We need to end the childcare crunch on our families and the economy
Families have been hit by a triple whammy in childcare: rising childcare costs, falling early years places and cuts to financial support.Today's important report from the IPPR lays bare the...
View ArticleWhy it's time for football clubs to reintroduce standing areas
The introduction of "safe-standing" at Premiership football grounds would allow clubs to reduce ticket prices and prove that clubs are prepared to listen to their fans. The Fullwell End at Roker Park...
View ArticleDon't call the midwife: why we're obsessed with “natural” childbirth
A new history of the Lamaze technique is balanced and impressive, but, like almost everything connected to childbirth, it is not entirely neutral or impassive. This article first appeared on...
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Most Romanians and Bulgarians already had full access to benefits before 2014
Oxford researchers have now found that, last year, 59.1 per cent of working migrants from the two countries were self-employed, which gave them the same access to tax credits and housing benefits as...
View ArticleWatch: "I Am a Ukrainian" viral video
The American-made video has been criticised for oversimplifying the crisis in Ukraine - but its message, by an anonymous Ukrainian known only as "Yulia", is impassioned and compelling.
View ArticleThe President of Kazakhstan suggests his country should be renamed
President Nazerbayev doesn't want to rule a "stan" any more. So he's suggesting it become Kazakh Yeli or Kazakhiya.What’s in a name? When it comes to geographical place names, quite a lot actually, as...
View ArticleTo solve the living standards crisis, all parties need to go much further on...
Too many many parents are trapped at home or are only able to work a few hours a week because of the rising cost of childcare.With the price of childcare increasing at double the rate of overall...
View ArticleWhy we must destroy the myth of miscarriage as women's “failure”
Knowing how common miscarriage is – an estimated one in four pregnancies end this way – doesn’t stop you from feeling guilty.You remember the birthdays of the children you don’t have. My first child...
View ArticleWatch: Philip Hammond confuses Liz Kendall with Rachel Reeves on Question Time
"I know we all look the same," said Kendall after being repeatedly mistaken for her shadow cabinet colleague. Last night's Question Time was not one Philip Hammond will want to remember. Up against...
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All work, all play: the art of videogame writing
Videogames are designed and programmed for action, which means storytelling has the capacity to be complex and engaging in ways not possible in other media.Games writers dream up characters, dialogue,...
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In the Frame: The Myth of Climate Change – 2014 Edition
Tom Humberstone’s weekly observational comic for the NS.
View ArticleCould flood prevention help Labour make the case for "good borrowing"?
Ed Balls's emphasis on the long-term benefits of investment in flood defences is an example of how the party could challenge the Tory narrative on public spending. With the flood waters finally...
View ArticleMorning Call: pick of the papers
The ten must-read comment pieces from this morning's papers.1. It's no wonder David Cameron has alienated the church (Guardian)Though Cameron used a centrist strategy to win power, his policies have...
View ArticleMinisters can no longer deny the link between food banks and benefit cuts
The long-delayed government-commissioned report slipped out today contradicts claims by ministers that food bank usage is driven by supply. People, it turns out, are going to food banks because they’re...
View ArticleThe Returning Officer: Mid Antrim
The Mid Antrim seat existed from 1885 to 1922. It had three MPs, all called O’Neill. The first, Robert Torrens O’Neill, was defeated by William Pirrie Sinclair in a by-election for the previous seat,...
View ArticleEven as a Blairite, I'm tired of defending Blair
Labour’s serial election winner may have finally found an enemy who is capable of destroying him: himself.At a televised town hall meeting shortly before the 2010 Congressional elections, Democratic...
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Your emoticon addiction may actually make people like you more
Emoticons are a new and evolving form of language, and they are producing new patterns of brain activity.This article first appeared on newrepublic.comThe brain is a funny organ. It controls...
View ArticleXenophobia from the Daily Mail, and perhaps it is Tristram Hunt who should...
The silence of the climate-change deniers, subsidising Dacre’s acres, and Tristram Hunt’s silence.Where are they all? As half of southern England disappears under flood water, Nigel Lawson and his son...
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Kevin Pietersen: the man who fell to earth
Kevin Pietersen willed himself to become an Englishman, and is as troubled as he is gifted. But who is he? And will we miss him now that he is banished from the team?I — Five years ago, researching a...
View ArticleLabour needs to go much further to give real meaning to devolution
A council tax revaluation, local proportional representation and participatory budgets should all be on the table. Last week was all about devolution. Ed Miliband and Jon Cruddas led the charge with a...
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