In a time of political turbulence, and as the Welfare State totters under the strain in a country that has changed dramatically since 1945, Archbishop Justin Welby sets out to identify the values that will enable us to reimagine, and to enact, a more hopeful future. The thesis is that the work of reimagining is as great as it was in 1945, and will happen either by accident – and thus badly – or deliberately. The author draws on Britain's history and Christian tradition to identify this country's foundational values, and the building blocks necessary to implement them in a post-Brexit, multicultural society. He explores the areas in which values are translated into action, including the traditional three of recent history: health (especially public, and mental), housing and education. To these he adds family; the environment; economics and finance; peacebuilding and overseas development; immigration; and integration. He looks particularly at the role of faith groups in enabling, and contributing to, a fairer future. When so many are immobilized by political turmoil, this book builds on our past to offer hope for the future, and practical ways of achieving a more equitable society.

"Over the years of the developing judicial review of ministerial and governmental decisions, Louis Blom-Cooper was a leading advocate who grew up with the advent of a distinctive brand of public law. His range of public activities, both inside and out of the courtroom, saw him dubbed by his colleagues as a polymath practitioner. They included chairmanship of plural public inquiries in child abuse and mental health, media contributions and innovation in penal reform. This book is a collection of his essays, prefaced by a self-examination of his unorthodox philosophy towards the law in action. It covers a variety of socio-legal topics that express his ambition to inform the public on the workings of the legal system. This involves a discussion of the history of Britain's unwritten and, in the author's view, insufficiently interpreted constitution. It reflects a commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights and portrays its international origins. It also opines on crime and punishment in the functioning of the courts and elsewhere, and the political shift from the penal optimism of the 1970s to the reactionary punitiveness of the post-1990s. The essays conclude with a miscellany of affairs, reflecting on professional practices and the author's judicial heroes Lord Reid and Lord Bingham."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

John Marks is something of a national treasure. Warm, funny, passionate, opinionated and occasionally contrary, he is a man whose life for more than 40 years marched in beat with that of the National Health Service. There is scarcely a medical issue or controversy in which John Marks was not involved. Abortion law reform, the doctors' 1970s revolt against the General Medical Council, the foundation of the Royal College of General Practitioners, countless NHS reorganizations, and the bloody battle over NHS pay beds and the pay of junior doctors are just a sample.Then there was the fierce, principled battle over how the medical profession and the public should respond to the terror of a new disease - AIDS. And the great war that was fought over the Conservatives introduction of market forces into the NHS in the late 1980s and early 1990s - an approach to running the NHS that lives on, reincarnated, under the current Labor government.In all of these John Marks played more than a walk-on part. In many he was a principal actor. For anyone wanting fully to understand the BMA's role in all this, this book is thus required reading. But it is much more than just a dry history of times past. It is laced with anecdote, from the horrifying to the hilarious, and on to high politics. John Marks' account of his life and times provides the tale of a warm, human, liberal and occasionally buccaneering man whose passion for life and causes leaves even those who do not always agree with him eager to count him among their friends.