UKICE (I Tell‪)‬ UKICE (I Tell)

On this special episode of UKICE (I Tell), we have a live recording of our latest Unlocked event with Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire. Talking to Professor Anand Menon on 31 May, Tracy discussed her role as Metro Mayor, regional devolution and what ‘levelling up’ means to those in West Yorkshire, as well her time as a Labour MP and the party’s chances as we head towards the next General Election.

You can watch the event on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHD5Py6HxCU

In this episode of 'UKICE (I Tell)' - formerly known as 'Brexit and Beyond' - Professor Ben Ansell, Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College, University of Oxford, talks to Professor Anand Menon about his new book, 'Why Politics Fails: The Five Traps of the Modern World & How to Escape Them', the merits of proportional representation and the politics of the housing crisis.

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Ben Ansell is Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. Following a PhD at Harvard he taught at the University of Minnesota for several years, becoming a full Professor at Oxford in 2013 at the age of thirty-five. He was made Fellow of the British Academy in 2018, among the youngest fellows at that time. His work has been widely covered in the media, including in the World Bank's World Development Report, The New York Times, The Economist, The Times and on BBC Radio 4's 'Start the Week'. He is the Principal Investigator of the multi-million-pound ERC project 'The Politics of Wealth Inequality', co-editor of the most-cited journal in comparative politics, and has written three award-winning academic books. 'Why Politics Fails' is his first for a general reader.

On this special episode of UKICE (I Tell), we have a live recording of our most recent Unlocked event with Minister of State for Security, Tom Tugendhat. The event took place in late April and we covered a range of issues from the main security threats facing the UK at home, the UK’s role in European defence, the response to Russia’s war in Ukraine, and addressing China’s increased assertiveness on the world stage.

You can watch the event online on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZObCGIgEr4&

In this episode of 'UKICE (I Tell)' - formerly known as 'Brexit and Beyond' - Julia Gillard, former Prime Minister of Australia and Chair of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London talks to Professor Anand Menon about the role of women in public life, tackling inequality and 'Australia-style' politics in the UK.

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Julia Gillard is the only woman to have served as Prime Minister of Australia, a position she held from 2010 to 2013. Julia was central to the successful management of Australia’s economy, the 12th biggest in the world, during the global financial crisis, and delivered nation-changing policies including reforming Australian education at every level and establishing the nation’s first ever national scheme to care for people with disabilities. In October 2012, Julia received worldwide attention for her speech in parliament on the treatment of women in professional and public life. In April 2018, Julia was appointed Chair of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London.

In this episode of 'UKICE (I Tell)' - formerly known as 'Brexit and Beyond' - Rosie Collington, PhD student at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) and co-author of 'The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens Our Businesses, Infantilizes Our Governments and Warps Our Economies' talks to Professor Anand Menon about the value created by consultancies and the revolving door between consulting and government. 

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Rosie Collington is a PhD candidate at IIPP, under the supervision of Professor Mariana Mazzucato and Dr Kate Roll. Her research explores the political economy of health innovation and the role of the state in value creation. She holds an MSc in Political Science (International Political Economy) from the University of Copenhagen, during which she also received a grant to study on exchange at the University of California at Berkeley’s School of Public Health. Alongside her studies, she worked at Copenhagen Business School, and at the Center for Medical Science and Technology Studies at the University of Copenhagen as a Research Assistant.

Before joining IIPP in September 2020, she held roles in policy and advocacy at the British Heart Foundation, and most recently as a Researcher for a project led by Professor William Lazonick on pharmaceutical industry financialization, funded by the Institute for New Economic Thinking. She has also worked on a freelance basis with a number of think tanks and advocacy groups, and has written for public audiences in The Guardian, The New Statesman, openDemocracy and elsewhere. She is a Coordinator of the Economics of Innovation Working Group with the Institute for New Economic Thinking’s Young Scholars Initiative.

Laura Kyrke-Smith, UK Executive Director of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Abdul Amin, PhD student and a refugee client of the IRC join Professor Anand Menon to discuss the work of the IRC, issues around humanitarian assistance and the effects of the Illegal Migration Bill.

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Laura Kyrke-Smith was appointed executive director of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in the UK in 2020. As executive director, Kyrke-Smith is responsible for delivering policy and practice change and increasing funding. She has been with IRC since 2015, when she joined as director of communications in Europe – her previous experience at Portland Communications working with philanthropic clients having bolstered her skills and connections in this area. Kryke-Smith has also worked in government and foreign affairs; she started her career in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as a policy analyst and speechwriter.

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Abdul Amin is a former UN Staff Member, with UNDP being his most recent employer. He is also a Chevening and a Warm Welcome Scholar. Since arriving in the UK in August 2021 with his family, Amin has undertaken an MA degree in Conflict, Security and Development at the University of Sussex last year, and is now pursuing a PhD in Politics at the University of Exeter. Amin was a refugee client of the International Rescue Committee.