This commentary takes stock of all things 'Share' as at Autumn 2025. The Share Foundation has made substantial progress: it's enabled over 100,000 young people to claim nearly £ ¼ billion of Child Trust Funds, and the relatively modest £200 central government grant for opening Junior ISAs for young people in care is enabling substantial local contributions to be raised, accompanied by significant reductions in welfare benefit costs as a result of reduced NEET rates. Meanwhile, Share Alliance's quest for a more egalitarian form of capitalism is steadily building momentum. This is particularly so with research into the potential issuance of equity shares in return for tech businesses which are harvesting our data and creativity while significantly reducing employment opportunities, particularly for young people. Background music: 'Hopeful Freedom' by Asher Fulero Share Radio webpage for links Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

General Data Protection Regulation was introduced in 2016, but it's already past its sell-by date. With 56% of UK web browsers choosing to accept all cookies, there's plenty of data available for harvesting by tech businesses, while that and creativity is throughly exploited by AI. Meanwhile, employment opportunities for young people are steadily reducing, while data protection restrictions are cited by government as one of the reasons for not automatically releasing HMRC-allocated mature Child Trust Funds. We need a new approach, prioritising people. Background music: 'Digital Solitude' by Silent Partner Share Radio webpage for links Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

(Prince) Andrew is not alone in undergoing a seismic fall from grace which has been amplified by a prolonged absence of remorse and contrition: politicians, senior business people and church leaders have all walked this path. Personal failure is an endemic part of humanity, but we need to accept when things have gone wrong and search for reconcilation. Not easy, but the alternative is escalation resulting in an even heavier fall from grace. Background music: 'Metamorphosis' Quincas Moreira Share Radio webpage for links Image source: Wikipedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Politicians of all parties seem to think that we can both cut immigration and achieve significantly higher economic growth, notwithstanding the fact that there would be no population growth from which it would come: artificial growth from short-term policies such as public sector 'investment' stimulation is not the answer. After 75 years during which the world's human population has quadrupled, an increasing number of countries are facing this challenge. We now need more focus on GDP per capita, less public spending and debt, and more focus on inter-generational rebalancing. Background music: 'Something Is Wrong' by Sir Cubworth Share Radio webpage for links Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Conscience has challenged humanity for millenia: so much so that its entry on Wikipedia includes 22,000 words. However securing that moral yardstick is not easy, whether you are guided by faith or not. Meanwhile, what was personal has become societal, while technology and what appear to be victimless crimes promote amorality. The Christian faith has struggled with understanding the fluid nature of conscience, notwithstanding Jesus's clear illustration of its significance in St. John's Gospel. Will the Church of England's new Archbishop contribute guidance with understanding conscience — and, for that matter, explaining how to love our enemies? Background music: 'Lost In Prayer' by Doug Maxwell Share Radio webpage for links Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We all benefit from a blend of guidance, reaction and experience in our journey through life, and most of all in those formative years of childhood and adolescence. However, as David Willetts wrote 15 years ago in 'The Pinch', the link between generations is getting ever more stretched. Experience should not have to bear the full weight of the absence of guidance and reaction as family structures weaken; if that is the case, we will have only ourselves to blame for anti-social breakdown. Background music: 'Everything Has a Beginning' by Joel Cummins Share Radio webpage for links Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There's a strange convergence of aggression which is drawing both international conflict and personal hatred into the mainstream; social media bears considerable responsibility for this convergence, and Donald Trump's combination of his calls for peace while posting aggressive messages on Truth Social really don't help. There's a very straightforward instruction in the gospel of St. Matthew, to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, but little guidance or teaching from Church leaders on how to make this happen. Drawing inspiration from a variety of sources, here are some ideas which could work at both personal and international levels. Background music: 'Confliction & Catharsis' by Asher Fulero Share Radio webpage for links Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rather than seek global convergence, nation states are digging in deeper in all the three areas that conspire to drive them apart — conflict, threats and re-armament; climate change; and massive wealth differentials. The United Nations was designed to provide a route for resolving these differences, but it's not working. It's time to step forward and provide it with democratic legitimacy, so that the voices of people across the world can be properly heard. Background music: 'World's Sunrise' by Jimena Contreras Share Radio webpage for links Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Government inaction is rooted in Civil Service reticence. It's not a recent phenomenon; it inspired 'Yes Minister' forty years ago, much to Margaret Thacher's amusement. But when it frustrates a Labour Government's abiity to deliver a key policy of its predecessor such as Child Trust Funds, that's a different matter. At the start of Boris Johnson's premiership, Dominic Cummings sought to control HM Treasury reticence by moving his team into HMT. Sir Keir Starmer appears to be doing a reverse takeover by drawing Darren Jones into No. 10 as his 'Chief Economic Secretary'. Will it work? Background music: 'People Watching' by Sir Cubworth Image source: BBC Share Radio webpage for links Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If buyers of government bonds fear potential default, they require significantly higher yields to offset that risk. For bonds already issued, that means much lower prices — and big losses for holders, especially if the bonds are long-dated. For new bonds being issued, governments have to pay a much higher interest rate, significantly increasing their current deficit and requiring still more taxation. Governments can ask the International Monetary Fund to bail them out; if the IMF can help, it imposes stringent conditions on their economic and fiscal policies. The world has not been faced with multiple and concurrent defaults to date, and no-one knows