The government of Keir Starmer wants to enhance public access to the countryside. Previous Labour administrations have passed significant leglislation on this subject, and ministers and officials need to be aware of the lessons of these earlier initiatives. Glen O'Hara argues that these lessons from history include the importance of patience, story-telling, a sense of the local, an emphasis of positive rather than negative rights and the mobilisation of civic society. 

The Labour Government’s plans for breakfast clubs are just the latest stage in a history of the state feeding children at school which stretches back for over a century. Policy in this area has been prompted by a far wider range of motivations than simply an altruistic concern for children’s health, and debates about state-intervention have inevitably become politicised. John Stewart points to the importance of viewing new initiatives within the context of broader policies designed to tackle the structural problem of child problem, one that has proved depressingly persistent.

Laura King , Julie-Marie Strange | 14 February 2025 Assisted dying evokes strong opinions in an exceptionally complicated and ethically muddy context. Many politicians and professionals working in and around those dying, in palliative medicine, hospices, care homes, bereavement services and the like are truly divided on this issue, between a compassionate urge to help those in pain die with dignity if they wish to, and the potential for individuals to make a choice to die because of direct coercion or indirect (and perceived) pressure from relatives, carers and friends or over-stretched health services. The good arguments to both support or…

Dr Michael Reeve argues that historical perspectives on the perceived benefits of smoking can help us understand why people continue to consume tobacco and nicotine products in the face of overwhelming evidence about their harmful effects. 

Dame Judith Hackitt, who chaired the Health & Safety Executive from 2007 to 2016, reflects on the conference History and Policy’s Trades Union and Employment Forum will be hosting on 25 November on the history of health and safety at work.

On Friday 7 June, St John’s College, Cambridge hosted a special colloquium entitled ‘Health and Wealth: debating demography, gender, politics, welfare and policy’ to mark the retirement of one of History & Policy’s co-founders, Professor Simon Szreter.