Rethink

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Rethink... summer holidays
Two weeks in the sun - it's the classic summer getaway. For many of us, summer holidays are something to look forward to all year.But some of the most popular destinations for British holidaymakers are under strain. Protesters in Barcelona and Majorca have been pushing back at the number of visitors they host - even spraying them with water pistols. Locals are unhappy at being priced out of the housing market and feeling pressure on public services - but they also need tourists to support their economies.At the same time, many destinations are experiencing increasingly hot summers, with sometimes catastrophic results. Two years ago, 20,000 tourists in Rhodes were forced to evacuate their hotels to get away from wildfires. Climate models suggest future summers will be hotter still.So is it time to rethink how we approach the summer holiday? Should we be considering different destinations for our holidays - swapping Mediterranean beaches for northern Europe or British destinations? Would those places be ready for more summer visitors? How can tourist destinations change to meet shifting demands? Is it time for schools to move away from the long summer break?We'll look at the history of the beach holiday, and try and imagine what summer holidays will look like in the future. And we'll ask - what is a summer holiday for?Presenter: Ben Ansell Producer: Lucy Burns Editor: Clare FordhamContributorsSarah Stodola, author of The Last Resort: A Chronicle of Paradise, Profit and Peril at the Beach Simon Calder, travel journalist Christos Giannakopoulos, research director, the National Observatory of Athens Rowland Rees-Evans, chair of the Wales Tourism Alliance Lee Elliot-Major, professor of social mobility at the University of ExeterRethink is a BBC co-production with the Open University
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Rethink... the UK's relationship with China
President Trump promised "America First" on the campaign trail, and has delivered that in his second term, unleashing a trade war and causing global economic instability. Although China and the USA have recently agreed a temporary truce in the trade war, the US President regards Beijing as an economic enemy. Perversely, Donald Trump's actions may push other countries into China’s embrace. For some countries, like Russia, that's a natural fit. Others, like China’s neighbours South Korea and Japan, have agreed to talks about a free-trade agreement, while the EU says it is seeking to "engage constructively" with Beijing. So where does that leave the UK? Of late, Labour ministers have been on a charm offensive, with the Chancellor, the Foreign Secretary and the Energy Secretary all visiting China, as well as a recent trade delegation. So should the UK be seeking closer ties with China? What are the risks, and is China even interested in us? Presenter: Ben Ansell Producer: Ravi Naik Editor: Clare FordhamContributors: Todd Hall, Director of the University of Oxford China Centre and Professor of International Relations at the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University Of Oxford. Yeling Tan, Professor of public policy at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University and also a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Wang Guan, senior news anchor with The China Media Group and also a founding fellow of the Taihe Institute think tank in Beijing. Cindy Yu, contributing editor and a columnist at The Times, who also writes the Chinese Whispers substack. Rethink is a BBC co-production with the Open University
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Rethink... productivity
The UK government has made growth its key mission. But solving the British productivity puzzle is not a new priority - it’s been on the agenda for successive governments.Getting productivity up is crucial to sustain higher living standards. The more productive we are, the better off we'll be. But the UK has experienced significantly slower productivity growth than comparable countries since the global financial crisis in 2008 and by some measures, Britain has been going through its worst period for productivity growth since the Napoleonic Era.Britain’s productivity lags that of many of our major trading partners, including France, Germany and the USA and that’s despite British workers spending longer in the office. According to the ONS, the French can work four days and achieve roughly as much as the British do in five.What are the factors behind the UK’s chronically weak productivity growth, what are other countries doing better?How can we increase Britain’s productivity?Presenter: Ben Ansell Producer: Farhana HaiderContributors:Margaret Heffernan, Professor of Practice in Management at the University of Bath, writer and former CEO. Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Gareth Davies, Head of the National Audit Office. Leslie Perlow, Professor of organisational behaviour at the Harvard Business School and founder of the Crafting Your Life special project.Rethink is a BBC co-production with the Open University
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Rethink...the civil service
Across many countries, civil services, once seen as the backbone of stable governance, are facing growing scrutiny. Long viewed as the impartial and efficient machine of government, the role of civil servants is now being questioned as political polarisation intensifies and trust in traditional institutions declines.In the UK, the United States and other democracies, critics question its effectiveness, arguing that the civil service has become opaque, unwieldy and inefficient, and process is getting in the way of outcomes.The modern British civil service emerged in the 19th century, and was designed to carry out the day-to-day tasks of government in an unbiased and professional manner. However, is a bureaucracy that was created and designed more than a century ago still fit for purpose - or are we witnessing a turning point in its role in modern governance?Presenter: Ben Ansell Producer: Eleanor Harrison-Dengate Editor: Clare FordhamContributors: Gus O’Donnell, former Cabinet Secretary, 2005 - 2011 Jennifer Pahlka, former United States government’s deputy chief technology officer Aaron Maniam, scholar at the Blavatnik School of Government, and former Singaporean civil servant Hannah White, Director and CEO of Institute for Government Joe Hill, Policy Director, ReformRethink is a BBC co-production with the Open University
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Rethink...social housing
For most of this century, the UK has had a housing shortage, but for one section of society, that shortage has become a crisis. Prices have risen so much that people who need social housing are completely locked out of the private renting market, and owning a home for many is only a pipe dream. And when politicians speak about "affordable homes", these are also out of reach for many people. "Affordable" means homes available at 80% of the market rate. Typical social housing rents are much lower- around 30% of the full rate.And this type of home is in very short supply. In 1980, there were around seven million dwellings in the social rent sector, largely owned by councils. Today that's just over four million, the majority of which are owned by housing associations instead. To the average person, the answer seems simple - just build more homes. And that’s being done, but not enough are being built - only around 10,000 social homes are constructed each year - far lower than the estimated 90,000 we need every year. So how can we speed up the process to help the million households in England currently sat on council waiting lists?Presenter: Ben Ansell Producer: Ravi Naik Contributors: Anna Minton, Reader in Architecture at the University of East London and author of the book "Big Capital, Who is London For?" Jasmine Basran, Head of Policy at the homelessness charity Crisis. Richard Hyde, founder of Thinkhouse.org, an open library of housing research, and chair of Solihull Community Housing. Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester. Graham Kauders, commercial director at EDAROTH, an AtkinsRéalis company.Rethink is a BBC co-production with the Open University
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