how such a situation can be resolved.The United States, United Kingdom and France are approaching this black hole now, and need to make some urgent changes in policies to avoid it. Background music: 'Dark Alley Deals' by Aaron Kenny Image source: Wikipedia Share Radio webpage for links Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The rate at which scientific discoveries such as electricity, flight, radio communication and computing have been made has been accelerating since that great inventor and artist, Leonardo da Vinci. However others have also left in their wake a legacy of redundancies: some, like the canal network, bring unanticipated pleasure, but others, including hydrocarbons, are leaving a real mess to clear up. Background music: 'Any Thing You Can Dream' by The Whole Other Share Radio webpage for links Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Gordian Knot is an ancient Greek legend of an immensely complex knot ‘so tightly entangled that it was impossible to see how it was fastened’. Whoever succeeded in releasing it was destined to rule all of Asia: that task was achieved by Alexander the Great. Today’s Gordian Knots — conflict, climate change and the polarisation of wealth — are all critical to the future of humanity, but they all share a common origin: the motivations of fear and greed. We can see the solution, but do we have the determination to apply it? Background music: 'World's Sunrise' by Jimena Contreras Share Radio webpage for links Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's a long and lonely road for over 100,000 young people in care throughout the UK. Local Authorities and foster carers do everything possible to help with their journey through adolescence, but disrupted education and insecurity often leads up to a cliff-edge entry to adulthood at 18. In a stable family setting, parents provide resources and life skills, and help build the attitudinal transformation necessary for a forward-looking approach with which to start adult life. In its work for the DfE on behalf of young people in care, The Share Foundation helps to build that same strong foundation. Background music: 'Everything Has a Beginning' by Joel Cummins Share Radio webpage for links Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Herd mentality among humans is amply demonstrated in family, sport and business, but collective self-interest becomes more threatening in politics and particularly in international relations. Developing an individual perspective on life is central to freedom, but it needs to be accompanied by a generosity of spirit in order to respect the right of 'each to their own' among others. Background music: 'Freedom' by Dan Lebowitz Share Radio webpage for links Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our fast-moving world throws up continual challenges; genetic modification is among the latest, and we continually need to contend with the rights and wrongs of Artificial Intelligence. Setting limits is a key part of modern life: not everything that can be done, should be done. In respect of climate change, western democracies struggled hard to set limits in the first place; but they have found it even harder to maintain a consistent focus when political allegiances change. Environmental degradation is particularly threatened by such oscillations. Background music: 'People Watching' by Sir Cubworth Share Radio webpage for links Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Italy is not alone in experiencing a massive fall in its birth rate over recent years: so has the United Kingdom. Lowering the voting age to 16 is all very well, but it needs to be accompanied by a raft of co-ordinated policies to help young adults towards family formation and independent living. Rural villages, where house prices are so often well out of reach for young people, provide a clear litmus test of whether these policies are working. Do you remember mortgage interest rate tax relief, or when university life didn't end in heavyweight student debt? We need a coordinated policy framework to improve conditions for young adults. Background music: 'Folk Tap Harp' by Unicorn Heads Share Radio webpage for links Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The debate over Cash ISA limits and the need to re-invigorate public interest in UK stock market investing has re-awoken people's ongoing approach to risk and reward, as if it's an 'either/or' question for your finances. However the Child Trust Fund scheme has shown the real benefit of long-term stock market investment — the challenge for this huge initiative taken by the previous Labour Government is to ensure that it gets delivered in cash at the right time for low-income young adults. Chart link for unclaimed HMRC-allocated accounts Background music: 'Everything Has a Beginning' by Joel Cummins Share Radio webpage for links Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A comment article in The Times last Friday was headed, 'Starmer and Reeves must change to survive' — but which way? The backbench Labour MP uprising called for even more State spending, but the bond market and the July 22nd ‘Cost of Government Day’ say no — the public sector is already much too big. Of more concern is their preference to go for the 'stick' of welfare reduction rather than the 'carrot' of empowerment through individual ownership and freedom for all, drawing a sharp contrast between this Labour Government and that of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown two decades ago. Background music: 'Hopeful Freedom' by Asher Fulero Share Radio webpage for links Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The English language does a real dis-service to Love. How can we use the same word to show our appreciation of ice cream as to define the nature of God — and everything in between? But the driving passion which is often described by the word love is often more about control. In contrast, we turn once again to 'The Prophet' by Kahlil Gibran to find his definition, which is much better phrased in terms of mutual trust and respect: both of which could significantly benefit inter-faith relations. Background music: 'Young And Old Know Love' by Puddle of Infinity Share Radio webpage for links Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In ancient Roman religion and mythology Mars was the God of War but, judging by the fact that almost all wars in our modern age have their origins in disputes and disagreements over faith, you could be forgiven for thinking that Mars was still in the ascendant today. The difference is, today's wars can literally bring life on earth to a close. However almost all religions have love and peace at their heart; initiatives such as the 'Common Word' prepared in 2007 by leading Muslim scholars and teachers reflect Jesus's teaching to 'love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you'. This very irenic and ecumenical document is in ironic contrast with today's Iranian conflict. Background music: 'Beauty for Brokenness' by Graham Kendrick Share Radio webpage for links Image: Wikimedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices