Thoughts from me on yesterday's budget statement from Rachel Reeves. A day to celebrate in terms of tackling child poverty, but how credible is increasing taxation in each year of this decade and beyond? open.substack.com/pub/rodhick/...

Some reflections from me on today's Autumn Budget statement open.substack.com/pub/rodhick/...

Some reflections from me on today's Autumn Budget statement open.substack.com/pub/rodhick/...

The major announcement about the abolition of the two-child limit set up with reference to the equal worth of all children and their entitlement to an equal start in life. Remarkable that policy has cut against this for so long. An important moment.

Finally coming to the main tax measures now. We've had 40 mins of pretty small measures thus far #Budget2025

Andy Bartlett and I have a book coming out in November called Bigfooters and Scientific Inquiry. Combing an STS analysis with cultural sociology we hope this contributes to the burgeoning field of the sociology of mystery. Below I include a list of abstracts for the main substantive chapters

hadn’t realized how unsettling a drawing of small breasts could be

Can't be at ESPAnet this year, but following it at a remove on here. Delivered my own presentation this morning which seemed to go down pretty well. Look forward to reconnecting next year, hopefully somewhere interesting. Bucharest, anyone?

My goodness. The chancellor of the exchequer is longer odds to be next PM than...Andrew Tate?

So the other place permits and amps all manner of intolerant and repellent stuff, but at least there my timeline is boiling with anger at Israel's genocide in Gaza. Here I see more attention devoted to Gavin Newsom's latest post, instrumental variables, or G**dwin's latest observations about London.

Eh, what? Bertie Ahern third favourite to become Ireland's next president?

It's good to see the Labour government reconstitute the Pensions Commission to look into the adequacy of retirement savings but placing the triple lock outside of their remit seems like another DWP misstep, not least since the adequacy of voluntary saving depends on the value of the state pension...

The welfare bill has passed but it’s barely the same bill. It is government by cut and paste and with such chaotic speed, many ministers will barely know what’s in it. An utter shambles for Labour - and horrific unnecessary stress and suffering for disabled and sick people watching on.

The government tried to pull off an arbitrary cut to disability benefits, reverse engineered from a savings target. There was never a coherent argument for it, and so they could never convince. The PM's morality line was particularly misguided. None of it ever connected to the substance of reforms

Oh dear, oh dear. Timms strongly emphasises transitions into work in his concluding speech, but PIP is not an out-of-work benefit.

A lot now depends on the Timms review and government delaying legislation until after it reports implies a deference to its recommendations. Calls in the Commons to bring its reporting schedule forward, but there must also be questions about whether the review needs to be expanded.

There have now been so many concessions that it must be asked what this legislation is now for. It's difficult to see how this doesn't constrain, and risk compromising, the Timms review. The stakes on that review have also raised considerably.

This could be the fatal blow these cuts-posing-as-reforms deserve Supporting more disabled people into work is a welcome aspiration, but cutting benefits for this group to meet an imposed savings target, with no meaningful consultation, is neither supportive of nor justified by that objective

And...Chad?

Standing in a queue in the lobby of a fairly cheap hotel, being delayed by a former minister from the Blair era losing the plot with staff about having to pay for the WiFi. It was a long way down, I thought.

Our #STS book on Bigfooting has moved to production. Hopefully be ready for Christmas.

Nope. The Israeli leadership are war criminals and they should be arrested and put on trial.

What is happening in Gaza will be a permanent stain on the world's collective conscience. History will never forget how our government was complicit in enabling and sustaining this ongoing humanitarian disaster. We must end funding for the Netanyahu war machine.

Actual list of 20 cities / towns to spend happy or meaningful time in: 1 Hong Kong 2 Kolkata 3 Mexico City 4 Delhi 5 New York 6 Seoul 7 La Paz 8 Lhasa 9 Mumbai 10 Tbilisi 11 Damascus 12 Shanghai 13 Guilin 14 Pokhara 15 Sarajevo 16 Vientiane 17 Antwerp 18 Bilbao 19 Bethlehem 20 Siena

Indeed, I think I'd sooner take a stint in some of 10 lowest ranking cities: Kunming, Podgorica, Guadalajara, Makati.

As ever, some of the world's most boring cities feature prominently. www.bbc.com/travel/artic...

How effective are policies of predistribution or redistribution for reducing in-work poverty? How do their effects differ by household type? Some answers in my paper using EU-SILC data out in @europeansocieties.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1162/euso...

