The Liberal Democrats believe hobbies could be the answer to the UK's growing problem of loneliness and social isolation. The party has said £42m could be spent to extend the opening hours of spaces such as libraries and community centres, while a further one-off £40m could go towards helping existing hobby groups hold outreach events or buy equipment. Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said: Sharing a passion with others in your community is one of the most powerful ways to fight loneliness. The government says it is committed to helping people to make social connections across a wide range of its social policies. At the end of last year, the Office for National Statistics research found that 33% of Britons aged 16 to 29 reported feeling lonely often, always or some of the time.

Artists including Paul McCartney and Tom Stoppard have thrown their weight behind a campaign against the changes in a series of high-level interventions. The government's commitments will be made in amendments to the data bill, which has become a vehicle for campaigners against the changes and is due to return to the Commons on Wednesday next week. The move has already been dismissed by critics. Ed Newton-Rex, a the British composer and prominent campaigner against the government proposals, said there was a "ton of evidence" showing the mooted changes were "terrible for creators". He added: "We don't need an impact assessment to tell us this."

Whether they are called manifestos or contracts, the documents published by political parties ahead of an election are rather less substantial than their many pages would suggest. They are full of best-case scenarios, undetailed proposals and dubious costings, and it is hard to picture the impact each party would have on the UK if they followed through with their pitches. So I've been feeding party literature into the political strategy video game Democracy 4, to see how these policies might play out. The results were … well, you'll see. Democracy 4 lets you play out your political fantasies (or nightmares) to see the impact of your choices and, ultimately, if you can get re-elected.

This year in science saw important developments, including a few surprises--but, many of 2018's most significant events were the products of ongoing social and political trends that have been in motion for years. The year 2018 saw renewed debate about the urgency and efficacy of policies to limit climate change, against a backdrop of severe weather events and at a time when the U.S. government continues to roll back environmental regulation. It was also a year when both CRISPR and artificial intelligence (AI) revealed their growing potential for innovation across many fields, even as researchers expressed concern that these technologies were developing at speeds too fast to assess and evaluate their impact. NASA continued its exploration of the solar system, and Americans had the opportunity to watch, in real time, the harrowing landing of the InSight probe on Mars. But, the public was also fixated on the launches of SpaceX's revolutionary, reusable rockets--the latest chapter in the rise of private space companies, as the Trump administration continues to look for ways to outsource and commercialize U.S. space exploration.