Policy Papers


Improving Maternity Care through Women’s Voices: The Women’s Health Strategy Continues a Long Process of Advocacy

The Women’s Health Strategy for England (WHS), published in July 2022 by the Department of Health and Social Care, acknowledged that women’s health has been long neglected.The evidence highlighted gender health inequalities across the country, the need to improve women’s access to medical services for female-specific illnesses and to address the intersectional disparities that affect women: age, ethnicity, disability and socioeconomic background. The importance of women’s voices being heard and responded to in determining future policies was also strongly emphasised throughout the WHS. This paper is focussed on maternity care, highlighted by the WHS as falling short in terms of provision and responses to individual women’s needs. The authors also highlight the crucial role of women themselves in drawing attention to the poor quality of care and provision in maternity services and the strategies they used to amplify their voices.

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How to Remember the Victims of Covid-19: Experiences of the First World War

The British government’s response to the memorialisation of mass death in the twentieth century was fraught with challenges which have parallels with the debates surrounding the remembrance of Covid-19. Here, the First World War and its aftermath are used as a case study to show how the exclusion of certain groups from memorial activities in the past have had substantial long-term implications for their cultural inclusion in memorial events in the present. Through an examination of memorial items sent by the government directly to families of people who were killed at war, this paper recommends a careful approach to mass memorialisation which is empathetic to the individually bereaved and inclusive of the diverse experiences of grief. 

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Opinion Articles


Lineker is following a long tradition of football sticking it to the authorities

The recent controversy around Gary Lineker's comments on the government's approach to immigration and asylum has seen calls for politics to be kept out of sport. But as Chris Lee argues, sport has always been political and Lineker is just the latest figure from the footballing world to stand up to the authorities.

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The self-reflective turn in historical writing and the demise of identity history

This paper briefly considers some of the issues addressed in Stefan Berger’s new book, History and Identity. How Historical Theory Shapes Historical Practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022.

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News


Lessons from History

A 6-month post-doctoral research fellowship now available with History & Policy.

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History & Policy author’s warning to the Treasury

History & Policy author, Dr Charles Read, has been widely quoted in the press following the claim by Liz Truss that she was not warned about the dangers of her mini-budget.

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No. 10 Guest Historian Series


H&P is working in partnership with the Prime Minister's Office and the National Archives to help revitalise the history content of the new History of Government Blog website.

H&P commissions and edits the No. 10 Guest Historian series, written by expert historians from the H&P network, as well as creating lively new biographies of previous Prime Ministers.

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About Us


H&P is based at the Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, University of London.

We are the only project in the UK providing access to an international network of more than 500 historians with a broad range of expertise. H&P offers a range of resources for historians, policy makers and journalists.

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