Expert Comment

US House speaker Nancy Pelosi has called for a international boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022, in response to reports of human rights abuses by the Chinese government.

Professor Shaun Breslin, a renowned expert on China, comments.

It was reported today that the UK government will pay older farmers to retire, in an effort to bring new blood to the industry. Read the story on BBC News here. Professor Wyn Grant, who has expertise in agricultural policy, offers his comment.

"It is important that people possess skills which are relevant to the labour market. Equally, it is important that people have access to training which will keep their skills up to date. The government clearly recognises these two points with its Lifetime Skills Guarantee and Lifelong Loan Entitlement announced today." Professor Terence Hogarth from the Warwick Institute for Employment Research comments on proposed adult education reforms.

"If the UK Government has to resort to the courts to halt the Scottish Parliament from holding a second referendum, that would speak to the weakness of their democratic case for opposing it. We are in uncharted constitutional territory here and it remains to be seen when – rather than if – a new independence referendum is called." Politics expert Dr Alexander Smith explores whether there is now a mandate for a second independence referendum in Scotland.

Dr Sinem Hidir, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick, comments on Labour's loss in Hartlepool.