We may be working harder, but we’re not all living longer

Article published: Thursday, June 23rd 2011

When Danny Alexander announced plans to link the public sector retirement age to the state pension age in order to increase it to 66, he repeated a common myth: “We are all living longer, that means more years spent in work as well as in retirement.” The same myth was used to justify Tory proposals [...]

Lowest common denominator politics: the cuts and the myths of welfare dependency

Article published: Friday, April 8th 2011

As the massive turnout for the March 26 demonstration in London proved, the cuts are proving to be extremely unpopular, even before they’ve really begun to bite. The coalition anticipated this, and have been expending a great deal of energy since they entered office in creating scapegoats. After all, people might otherwise begin to ask [...]

New Council Houses – crumbs from the table

Article published: Monday, September 14th 2009

Jesus Christ may have been able to feed five thousand hungry punters with a few bits of bread and fish, but do Manchester City Council have the divine powers necessary to spread a handful of new houses around the thousands of people in the city in need of a place to live?