The best Guerilla Policy blogs of 2013
Here’s our own selection of the best blogs we’ve published this year across all of the categories on Guerilla Policy - from the cost of cuts to the state of public services, and the political elite to public attitudes.
Most popular Guerilla Policy posts in 2013 - 11-20
Here are the most popular posts we’ve published this year on Guerilla Policy - from MPs’ pay to life as a new teacher, social inequality to the bedroom tax.
The best politics blogs of 2013
Here’s our own selection of the best blogs we’ve published this year in politics - from the political class to cuts, privilege to the behaviour of MPs.
School curriculum and subject choice: the new battleground for social mobility
“[In] a system in which an unequal start is a given [vocational subject] choices all too easily cement underlying inequality…” Chris Hall argues that the left’s focus on improving vocational education might help to preserve social inequality rather than challenge it.
Despite all the propaganda, Britain remains liberal and collectivist
“One lesson for Labour might be that it needs to be more bold and speak above the heads of the media and more directly to people, to enable it to connect with the more liberal and collectivist attitudes that, despite all the propaganda, still dominate amongst the public.” Steve Hilditch argues that Britain remains a liberal and collectivist society.
Housing quality and equality
“It might just be that it is impossible for public investment in social housing to keep up with the Joneses, when the Joneses are so much richer than those on low incomes.” Thomas Neumark examines how hard it is to improve the quality of social housing when society is so unequal.
Channel 4′s Benefit Britain and the expansion of the Welfare State after 1948
“Moreover, thanks to the Coalition, poverty in Britain is actually increasing. What we need are fewer programmes purporting to show how generous modern welfare provision, and more that show how the Coalition’s policies and cuts are actually making it more widespread.” Beastrabban takes aim at Channel 4′s much-criticised Benefits Britain programme.
Frontline Friday 9th August 2013: Our favourite frontline blogs this week
Here’s our list of ten frontline blogs we’ve particularly liked from the week of 5th August 2013, from unemployment to zero hours contracts, property taxes to policing protests.
Wealth inequality in UK now equal to Nigeria, UN report
“The self-reliance rhetoric from the current government might be the hardest to swallow yet, considering that so many key figures in the austerity onslaught wouldn’t know self-reliance if it smacked them in the face.” Scriptonite Daily explains how something’s trickling down - but it’s not wealth.
Which ideas are damaging education?
“Education must resolve the teacher-student contradiction, exchanging the role of depositor, prescriber, domesticator, for the role of student among students.” Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1968 “Education still hasn’t learned that poorly designed curricula generate poor performance in both teacher and students.” Siegfried Engelmann, Academic Child Abuse, 1992 Confused cargo cult ideas are damaging education In […]
Are there some moral lines that outsourcing of public services should not cross?
Summary Should all public services and state functions be open for outsourcing or are there some lines that should not be crossed? The difference with this blogpost compared to others I’ve covered in public policy is that it looks at an issue through the prism of principle and disposition, rather than through a pure technocratic […]
Ways of extending the welfare state to the poor
“Part of the problem, in my view, is the ‘sloganization of social policy’ outside of academia, which leads to politicians framing the discussion as being a problem between ‘shirkers and workers’, ‘strivers and skivers’ and ‘hard-working families’ vs ‘troubled families’.” Stephen Crossley proposes some alternative, more thoughtful slogans for social policy.
Frontline Friday 24th May 2013: Our favourite frontline blogs this week
Here’s our list of ten frontline blogs we’ve particularly liked from the week of 20th May 2013. Let us know which posts we’ve missed and which other bloggers we should be following for next week’s list.
What is equality?
These days it’s very confusing to figure out what people really mean. People use the same language to describe entirely different values. Equality, social justice, root causes, systemic change… What does it all mean? The term ‘equality’ has many different interpretations. Surely striving for equality is simply about creating a world where we are all […]
What’s wrong with rising house prices?
The government’s ‘Help to Buy’ scheme could raise house prices by 20% in the next couple of years, according to a report by Fathom Consultancy. This is not being heralded as good news by everyone (although The Express has followed its time honoured tradition of solely reporting on speculation about house prices with a very […]
Housing wealth
“There has been lots of discussion recently about how much more the ’1%’ earn than everyone else. There has been less attention paid to how much more they own.” Thomas Neumark examines how wealth is more unequally distributed than income - including housing wealth.
A further word on educational inequality
Yesterday I explained why inaccurate use of the term “educational inequality” makes me uneasy. But then I started thinking about a gross educational inequality that is hardly ever mentioned, and it made me madder and madder. Here is the school building that the teachers and pupils of Rugby School see when they arrive to learn: Here […]
Dadlessness or factlessness?
“…it shouldn’t surprise us if some families do split up under the weight of poverty, but what is more surprising is the very high number who stick together through these times.” Stephen Crossley challenges the dominant story about ‘family breakdown’ as the cause of poverty - and suggests some think tanks should take a closer look at the facts.
Switching from benefits to building
The welfare reform debate inside the Labour Party appears to have reached a crossroads …again. There are 3 basic positions vying for attention: those that think some cuts and reform are justified because of the deficit; those that think welfare reform is popular with the public therefore Labour should go along with it in order […]