Few subjects are as touchy as the annual increase in the state pension. My own view is that it would be right to tweak the ‘triple lock’ this year, but wrong to scrap it completely - at least until we have come up with something better. Just in case you have been on the Moon, … Continue reading How to solve a problem like the ‘triple lock’
Category: Poverty
Why I’d vote against the cuts to UK aid
MPs will hopefully soon have the chance to vote on whether the UK should restore spending on foreign aid to the mandated level of 0.7% of GNI (gross national income). This is surely the right thing to do. First, the arguments in favour of cutting the target to 0.5% are weak. The Government’s case is … Continue reading Why I’d vote against the cuts to UK aid
Some facts on poverty in the UK
FYI, here are some hard data on UK poverty, with links to the original sources (unfiltered by pro/anti-Tory newspapers, think tanks, or UN rapporteurs...). First, trends in inequality and child poverty in the UK (before the pandemic, obviously, but also before the surge in government spending on job subsidies and welfare payments). (Source) Second, a … Continue reading Some facts on poverty in the UK
Should we try to do without food banks?
I first visited a food bank in 2017 at the invitation of the Trussell Trust, the admirable charity which runs the UK’s largest network of emergency centres providing food to people in crisis. Since then the use of their food banks has continued to grow rapidly, largely due to problems in the benefits system and the transition to … Continue reading Should we try to do without food banks?
Plain-speaking Economics 