Déjà vu in UK Welfare Benefit Reform
On April 6th, 2016 – nearly a decade ago – I wrote a Cost of Living blog that discussed welfare benefit cuts from the then Conservative government. In the blog post I argued, as many have, that cuts to welfare benefits,...
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Cutting their teeth in government- why the Labour Party will fail on tooth decay
Whilst it may be some way from being the most glamorous debate in political economy, the issue of tooth decay is instructive of a larger systemic problem in the relationship between pre-general election party policy and the future of the...
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The NHS in Late Soviet Britain
We are now at the unprecedented point where private hospitals are doing one in ten planned NHS operations in England. This marks a 50% increase in elective procedures outsourced to private providers since 2019 (before COVID), leading some to claim...
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Hospital privatisation is linked with worse quality care for patients – new research
The NHS is in a critical state. The continued consequences of the pandemic and long waits for treatment mean that people are facing more difficulties than ever accessing the care they need. A growing number of people are even paying...
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Around a million children in the UK are living in destitution
Around a million children in the UK are living in destitution – with harmful consequences for their development. Millions of people in the UK are unable to meet their most basic physical needs: to stay warm, dry, clean and fed....
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The two child benefit cap and the power of the financial markets
The two child benefit cap affects an estimated 1.5 million children across the country. Recent research suggests that as many as one in four children in some of England and Wales’s poorest constituencies are in families left at least £3,000...
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Child custody, racism, conspiracies and Swedish Social Services
Demonstrations against Swedish Social Services’ treatment of children from immigrant families outside parliament buildings in Stockholm are the visible aspect of a battle that is largely taking place on social media. Some of the demonstrators are parents campaigning to have...
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Sweden is no libertarian paradise for dealing with COVID
Libertarian and conservative commentators extol Sweden as an alternative model for dealing with the COVID pandemic that steers away from the lockdowns with which we are familiar in the United Kingdom and the United States. Elon Musk and Toby Young,...
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Nudging behaviour is ineffective, naïve and unethical
Interventions to ‘nudge’ people into desirable behaviours have become popular with policy-makers internationally. In the UK, the Behavioural Insights Team – established under former premier David Cameron – are prolific nudgers, designing (amongst many others) inputs to reduce meat consumption, protect...
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Constant anxiety of benefit sanctions is toxic for mental health of disabled people
As the UK government continues to roll out its flagship new benefit system, Universal Credit, it has been beset with difficulties and delays. Now, documents leaked to the BBC show that its full rollout is not expected to be complete...
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Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
“Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging, and sheer cloudy vagueness.” George Orwell, Politics and the English Language (1945) With the half-life of NHS policies now measured in days and weeks, it was with weary resignation, rather than...
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Are you happy now?