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Articles by Benjamin Ward
[2510.04875] Rectangular Shrinking Targets on Self-Similar Carpets
arXiv:2510.04875 (math) View PDF HTML (experimental) Comments: Subjects: Dynamical Systems (math.DS) MSC classes: 37C45, 28A80 Cite as: arXiv:2510.04875 [math.DS] (or arXiv:2510.04875v1 [math.DS] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2510.04875 Submission history From: Thomas Jordan [ view email] [v1] Mon, 6 Oct 2025 15:00:11 UTC (23 KB) Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer () Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?)...
The Future of Cyber Security: Consolidation for Corporate Businesses
Ben Ward is the Director of the UK’s most sustainable IT Solutions provider, collaborating with leading corporate organisations to enhance IT infrastructure efficiency, boost productivity, improve sustainability, and reduce costs. As a shareholder in Hampshire’s most sustainable cafe and a Trustee of To Live In H.O.P.E, a charity dedicated to funding equity globally, Ben is committed to driving positive change both in the tech industry and beyond.
Norway to restart tourism with a bold, greener vision
As plans to reopen tourism in Europe start to take shape, Visit Norway, with inputs from the Norwegian travel industry, presented a new, ambitious national tourism strategy in Oslo this week. The strategy was commissioned by the Norwegian government in January 2020, and it has now been handed over to the Minister of Trade and Industry, Iselin Nybø.
Now more than ever the UK needs the compass of human rights
It is in uncertain times—like the aftermath of the Brexit vote—that we need human rights the most. My country feels unmoored since the EU referendum decision. Prime Minister David Cameron has announced his resignation, the main political parties are internally divided, the markets volatile. What will happen next is unclear and people are anxious about the future.
Brexit and human rights: winter is coming
Given the toxic politics of Farage, Johnson, Le Pen and Trump, will human rights be enough to resist right-wing nationalism in the wake of Brexit? Brexit holds little good news for human rights. They were hardly mentioned in the referendum campaigns—not even to gloat that leaving the EU would let the UK remove itself from the Charter of Fundamental Rights. For the Leave campaigners this was doubtless because human rights are low down (but still on) the list of things they love to hate.
The value of a UK strategy on human rights
It can be hard to understand sometimes where the UK government sits on human rights in its foreign policy. Sometimes it takes a leading role in championing rights. At other times human rights appear to be missing in action. This inconsistent approach undermines the UK’s foreign policy objectives and sends a confusing message about its global role after Brexit.
Refugees Shouldn't Be Italy's Burden Alone
An Italian naval vessel made a grim discovery in the Mediterranean Sea last month. Alerted that a 20-meter fishing vessel was in distress, the crew located and began evacuating the 600 or so migrants on board. The Italian navy captain told the BBC that his crew had also found dead bodies packed in a hold on the ship. The total dead was later confirmed as 45.
It’s Not Just Covid-19 That Threatens UK’s Human Rights
A man wheels his suitcase across Westminster Bridge looking towards the Houses of Parliament, at would normally be rush hour as the lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus continues in London, March 30, 2020. © 2020 AP Photo/Frank Augstein More than 40,000 people dead. Hard decisions about how to relax a lockdown that has confined millions to their homes. Covid-19 understandably continues to dominate headlines and the focus of United Kingdom policymakers. That applies to human rights too.
SBA Issues Additional Guidance for Paycheck Protection Program
As businesses across the country continue to determine whether to apply for an SBA loan under the “Paycheck Protection Program” (the “PPP”) provided by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the “Act”), the US Small Business Administration (the “SBA”) has released additional guidance to interpret the previously issued interim regulations.
CARES Act: Additional Tax Related Relief
With guidance from the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) still forthcoming, and the existing guidance changing, many business are struggling to understand their options under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (“Act”). We previously published guidance on the Payroll Protection Program (“PPP”) and Disaster Relief Loans which can be found here.
CARES Act: Paycheck Protection Loans Summary
With uncertainty looming in all corners of the world due to the continued COVID-19 pandemic, many employers are questioning how they can support the fixed costs of their business, especially in the face of total or partial shutdowns mandated by State governments. Those same shutdowns make other costs, like employee wages, liabilities that often cannot be supported by limited operations.
Britain Should Stick To Its Principles For Brexit Success
Union Jack flags fluttering outside Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London, October 1, 2019. © 2019 Steve Taylor/SOPA Images/Sipa via AP Images When the United Kingdom left the European Union last Friday evening, it marked the biggest shift in Europe’s political geography since 2004 when 10 former Eastern Bloc countries simultaneously joined the EU. Brexit has already impacted the UK and the EU in several different ways.
