‘NUS Welfare should be seen as one facet of a bigger fight for the welfare state’: interview with Shelly Asquith
William Pinkney-Baird interviews Shelly Asquith, standing for Vice President Welfare at NUS Conference this week, in the fifth of a series of interviews with some of the left-wing candidates for…
UK Uncut's 'Great British Street Party': kitsch nationalism?
As if last year had not been enough, 2012 is to be awash with examples of pomp and pageantry; from the Queen’s jubilee celebrations to the Olympics and Paralympics –…
Workfare to be challenged in the courts.
Workfare is a programme whereby anyone who has been claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) for 6 months can be sent to work for major multinational companies like Tesco, Poundland and Sainsbury’s…
Why We Have A Welfare State
David Cameron thinks that the only way to save our public services is by harnessing the opposing forces of volunteerism and capitalism. I'd like to think that history proves him…
The Dependency Paradox
Personal responsibility is a recurring theme in Conservative rhetoric, although they tend to use the more down-to-earth expression of “doing the right thing”. David Cameron and Iain Duncan Smith in…
RIP the Welfare State?
100 years ago, the people of Britain fought for, and secured, The People's Budget. The Conservative Party opposed it at every turn. Today, a century later, they launch their biggest…