Archive for September 2025

BASW England strongly welcomes the introduction of the Public Office (Accountability) Bill, also known as the Hillsborough Law, to Parliament. This long-awaited legislation is the result of decades of tireless campaigning by the Hillsborough families and survivors who fought with extraordinary courage to ensure truth, accountability and justice. From Hillsborough to Grenfell, from the Horizon scandal to the infected blood tragedy, we have seen again and again how the state can fail victims.

Professor Kieran O’Donoghue is the Head of the School of Social Work at Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University. He has published nationally and internationally in the areas of social work theory and practice, social work supervision and in relation to the social work profession. He is a registered social worker and a member of ANZASW (Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers).

A Daxbot robot in Irvine, Calif., moves along the sidewalk, assessing accessibility.

The special section in this issue of Dissent is devoted to the subject of authoritarianism and resistance. Drawing from examples from around the world, several pieces look at the relationship between democratic hopes and autocratic realities.

A new study by University of Utah Health, the U.’s health care system, finds that refugees can face high levels of food insecurity as they adjust to life in the United States — that is, limited and uncertain access to food. It outlines some of the reasons and proposes a range of strategies to help address the issue, notably increased communication efforts with them.