Immigration policy will be the test of Theresa May’s “shared society”

The Prime Minister has a vision for a “shared society”. Yet, the Brexit vote revealed that large sections of the population have a vision for an old order. Tony Hockley writes that in this context, the government’s immigration policy is critical. He sees Brexit as an opportunity to shift norms of local identity, and draws on the Conservative Party’s history to suggest how the PM could sell such a change to her party

The manifestos on the NHS: sticking plasters for health and social care

Tony Hockley reviews the Conservative and Labour pledges on health and social care and writes that both fail to offer a sustainable vision for long-term NHS funding. What’s worse, the two main parties continue to treat the NHS only as a treatment service, and so their promises neither reflect nor envision changes that would promote a more active living

Social identity not social cash – why areas that received money from the EU voted against it

One surprise from the referendum result was the way in which areas of high public spending showed no gratitude for the largesse. The traditional approach to social division, focused on income inequality, will not heal a divided nation, argues Tony Hockley. Social identity is at least as important to uniting the country as social cash

Strong electron emissions induced and extracted by pyroelectric crystals

A high voltage pulse generated by changing the temperature of a pyroelectric crystal was used to induce strong electron emissions from a ferroelectric cathode. The effects of the extracting voltage provided by an external power source or by another pyroelectric crystal on the electron emission property were investigated. As for a normal ferroelectric cathode, both the electron emission current and the total emitted electrons were found to increase with the increasing extracting voltage. However, the final voltage on the cathode after electron emission was also found to depend on the extracting voltage at the anode. The electron emission was also found to depend not only on the pulse generation and the ferroelectric cathode as reported previously, but also on the capacitance of the anode. These phenomena were explained by a surface-plasma-assisted electron emission mechanism

The junior doctor contract: the BMA must pick up the pieces and move forward

The latest episode of the four year battle between the Government and the British Medical Association (BMA) serves as stark reminder of the loneliness of ministerial office. But, argues Tony Hockley, in the end the buck really does stop with the Secretary of State. If the BMA works with the Health Secretary they could make further progress on the new contract, even after the decision on imposition. Perhaps more importantly, the BMA must now address the wider issues that face the NHS and start negotiating on next steps

Clear red lines, flexibility and the public’s support: we’re on our way to a rational Brexit

As 2016 draws to a close, the Commons has voted to trigger Article 50 in March 2017, Britain and the EU have established clear red lines for the exit negotiations and both have shown signs of flexibility. And the two recent by-election results indicate the country is content with Theresa May’s approach. Tony Hockley says the groundwork has been laid for a rational, incremental Brexit

What the 2017 Conservative manifesto should say about the NHS

The Conservative Party’s record on healthcare is not its strongest point in the polls. With the NHS caught in what seems like a perpetual crisis, and with services suffering all the more as a result, what promises can Theresa May make in her snap election manifesto? Tony Hockley writes that there is one critical pledge: the NHS must have its own 2% inflation target

A second referendum will not fix the social division behind the Brexit vote – and it could make it worse

The social divide among Leavers and Remainers is striking. The immediate reaction of many to run a second referendum therefore fails to understand the cause of the result: many feel that they have no influence over the immediate circumstances that surround them. But it’s not just the electorate’s 48 per cent who need to understand these drivers, writes Tony Hockley, but UK and EU elites alike: it is time to start thinking about the reforms that will address this widespread division and discontent

TMS-induced Neural Noise in Sensory Cortex Interferes with Short-term Memory Storage in Prefrontal Cortex

In a previous study, Harris et al. (2002) found disruption of vibrotactile short-term memory after applying single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to primary somatosensory cortex (SI) early in the maintenance period, and suggested that this demonstrated a role for SI in vibrotactile memory storage. While such a role is compatible with recent suggestions that sensory cortex is the storage substrate for working memory, it stands in contrast to a relatively large body of evidence from human EEG and single-cell recording in primates that instead points to prefrontal cortex as the storage substrate for vibrotactile memory. In the present study, we use computational methods to demonstrate how Harris et al.\u27s results can be reproduced by TMS-induced activity in sensory cortex and subsequent feedforward interference with memory traces stored in prefrontal cortex, thereby reconciling discordant findings in the tactile memory literature