Benefits
Labour is now the party of welfare, not work
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have gone into bunker mode. The pair – whose political fortunes are so tightly bound…
The ADHD racket
In 1620, in the Staffordshire market town of Bilston, a teenage boy decided he didn’t much fancy going to school.…
How to game the social housing system
Westminster council has announced that every single social housing tenant in the borough will receive lifetime tenancies. No test of…
Are beards a political statement?
Yes, it was right of the police to announce quickly that they did not think terrorism was the motive in…
Will any party stand up for ‘Nick’?
Meet Nick. He is 30 years old, has a good job and lives in London. He keeps himself to himself.…
Confessions of a middle-class jobseeker
Having been made redundant from a job in the City, I could have afforded not to sign on at all.…
Portrait of the week: Welfare war, gold prices soar and gang jailed for toilet heist
Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, entertained 29 other national leaders online to seek a way of guaranteeing the…
Starmer’s tribes are at war
Labour MPs these days are experiencing whiplash. When in opposition, the party attacked the Tories’ proposed benefits cuts for ‘effectively…
My money-saving tips for Rachel Reeves
It is always upsetting to watch a woman enmired in distress and so I thought I might ride on my…
The sickness benefit trap
Now that I’m no longer editor of this magazine, I can admit that I spent the election night of 1997…
The taxman has failed Britain’s poor
Today we are witnessing a significant failure of the UK state. This morning, the personal finance campaigner Martin Lewis reported…
Britain needs more honesty about unemployment
Is low unemployment causing us more problems than we realise? The suggestion might seem absurd, offensive even. It’s reminiscent of…
Liz Truss should increase Universal Credit
Liz Truss’s plans for a two-year energy bill freeze, estimated to cost £100 billion, underscore three points. One, the incoming Prime…
Rishi Sunak’s low tax pitch to MPs
Is Rishi Sunak a low tax chancellor? He certainly likes to tell anyone who will listen that he is. Yet…
Could the squeeze on living standards bring down Boris?
There is about to be a two-phase onslaught on the living standards of those on low-to-middling incomes. On 1 October…
Rebuilding welfare
Amid the many failures of public policy during the Covid crisis, one success has gone largely unnoticed. The Universal Credit…
‘Cabin crew can make good nurses’
Thérèse Coffey on stemming the unemployment tide
Things we don’t mind paying for
Here’s a challenge for film buffs: can anyone remember, from the entire canon of cinema and television, a single scene…
The lying game
My favourite scene in the first episode of the new series of Benefits Street (Mondays, Channel 4) — now relocated…
Feeling the benefit
Being found ‘fit for work’ changed my life for the better
Barometer
Golden league Some MPs who earn Sir Malcolm Rifkind’s rate of £5,000 a day: — Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury): £3,333…
A new deal on immigration
The crisis is real. And we can solve it without leaving Europe
Barometer
Tough at the top The clocks on Big Ben were cleaned by abseiling window-cleaners. Some other big cleaning/painting jobs: —…
The Labour party at prayer
Believe me, it’s not easy to be a Tory in today’s C of E
The cash myth
According to popular wisdom on the left — and even among some in the Conservative party — this ought to have been…
