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Category: Arts and social sciences

Pensions: how yours may have been affected by recent market turmoil

Pensions: how yours may have been affected by recent market turmoil

Jonquil Lowe, Senior Lecturer in Economics and Personal Finance at The Open University, explains how pensions have been affected by former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini budget and his replacement’s U-turn. The early signs are that the financial markets have been appeased by the government’s October 17 decision to reverse two-thirds of its September mini-budget tax […]

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Are the moves by the new Chancellor enough?

Are the moves by the new Chancellor enough?

Two economists at The Open University deliver their verdict on Jeremy Hunt’s budget statement – his first since stepping into the shoes of his newly departed predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng. Jonquil Lowe, senior lecturer in economics and personal finance, said: The government has bowed to the financial markets and rowed back on most of the tax […]

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Kwarteng paid the price for the miscalculations of previous Chancellors

Kwarteng paid the price for the miscalculations of previous Chancellors

Alan Shipman, a senior lecturer in economics at The Open University, gives his opinion on the historical reasons Mr Kwarteng “had to go”. Kwasi Kwarteng will be remembered as the Chancellor who blew the government’s economic credibility with unfunded tax cuts. But his strategy was the only one left, after a series of earlier mistakes […]

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Government growth plan ‘not credible’… only a U-turn could reverse the damage of the budget

Government growth plan ‘not credible’… only a U-turn could reverse the damage of the budget

While the idea of growing the economy is not wrong the timing is and the only way forward for the Liz Truss government is to do a complete U-turn. That’s according to Jonquil Lowe a respected economist and personal finance senior lecturer at The Open University who says it is the one way to return […]

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Black History Month: the OU’s ‘Race and Ethnicity Hub’ shows past and present ideas of race and racism

Black History Month: the OU’s ‘Race and Ethnicity Hub’ shows past and present ideas of race and racism

The Open University’s OpenLearn is drawing people’s attention to Black History Month (BHM) through its ‘race and ethnicity hub’ to  help people understand historic and contemporary ideas of race and racism. It was developed after the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 and draws together a collection of existing and new free resources including articles, […]

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Ukraine war: Putin announces annexation of four regions, but his hold on them may be flimsy

Ukraine war: Putin announces annexation of four regions, but his hold on them may be flimsy

Dr Precious Chatterje-Doody is a lecturer in politics and international studies at the OU and an expert on Russian foreign and security policy, with a particular interest in the interplay of communication, perception and security. Here’s her take on Putin in the wake of the recent annexations of Ukraine territory. Vladimir Putin has formally signed […]

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Star Wars sustainability research: definitely not out of this world

Star Wars sustainability research: definitely not out of this world

Creators of props and costumes from the Star Wars film franchise are being invited to help the film industry go greener. It’s those props from the iconic films such as Stormtrooper uniforms to other equally ubiquitous items that are the key focus of a new sustainability study, led by an Open University academic. Dr Rebecca […]

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Our State funerals and how they’ve changed

Our State funerals and how they’ve changed

It’s estimated that 4 billion people around the world watched Queen Elizabeth’s funeral with many royal commentators and, no doubt, the public marvelling at the planning that went into the pageantry of this historic event. It was with much precision and practise, decades of practise we are told, that the Queen’s coffin arrived at Westminster […]

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UK interest rate rise: what the Bank of England’s historic hike means for your money

UK interest rate rise: what the Bank of England’s historic hike means for your money

Jonquil Lowe is a Senior Lecturer in Economics and Personal Finance at The Open University. Here she writes for The Conversation and predicts how households will feel the effect of rate rises as the Bank of England tries to slow inflation.  The Bank of England has raised its base rate by 0.5 percentage points, the […]

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A guard in front of 10 Downing Street in London

Tory leadership race: Sunak and Truss

The Conservative Party leadership election is gathering momentum, with Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss making it through to the final round of voting amongst party members. The pair have faced one another in TV debates and have traded arguments and polices to win over their voters, ahead of the final announcement in early September. Here […]

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