The success of Brexit Britain will depend on how well it can still to its principles ǀ View
• last updated: 03/02/2020 - 16:07 By Benjamin Ward Opinions expressed in View articles are solely those of the authors. When the United Kingdom left the European Union last Friday evening, it marked the biggest shift in Europe’s political geography since 2004 when 10 former Eastern Bloc countries simultaneously joined the EU. Brexit has already impacted the UK and the EU in several different ways. It has reminded people on both sides of the channel of Europe’s shared values and purpose.
UK Elections Are About More Than Brexit
Union Jack flags fluttering outside Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London, October 1, 2019. © 2019 Steve Taylor/SOPA Images/Sipa via AP Images On December 12, the United Kingdom heads for its third general election since 2015.
Suspending UK Parliament A Danger to Human Rights
The EU and Union flags flying outside Parliament in Westminster, London. September 5, 2017. © 2017 Alberto Pezzali/NurPhoto/Getty Images Parliament shuttered for five weeks. Threats by senior ministers to ignore the rule of law. And a government seemingly determined to leave the European Union on October 31 without any deal in place, bringing with it disastrous consequences for the rights of people in the UK and beyond. It’s hard to overstate the dangers the UK faces at present.
Britain’s Rights Challenges Can’t Wait for Brexit
Older woman leaving a community center with programs for older people in East London. © 2018 Stephanie Hancock for Human Rights Watch If a week is a long time in politics, July 2016 seems a lifetime ago. Theresa May stood outside 10 Downing Street then and addressed the nation for the first time as prime minister. The Brexit vote had been less than three weeks earlier.
Brexit Uncertainty Risks UK Rights
The Union Flag and European Union flag fly in Parliament Square in central London, September 9, 2017. © 2017 Reuters The United Kingdom Parliament’s decision on Tuesday night to reject decisively the European Union withdrawal agreement leaves the country’s future up in the air. While the Brexit deal Parliament just rejected said little about human rights, it did provide guarantees for the rights of EU citizens living in the UK and UK citizens living in the 27 other EU states.
What Would A ‘No Deal’ Brexit Mean For Human Rights?
The prospect of the UK crashing out of the European Union without an agreement – a so-called “no-deal Brexit” – looms ever larger. If there is no deal in place on March 30, 2019, the residency status of almost five million people will be plunged into uncertainty. It would leave many of the 3.8 million EU citizens living in the UK, as well as the estimated 1 million UK citizens living in other EU countries, in legal limbo.
‘No Deal’ Brexit Carries Risks For Rights
Britain's Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, Dominic Raab, holds documents as he poses with European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, ahead of a meeting in Brussels, Belgium July 19, 2018. © 2018 Reuters/Francois Lenoir The prospects of the UK leaving the European Union without an agreement on future relations – a so-called “no-deal Brexit” – seem more real now than at any time since the June 2016 referendum. And the consequences for human rights could be serious.
Think Fortress Europe is the Answer to Migration? Get Real
Migrants are seen in the town of Bani Walid, Libya March 25, 2018 © 2018 REUTERS/Ismail Zitouny The way people actually live, Niccolo Machiavelli famously argued, is so different than the way they should live, that if we focus only on the way things ought to be done and ignore how they are actually done, we will find ruin rather than preservation.
Think Fortress Europe is the answer to migration? Get real | View
By Benjamin Ward The way people actually live, Niccolo Machiavelli famously argued, is so different than the way they should live, that if we focus only on the way things ought to be done and ignore how they are actually done, we will find ruin rather than preservation. It’s not hard to imagine Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini or Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban nodding with approval at the sixteenth century author, widely regarded as the godfather of political realism.
Remembering UK’s Grenfell Tower Blaze
Street art in Ladbroke Grove, West London, commemorating the victims of Grenfell Tower fire, December 2017. © Benjamin Ward/Human Rights Watch A year ago, the London district of North Kensington awoke to disaster. Justice has been a key demand for the families of those who died in the June 14 blaze.
Saving European Democracy Starts at Home
Among media analysts and academics, there is a widespread belief that one man, President Emmanuel Macron of France, can stem the tide of radical right populism in Europe. Macron burnished his credentials as the continent’s leading defender of liberal democracy in a major speech at the European Parliament on April 17.
EU Looks to Rein in Funding to Abusive EU Governments
European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, October 28, 2015. © 2015 Reuters It’s not every day the European Commission proposes something truly ground-breaking. But yesterday, when the EU announced a new plan to link EU funds given to member states to the health of their judiciary, it did just that. The plan calls for states receiving funds to uphold judicial independence, functioning courts, and the rule of law.
