Former prime minister says 2021 ‘worst time to be poor’ as he calls for support for struggling householdsThe former prime minister Gordon Brown has demanded fresh government financial support for households struggling to pay energy bills as he warned a…
Readers reply: how much poorer would the rich need to be to provide a basic minimum income for everyone?
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsHow much poorer would the rich need to be to provide a basic minimum income for …
After years of cruelty to people on welfare, is the UK starting to think differently? | John Harris
The universal credit uplift is about to end, but there are signs that politicians’ talk of people ‘milking it’ will no longer cut itHere it comes. This Wednesday, the Department for Work and Pensions will finally end the £20-a-week “uplift” to universa…
Screens doubled as babysitters during lockdown. What now? | Emma Brockes
Karate, ballet, after-school club … keeping children occupied without technology is exhausting. But worth itIt has been more than a year since most kids had a regular schedule entailing full-time school and a slate of extracurricular commitments. In Ne…
Need support levelling up, prime minister? Let Manchester help you | Andy Burnham
Levelling up must be a unifying force so the right towns receive the right resources to help narrow the north-south divideThis weekend, we welcome the prime minister and his government to Manchester and we do so with a big, positive offer: we can help …
The 81 women killed in 28 weeks
Since Sarah Everard’s brutal murder, only one thing has changed – the death tollPeople said something had changed with the awful death of Sarah Everard. But the message certainly hasn’t reached the men who rape, harm and kill women. And I can’t see a d…
Shouldn’t progressives be in favour of people wanting to speak their mind? | Nick Cohen
Solidarity at work used to be the governing ethos. Why do we now snitch on each other?Where once the left fought the bosses in the workers’ name, today its loudest voices lobby bosses to police workers. If you are trying to understand why this section …
Universal credit cut will cost carers for disabled £1,000 a year
More than 300,000 people will be hit by the end of the £20 temporary increase in the benefit, government figures showMore than 300,000 unpaid carers of disabled people face a £1,000 annual benefit cut from next month due to the withdrawal of the univer…
Starmer’s bonfire of promises is likely to see Labour’s electoral chances crash and burn | Michael Chessum
To win at the ballot box, the opposition party needs to ditch Blairite policies and offer a radical anti-establishment narrativeMaybe it was all a dream. Five years ago, I remember squeezing into my seat in Labour’s packed Liverpool conference venue to…
‘Missing workforce’ could ease Britain’s labour market crisis
Vacancies are at record levels, so why are millions of people looking for jobs and what can be done to help them?When Caroline Cousin was made redundant from her job as a legal secretary in Greater Manchester during the first lockdown, she was warned s…