The Week Unwrapped: Polygamy, Fish Protests and Tipping

Olly Mann and The Week go behind the headlines and discuss what’s really important over the past seven days.

You can subscribe to The Week Unwrapped anywhere you get your podcasts:

In this week’s episode we discuss:

polygamy

While polygamy is illegal in most cases in India, there is a religious exception for Muslims and some tribal communities. Now, at the urging of women’s rights activists, the government wants to abolish this exception and introduce a General Civil Code that provides the same rules for all citizens, regardless of their religion. In other circumstances this could have been seen as progressive legislation which would have been welcomed. But is it really another political attack by Narendra Modi on India’s Muslims?

Industrial fishing

British and French fishermen showed an unusual show of unity this week as they joined forces to protest industrial fishing techniques that are depleting stocks in the waters around the UK and mainland Europe. Their action follows reports that up to 35% of all fish caught is wasted before it ends up on consumers’ plates. How has this situation developed and what can be done to improve it?

turning point

The Queen’s speech this week was expected to include legislation that would force restaurants to distribute all money handed over in the form of tips and service charges to staff, rather than some or all of the money themselves to keep – what the government had described as a “shady practice”. when he promised to change the law. But the measure was quietly dropped. Is now the time to rethink the way we reward service workers?