Europe’s Climate of Intolerance
Responding to a simple request from a Human Rights Watch colleague for examples of intolerant rhetoric by European leaders, led us to an unavoidable conclusion: racist, xenophobic, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim speech is now a part of everyday politics in Europe. In a short video released today, we include statements since 2015 from leaders in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Fabricated Terror Ties and Injustice in Turkey
If it were a television script, any sensible producer would reject it as too far-fetched. Ten human rights defenders met on a small island in Istanbul for a training session on July 5. Yet instead of a regular work meeting, an Istanbul prosecutor has made the preposterous accusation that the group was in fact colluding with three terrorist organizations – several of which are sworn enemies of one another – and their true purpose was to foment “chaos” in the country through mass protests.
In Turkey, Freedom of Expression is in the Dock
A journalist prosecuted for allegedly helping a group which he spent years criticizing in his work. Emails received – but not answered – from people the government views as undesirables, and newspaper clippings presented as evidence of criminal wrongdoing. A cartoonist in the dock. Kafkaesque is an over-used term.
After UK’s Grenfell Tower Blaze, Human Rights Can Help
A week ago I could smell smoke in the air. Sirens blared. At my child’s school, people rushed to gather clothing, sleeping bags, and cash to help those affected by the fire. People were in shock. One week on, my neighborhood in London remains deeply affected by the Grenfell Tower disaster. Seventy-nine people are dead or missing. That number is expected to rise. Hundreds of others were lucky to escape with their lives, but are now homeless.
In Uncertain Times, the Compass of Human Rights is Vital
The United Kingdom awoke this morning to another political earthquake: Instead of an expected victory for the ruling Conservatives, no party garnered enough seats in Thursday’s election to control Parliament. While the Conservatives aim to form a working coalition with a smaller party from Northern Ireland, the country faces uncertainty about its future direction, including in relation to UK’s decision to pull out of the European Union. In times like these, human rights are vital.
Start of Brexit Reminds Us Rights are at Risk
The clock is ticking. Two years from today, the United Kingdom will leave the European Union. It is a moment that carries real risks for human rights. The wave of hate crimes that followed the Brexit vote last June on the back of a referendum campaign tinged with xenophobia made one thing clear: Some believe Brexit is a mandate to get rid of EU citizens and others perceived as foreigners.
The Real Populist Test for Europe is How Mainstream Parties Respond
With only three months gone, populism looks like a shoo-in for word of year. Headlines warn that populism is a threat to Europe, perhaps even an existential one. Populist radical right parties have the wind in their sails, the argument goes, boosted by Brexit and Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential elections. But how big a threat are radical populists really?
Fear of populism is hollowing out Europe’s leadership on refugees
Even where populists don’t win power through the ballot box, they gain it through shaping policy and public debate. With a few exceptions, the success of populist parties in the polls has yet to translate into control of the executive in EU states. But insurgent populist parties have made progress in provoking mainstream parties to ape their political agenda and normalise their message for fear of losing votes.
Why human rights now matter more than ever
The last six months have undoubtedly been a difficult time. The winner of November’s US’s presidential election emerged victorious not so much by resorting to dog-whistle politics but more by proudly donning a white sheet and sticking a flaming cross on the electorate’s front lawn.
openJustice | openDemocracy
Legal aid is being cut. Courts meet in secret. The UK government is working to abolish the Human Rights Act. Our justice system is in crisis. Justice matters to every one of us. It defines our relationship with the state, rebalances discrepancies in power and protects our rights and civil liberties. But successive governments have compromised and undermined the UK justice system. Key constitutional principles are being eroded.
Britain’s Brexit Hate Crime Problem
This weekend a silent march and vigil was held in the town of Harlow, Essex to commemorate Arkadiusz Jozwik. The 40-year-old Polish man, who had lived in the UK for four years, was attacked with a friend a week earlier in the town and died of head injuries. Police are investigating the attack as a hate crime. Graffiti on a wall in Devon, UK, in July 2016. © Private, used with permission.
France’s Emergency Powers: The New Normal
France’s latest renewal of its emergency law has made few headlines abroad—except perhaps in Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, fresh from passing his own sweeping state of emergency, may have relished watching the champion of liberté, égalité, and fraternité once again suspend rights in the name of security. But European countries, rattled by a new spate of deadly attacks in France and Germany, may yet be tempted to turn to the new French law as a model.
What can Brexit teach us about business and human rights?
The economy we have built isn’t the economy that delivers shared prosperity and shared security for the majority. The business and human rights movement has a fundamental role to play in creating solutions. “Globalisation isn’t working” was the post-Brexit conclusion of Financial Times columnist, Philip Stephens. The shock vote has left UK liberals and progressives reeling, and wiped billions from the value of companies around the world.
What Brexit Means…for Human Rights
As every parent knows, children are prone to telling it like it is, unvarnished and unfiltered by adult rationalisation. So when children worry about their future, worry about their parents being deported, worry that they have suddenly become strangers in their own country, then so should we. The EU referendum vote may have far reaching consequences for how the UK is governed and the protections those who live here enjoy. Those are important and deserve attention.
