Rethink Fairness [Rethink]

Episodes

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01Rethink Fairness: Wealth20210104

Rethink Fairness is the latest chapter in Radio 4's Rethink project that ran throughout last year. It is a series of five discussions spread over one week at the start of the new year, presented by Amol Rajan. Its focus is fairness, a theme that emerged time and again in the conversations and essays of 2020. The pandemic brought renewed focus on how we value those who have kept shelves stacked, transport running and the old and sick cared for. So is now the time to bring about a fundamental shift in how our society and economy work? The first programme looks at wealth in the UK - who has it and how that has changed over the decades, if it is becoming harder to acquire and whether or not that matters.

Contributors
Paul Johnson, economist and director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies
Mohammed El Erian, chief economic adviser at financial services multinational Allianz and president of Queens' College, Cambridge
Dame Louise Casey, former homelessness tsar and adviser to four prime ministers on social issues
Karolina Gerlich, ex-care worker and head of the Care Workers Charity

Producer: Louise Hidalgo
Editor: Rosamund Jones

Wealth Fairness: how much does it matter and how should it be addressed?

How the world should change after the coronavirus pandemic.

02Rethink Fairness: Regions20210105

Rethink Fairness is the latest chapter in Radio 4's Rethink project that ran throughout last year. It is a series of five discussions spread over one week at the start of the new year, presented by Amol Rajan. Its focus is fairness, a theme that emerged time and again in the conversations and essays of 2020. The pandemic brought renewed focus on how different areas of the country fared. There has been political talk - on both the left and the right - for decades about the need to make the regional map of the UK, economically and socially, more equal. Why has that been so difficult to achieve and Is now the time to bring about a fundamental shift?

Contributors:
Andy Haldane, chief economist at the Bank of England
Dame Helena Morrissey, City of London financier and campaigner
Paul Swinney, director of policy and research for the independent think-tank, Centre for Cities
Dr Joanie Willett, senior lecturer in politics at Exeter University and co-director of the Institute of Cornish Studies
Professor Calvin Jones, deputy dean of Cardiff Business School

Producer: Louise Hidalgo
Editor: Rosamund Jones

Regional Fairness: how much does it matter and how should it be addressed?

How the world should change after the coronavirus pandemic.

03Rethink Fairness: Education20210106

Rethink Fairness is the latest chapter in Radio 4's Rethink project that ran throughout last year. It is a series of five discussions spread over one week at the start of the new year, presented by Amol Rajan. Its focus is fairness, a theme that emerged time and again in the conversations and essays of 2020. The pandemic brought renewed focus on different educational experiences as some schools managed to deliver online lessons more successfully than others. It also shed light on our exam system as different parts of the UK wrestled with the question of how fair this form of assessment was likely to be. However, education has been at the centre of the debate about how to increase social mobility for decades. Is now the time to bring about a fundamental shift and rethink how we might make education fairer?

Contributors
Sammy Wright, vice principal of Southmoor Academy in Sunderland and member of the advisory body, the Social Mobility Commission.
Katherine Birbalsingh, founder and headteacher of the Michaela Community School in London
Anna Vignoles, professor of education at the University of Cambridge
Lindsay Paterson, professor of educational policy at Edinburgh University

Producer: Louise Hidalgo
Editor: Rosamund Jones

Educational Fairness: how much does it matter and how should it be addressed?

How the world should change after the coronavirus pandemic.

04Rethink Fairness: Health20210107

Rethink Fairness is the latest chapter in Radio 4's Rethink project that ran throughout last year. It is a series of five discussions spread over one week at the start of the new year, presented by Amol Rajan. Its focus is fairness, a theme that emerged time and again in the conversations and essays of 2020. The pandemic brought renewed focus on health outcomes across social and racial groups and raised questions about whether our care and health system performed differently across the country and, if so, why? Those concerns are not new, but might now be the time to bring about a fundamental shift and rethink how we might make the situation fairer?

Contributors
Sir Angus Deaton, professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University and Nobel laureate for his work on health, inequality and poverty
Professor Michael Marmot, epidemiologist and author of the Marmot Review which published its report 'Fair Society, Healthy Lives' in February 2010. The follow-up Marmot Review: 10 Years On was released in February 2020.
Dame Julie Moore, former nurse and recently retired chief executive of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
Dr Saleyha Ahsan, emergency medicine and intensive care doctor at the Ysbyty Gwynedd Hospital in Bangor, north Wales. She has also worked as a humanitarian doctor in Libya and Syria. and is a broadcaster.

Producer: Louise Hidalgo
Editor: Rosamund Jones

Heath Fairness: how much does it matter and how should it be addressed?

How the world should change after the coronavirus pandemic.

05Rethink Fairness: Generations20210108

Rethink Fairness is the latest chapter in Radio 4's Rethink project that ran throughout last year. It is a series of five discussions spread over one week at the start of the new year, presented by Amol Rajan. Its focus is fairness, a theme that emerged time and again in the conversations and essays of 2020. The pandemic brought renewed focus on the economic pain faced by the young who have been disproportionately hit by job losses in retail and hospitality. They will also live with the consequences of climate change, soaring national debt and, depending on where in the country they live, high housing costs. And for many there is the additional burden of student debt. So is now the time to rethink whether we can bring about a fundamental shift in the contract between the generations and, if so, what might that look like?

Contributors
Dame Minouche Shafik, director of the London School of Economics, and Ian Goldin, professor of Globalisation and Development at the Oxford Martin School, Oxford University, are joined by three guests in their 20s: Joe Earle, founder of Ecnmy, Tara-Grace Connolly, UN youth delegate, & anti poverty campaigner, Catherine Geddes.

Producer: Louise Hidalgo
Editor: Rosamund Jones

Generational Fairness: how much does it matter and how should it be addressed?

How the world should change after the coronavirus pandemic.