Poverty stigma: causes vs symptoms
I think I've worked out what it is that I dislike about people saying that poverty isn’t just, or even mainly, about material lack. Even...
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- Jan 13
- 10 min
Arrogance and stigma: why does everyone look down on the poor?
You might think that amongst those who have suffered, compassion for those in a similar situation is higher. And indeed, in at least some...
- Dec 13, 2022
- 10 min
Book reviews: Lowborn, Disconnect Youth, and The Least, The Last and The Lost
Lowborn I recently read Kerry Hudson’s 2019 book, Lowborn. I don’t really have much to say about it, because honestly it is so good. And...
- Dec 3, 2022
- 10 min
How (not) to fix the NHS, part 2
There have been a handful of articles recently querying the model of healthcare that the NHS uses, and suggesting that we should pursue a...
- Dec 3, 2022
- 8 min
How (not) to fix the NHS, part 1
There have been a handful of articles recently querying the model of healthcare that the NHS uses, and suggesting that we should pursue a...
- Nov 30, 2022
- 8 min
What's so good about multi-payer, anyway?
I recently had a conversation with someone about whether the German healthcare system is superior to ours. I made two comments, which the...
- Nov 14, 2022
- 4 min
Crying wolf? The collapse of the NHS
A lot of us have been saying that the NHS has been collapsing for years. Now, maybe you think we were crying wolf previously when there...
- Oct 14, 2022
- 4 min
Are there logs in rich people's eyes?
There’s an annoying primary school rhyme that goes, ‘I know you are, you said you are, so what am I?’ The idea is the kid has been...
- Oct 5, 2022
- 5 min
Cabbage Soup for all
A recipe for cabbage soup was posted on twitter recently, positing that this soup – eaten twice a day for 4 days – would see someone...
- Sep 26, 2022
- 6 min
Healthy eating on £23/week
Budget menus abound on the internet, but what I’ve rarely seen with them is a calculation of whether keeping to that menu can meet one’s...
- Aug 1, 2022
- 10 min
The NHS isn't sacrosanct - but maybe it should be
I enjoy listening to a range of podcasts from different political viewpoints. One topic that came up recently – albeit as a sidenote of...
- Dec 20, 2020
- 6 min
The Myth of the Undeserving Poor
I recently finished reading The Myth of the Undeserving Poor: a Christian response to poverty in Britain today by Martin Charlesworth and...
- Sep 27, 2020
- 5 min
Why I'm opposed to UBI
I am opposed to the idea of a Universal Basic Income on economic grounds – I don’t think that the sorts of money needed to lift those...
- Jun 5, 2020
- 3 min
To Jonathan Reynolds: a better vision is possible
Dear Jonathan Reynolds, Re: Welfare should reflect ‘what you put in’ to tackle public mistrust, says Labour’s shadow DWP secretary I am...
- Dec 11, 2019
- 4 min
PIP: locking chronically ill people out of disabled benefits
PIP isn’t supposed to be about diagnoses. But even with my diagnoses, I have major difficulties getting benefits assessors from a range...
- Dec 11, 2019
- 5 min
Learning to live with chronic illness without independence
Recently I failed a PIP appeal. I get standard rate mobility - which at one point the Tribunal were minded to take away - but was...
- Dec 11, 2019
- 4 min
PIP: maintaining poverty, removing choice
The point of extra-costs disability benefits is to meet some of the costs experienced by people with disability, in order to raise them...
- Nov 4, 2019
- 7 min
#IsItOk that sick and disabled people have written books about the harm the UK government has done t
In the modern hegemony of identity politics, a person is only allowed to comment on something if they have direct experience of it. So...
- Jun 12, 2019
- 4 min
Subsidiarity and the UBI vs UBS debate
This post is a response to Simon Duffy’s critique of a debate between Barb Johnson (from Basic Income UK) and Anna Coote (from New...
- May 25, 2019
- 3 min
(satirical) UBI critique – when the robots take over
UBI imagines a world in which all jobs are carried out by robots. The increased use of robots in work is assumed to mean that we can...
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