What Brexit Means for Human Rights
As every parent knows, children are prone to telling it like it is, unvarnished and unfiltered by adult rationalisation. So when children worry about their future, worry about their parents being deported, worry that they have suddenly become strangers in their own country, then so should we. The EU referendum vote may have far reaching consequences for how the UK is governed and the protections those who live here enjoy. Those are important and deserve attention.
What Brexit means…for human rights
As every parent knows, children are prone to telling it like it is, unvarnished and unfiltered by adult rationalisation. So when children worry about their future, worry about their parents being deported, worry that they have suddenly become strangers in their own country, then so should we. The EU referendum vote may have far reaching consequences for how the UK is governed and the protections those who live here enjoy. Those are important and deserve attention.
Dispatches: UK Should Make EU Residents Welcome
The mounting evidence makes it impossible to deny: post-referendum Britain has a xenophobia problem. A new survey finds that 12 per cent of Polish people living in the UK have experienced hostile behaviour following the EU referendum vote. The media is full of reports of people subjected to verbal abuse - or worse - because of their perceived foreignness. By last Friday the national police website for hate crime had recorded 5 times more incidents than the week before.
‘Mic drops and Twitter burns’: welcome to the 2016 US presidential race
Hillary Clinton’s rebuke to Donald Trump, ‘delete your account’, went viral and launched a wave of think-pieces. What does it tell us about the shallowness in American politics right now? For Edward Snowden, politics is “the art of convincing decent people to forget the lesser of two evils is also evil.” And when it comes to the US election, it’s difficult to disagree.
My 350 on Brexit: 'I feel like I am living in a country that is suffering a nervous breakdown'
Never can I remember feeling the political situation in my country is so bleak. I am English, and I voted to Remain. I vote Remain not because I am a huge fan of the EU, but because I felt it was the lesser of two evils. The Tory right and the media barons now hold more power than ever, and are in the ascendency marching forward with renewed confidence and a sense of empowerment. It is simply a case of bayoneting the wounded on the political battlefield from their point of view.
My 350 on BREXIT: Fear and disappointment confirmed
“I avidly kept my eyes on the news in the hope that things would turn out not to be so bad.” My first reaction was one of fear and disappointment. Fear for the future should all the predictions come true, and disappointment that the truth had not got through. Having come to terms with that, I avidly kept my eyes on the news in the hope that things would turn out not to be so bad. Unfortunately my fears have not only come true, but are in fact worse than I could have imagined.
Now more than ever the UK needs the compass of human rights
It is in uncertain times—like the aftermath of the Brexit vote—that we need human rights the most. My country feels unmoored since the EU referendum decision. Prime Minister David Cameron has announced his resignation, the main political parties are internally divided, the markets volatile. What will happen next is unclear and people are anxious about the future.
Now more than ever the UK needs the compass of human rights
My country feels unmoored since the EU referendum decision. Prime Minister David Cameron has announced his resignation, the main political parties are internally divided, the markets volatile. What will happen next is unclear and people are anxious about the future.
The Right Plan-and the Wrong One-to Address the Refugee Crisis
With thousands of people fleeing Aleppo toward the Turkish border and talk of the European Union’s future at stake, Europe’s debate on the refugee crisis is taking on an air of desperation. Many inside and outside the Netherlands have seized upon a plan by the Dutch Labor leader Diederik Samsom to return all asylum seekers to Turkey from Greece in exchange for the voluntary resettlement of 150,000 to 250,000 refugees from Turkey to the EU.
European Union: Refugee Response Falls Short
(Brussels) – The European Union struggled to develop an effective and principled response to the 1 million asylum seekers and migrants who reached Europe by sea during 2015, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2016. Human Rights Watch highlights developments in 10 EU member states and union-wide developments on migration and asylum, discrimination and intolerance, and counterterrorism, a major concern during the year in light of horrific attacks in Paris.
Terrorism’s Power Depends on Our Response
Listening to the debate in Europe on the threat from the armed extremist group Islamic State (also known as ISIS), which has claimed credit for the Paris attacks, it feels like Europe has forgotten the central lesson from London in 2005 and the train bombings in Madrid the previous year. The power of these attacks lies in how society and -- above all -- the government responds.
Dispatches: Risks of the EU-Turkey Migration Deal
Yesterday, the European Union and Turkey reached an agreement designed to curb the flow of migrants to Europe and to Turkey. But the deal carries huge risks for Turkey, the EU, and above all refugees and asylum seekers. Under the deal, Turkey will receive €3 billion in much needed funds to assist Syrian refugees, as well as visa-free travel for Turkish citizens in most EU countries. It looks as though talks on Turkey’s possible EU membership may also be revived.
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