A great example of using (very) small area geographies to generate headline-grabbing statistics. Bradford Central is a mid-level super output area, one of 63 in the Bradford local authority area. It accounts for 1.2% of the population. 81% of Bradford residents were born in the UK (Census 2021).

Jonathan Portes..'We – not me, not my family with its mix of first-, second- and third-generation migrant backgrounds...– are not “strangers” here. The rhetoric and policy we saw yesterday will take us backward to a much uglier, and more dangerous, place." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Labour's immigration announcement today is a reflection of the paucity of honest debate by BOTH political parties over the last decade on this issue. Labour has never made a counter-argument, or been honest about economic cost of immigration curbs, so it's stuck making Tory/Reform arguments 1/n

'Incalculable damage'? A truly disgraceful moment in Labour's journey to court the populist Right. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Even if taken at face value, the sheer malignancy of thinking that it might be reasonable to starve the sector to, say, shave 20k off a VC pay package. Absurd.

The Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis now invites proposals for special issues! 📈3.9 (2023) Impact Factor/Q1 ⏰ Call open until 30 April 2025 All info on how to submit proposals can be found here: files.taylorandfrancis.com/jcpa-si-prop... @jcpascpa.bsky.social

I assign this paper to my students to read. It explains the limitations of Townsend’s relative theory of #poverty. I use a capabilities approach in my own work. I think it moves away from individualization and demands more than money interventions. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

"It seems a matter of time before other less besieged western legal systems hear petitions by US citizens for asylum." My column on an Oval Office meeting that was every bit as chilling as the assault on Zelenskyy in late February. www.ft.com/content/4c4b...

3 numbers bear repeating: - Outstanding debt for (past) Carer's Allowance recipients: > £250m - Carer's Allowance unclaimed despite entitlement: £2.3 *billion* - Both are multiples of DWP's estimates of alleged fraud within the program: £110m Focus on access and debt cancellation, not fraud.

Todd Jones' Quick Stata Tips book has been updated! The original book was so helpful so look forward to exploring the 43 additions he's made in this version. www.toddrjones.com/book/QuickSt...

The Department for Education is looking for a new Chief Scientific Adviser - £120k, 3 year term. Important role, and one that might suit a social scientist www.saxbam.com/appointment/...

Some good news: my second thesis article is out in Journal of Social Policy! 🎉 @socialpolicyuk.bsky.social I explore how Spain adopted a minimum income scheme in 2020 - despite polarized politics. The twist? (Left) parties, unions, and territorial politics matter. It's open access:

Just so disappointing to hear that the whole of the School of Social Sciences remains at risk of redundancy at Cardiff University. We've all seen the case for compulsory redundancies to be set aside and it is *compelling*. Really not sure why we're sacrificing productivity and goodwill like this.

The University of Bristol-led Poverty and Social Exclusion 2010 survey team are now on Bluesky! @pse2010.bsky.social

8-0. Yoon's impeachment is unanimously upheld.

There are comparatively few social protection enhancements that build on the experience of the temporary covid schemes. But Ireland's new earnings-related unemployment benefit, which begins today, counts as one, paying up to €450 per week for 3 months. www.rte.ie/news/busines...

New article: Navigating Digital Welfare: A Multi-Level Maze? In Social Policy & Administration. I argue that greater conceptual and empirical engagement with welfare state complexity is needed in studies of digital welfare. (OPEN ACCESS) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

An absolutely blistering piece about cuts at Cardiff Uni. Though I'm in a different School to @leightonandrews.bsky.social, much of this resonates, incl points about lack of preparation: my individual consultation was cancelled at 24hrs notice, without explanation. open.substack.com/pub/ukania/p...

1/ Shire Hall, Woodbridge, Suffolk. Built 1575 by Thomas Seckford to provide a courtroom on the upper floor and ground floor corn market; Dutch gabling added in the C17th. It later housed the town's fire station and since 1987 the offices of the town council.

On the day that Rodrigo Duterte made his first appearance at the ICC in the Hague, time to revisit Patricia Evangelista's shocking, saddening, stunning 'Some People Need Killing'. I can't recommend it enough.

Cardiff University urged to rethink cuts by multiple senior politicians nation.cymru/news/cardiff...

Tfw you agree to review a paper and the main file is 49 pages.

“The politics of unemployment” book launch seminar. Panel: Jay Wiggan, @annedaguerre.bsky.social and @chrisgrover.bsky.social