Too many UK workers can’t afford to get ill – but new reforms to sick pay don’t go far enough

Sylvie PopeIn the news, Influencing, Poverty in the UK

The Employment Rights Bill passing through the UK parliament is a once-in-a-generation chance to end the scandal of people being pushed into poverty simply because they get sick. But though it contains some welcome reforms, says Sylvie Pope at The Centre for Progressive Change, it risks leaving many people worse off or still facing hardship.

‘It feels like a more innocent time for Oxfam and for our belief in progress’: looking back on Make Poverty History 

Dominic VickersAid, Debt, Influencing

Twenty years after he watched Nelson Mandela’s rousing launch speech in Trafalgar Square, Dominic Vickers reflects on the impact of the landmark Make Poverty History campaign for trade justice, debt relief and better aid – and wonders if a new generation can take up the cause again. 

Care work is real work: how can we make people and policy makers see that?

Daniela OliveiraGender, Inequality, Women's Economic Empowerment

Daniela Oliveira pays tribute to the caring work of her own mother, “the minister for home affairs”, and sets out three ways to shift how the public and governments recognise and value the labour of care.

It’s time to put care at the centre of our economics courses

Alex BushEconomics, Education, Influencing

The UK government’s Francis Review of the English school curriculum is an unprecedented chance to shift the national and global conversation on economics education: let’s not miss it, say Alex Bush and Jennifer Brandsberg-Engelmann. They explain why we need to change an economics curriculum which perpetuates narratives that are bad for people and planet and erase care work.

Five good reasons for the UK to back a global plan to fairly tax the super-rich at the G20

Claire Arthur-LusbyIn the news, Inequality, Influencing

Brazil wants world leaders to work together on fair taxes for the super-rich. With inequality skyrocketing and the escalating climate crisis, Britain should seize its chance to support that, says Claire Arthur-Lusby.

Why are care workers missing from the conversation about the gig economy in the UK?

Veronica DeutschGender, Research, Women's Economic Empowerment

Debates about workers on digital platforms too often focus on male-dominated sectors such as deliveries and ride-hailing. In a blog for the International Day Of Care, Veronica Deutsch explains how care workers, overwhelmingly women, are now central to the precarious UK gig economy – and sets out what campaigners, researchers, employers and policy makers can do to support them.

My mum’s death makes me want a care revolution

Ruth HannanInfluencing, Poverty in the UK, Women's Economic Empowerment

Carers don’t want to be ‘saints’ or ‘angels’, says Ruth Hannan: they just want the same opportunities as everyone else. In a blog for Carers Week in the UK, she says we need to look way beyond sticking-plaster solutions such as respite breaks to radical measures that deliver real economic justice.

‘Be more Norway’: a model policy report on the UK’s international future

Duncan GreenGovernance, Influencing, Research

It’s time for the country to accept it is now an ‘offshore mid-sized power’, say the experienced ‘insider’ authors of radical proposals to reset the UK’s approach to international affairs. Duncan Green on key insights from The World in 2040: Renewing the UK’s Approach to International Affairs.

Inadequate climate action helped fuel Scotland’s political turmoil: here’s how credibility can be rebuilt

Jamie LivingstoneClimate Change, In the news, Influencing

Ditching a supposedly legally binding emissions reduction target helped to drive Scotland’s First Minister out of office. Whoever is in charge next must rekindle the leadership that, just two years ago, saw Scotland become the first nation to commit funds to address losses and damages caused by climate change, says Jamie Livingstone.