News & Insight

22 August 2013

Political commitment to ending child poverty isn’t what it used to be. From 2010’s dizzy heights of embedding the target to abolish child poverty by 2020 in legislation, we now find it – potentially – downgraded to a footnote in...

21 August 2013

In opposition, David Cameron re-positioned his party with a new brand of ‘compassionate Conservatism’ that could heal ‘broken Britain’. Three years into government, the record contrasts sharply with those promises. Recently, we learned that absolute child poverty has risen sharply. The...

15 August 2013

Two myths dominate debates about welfare. First, fair social provision is desirable but we can no longer afford it, because an ageing population puts extra pressures on pensions and health and social care. Second, poverty bears most severely on low-paid...

6 August 2013

Zero-hour contracts, long a scandalously under-debated issue, are finally puncturing the media consciousness. The revelation that 90% of Sports Direct staff are consigned to such non-contracts has exposed just how widespread their use has become.1 If the Labour party wants...

2 August 2013

Ninety-nine years ago this weekend Britain entered the First World War. Through 2014’s commemorative platform of events, next year will see a collective discussion of that conflict arguably not seen since the publication of the ex-servicemen novels and biographies in...

1 August 2013

On Arnie Graf’s tube journey to our meeting, a young woman had stood up and insisted that he take her seat. “First time that’s happened,” he says. “It made me feel very elderly.” At 69, Graf does not look old,...