect its cultural heritage?”
The healthiness, or otherwise, of school meals was back on the menu for discussion following the publication of research by a team from Leeds Institute of Genetics, Health and Therapeutics. The team, which was led by Dr Charlotte Evans, found that just one per cent of school lunchboxes contain food that meets the nutritional standards set for their classmates on school meals. Dr Evans appeared on GMTV, Today on Radio 4 and many local radio programmes. The story was also picked up by the national press, including the Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Sun, Express, Mail and Times.
Further details of press coverage can be found at http://mediacuttings.leeds.ac.uk/index.aspx
