Rory Fitzgerald

Labour is being dragged to court to force it to nationalise Thames Water Lawyers for River Action are arguing that Steve Reed has failed to even publish a policy on bringing Thames Water into public hands

River Action has begun a legal challenge against environmental secretary Steve Reed. Lawyers for the charity argue that Thames Water has met the conditions for Special Administration for years now and that Reed has failed in his legal obligation to publish his policy on the matter.

EU ‘too little, too late’ on Gaza, NGOs tell von der Leyen Humanitarian groups are urging the EU to impose sanctions on Israel.

"Tweets don’t feed people."

EU pleas for aid to enter Gaza as Palestinians starve under Israel’s blockade count for little without sanctions, humanitarian organizations say.

Recruitment methods for surveys without field interviewers: Literature review A survey methods webinar on recruitment methods was delivered by Nhlanhla Ndebele (City St George’s, University of London) on Thursday 26 June.

Watch a recording of our recent survey methods #webinar on recruitment methods for self-completion #surveys.

Nhlanhla Ndebele (@citystgeorges.bsky.social 🇬🇧) introduced a wide-ranging literature review conducted as part of the Survey Futures project.

If this is true it's absolutely chilling. What is the govt thinking?

Recruitment methods for surveys without field interviewers: Literature review This presentation summarises evidence from a literature review on the effectiveness of different recruitment practices in self-completion surveys using address-based sampling frames.

Our next methods #webinar will focus on recruiting respondents for self-completion #surveys from 12-1pm (BST) on Thursday 26 June.

Nhlanhla Ndebele (‪@citystgeorges.bsky.social‬ 🇬🇧) will summarise evidence from a literature review undertaken as part of the Survey Futures project.

Downward Class Mobility and Far-Right Party Support in Western Europe This article contributes to debates about the importance of class in far-right voting behavior by focusing on intergenerational class mobility. Using data from the European Social Survey (ESS), we employ Diagonal Reference Models (DRMs) to examine whether and how actual downward class mobility is linked to far-right party voting.

#Research on social class and support for far-right parties was recently published by Political Behavior (@springernature.com‬).

The study was conducted by Alexi Gugushvili (‪@uio.no‬ 🇳🇴), Daphne Halikiopoulou (@york.ac.uk‬ 🇬🇧), and Tim Vlandas (‪@dspi-oxford.bsky.social‬ 🇬🇧).

Call for consultant to advise on employment questions | European Social Survey The European Social Survey European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ESS ERIC) has published a call for a consultant to provide expert advice on employment questions.

A call has been published for a consultant to provide us with expert advice on our #employment questions.

The consultant will take an active role in reviewing the way we ask about employment in self-completion modes.

The deadline for applications is Friday 23 July 2025.

I am looking to appoint an expert in the measurement of employment and occupation in surveys to help improve this crucial part of the European Social Survey Questionnaire @ess-survey.bsky.social europeansocialsurvey.org/news/article...

A quiet and invisible challenge: Depressive symptoms and the evaluation of democratic institutions Drawing on data from the European Social Survey, we find depression has negative effects on the assessment of democracy across countries and evaluative dimensions, and that on average, people with depressive symptoms have more negative views about democracy in their own country.

Research on the link between depression and the evaluation of democracy was recently published by Electoral Studies (‪@elsevierconnect.bsky.social‬).

buff.ly/y9Oumgf

Details | City St George's, University of London Details of job vacancy at City St George's,, University of London

The deadline to apply for a Research Assistant position at our @CityStGeorges HQ 🇬🇧 is this Wednesday (4 June).

Candidates should have an interest in #survey methods, and experience in questionnaire design, #data collection design and monitoring, and other survey-related tasks.

buff.ly/F5arHKt

Closing date for our Research Assistant position at the European Social Survey is 4 June www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/about/jobs/a... @ess-survey.bsky.social @citystgeorgesucu.bsky.social

We are recruiting a Research Assistant at our London HQ to help with the coordination of our biennial cross-national survey @ess-survey.bsky.social www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/about/jobs/a...

Inventory Archives | Infra4NextGen

A searchable inventory of over 10,000 questions asked in previous major surveys on each of the NextGenerationEU themes (Digital, Equal, Green, Healthy, Strong), is now available. infra4nextgen.com/category/inv... @evs-values.bsky.social @ess-survey.bsky.social @ggp.bsky.social

Did the kids enjoy?

Professor Jane Falkingham CBE (ESRC Centre for Population Change) delivered the annual lecture in memory of Sir Roger Jowell. Jowell Memorial Lecture 2025: The new rush hour of life: Balancing paid and unpaid work in mid-life?

Last week, Jane Falkingham (@cpc-cg.bsky.social 🇬🇧) delivered the annual lecture in memory of our co-founder, Sir Roger Jowell.

The lecture focused on the growing need for people in mid-life to balance providing unpaid care for family members with their paid employment.

youtu.be/dFDMT_Kuu84

This is why we are moving to web and paper combined as we end face to face in @ess-survey.bsky.social. Interestingly when we offered both concurrent in Ireland in a recent pilot 70% chose paper.

Individuals who died of Covid-19 were often in poor health, but there was a lot of variation: one in 5 people who died of Covid-19 in the Netherlands had an above avarage life expectancy. We show this in our new paper in Epidemiology.

journals.lww.com/epidem/abstr...

I agree that more needs to be done to engage the lower educated in our surveys. It is going to be a key issue for @ess-survey.bsky.social as we switch data collection modes. Including paper and not just web is one way to address this challenge

It’s one piece in the puzzle not the final word (if there ever is a final word!). The focus on heterosexual couples alone is clearly a limitation.

Very interesting paper! Important that the authors don’t suggest we should stop striving for good response rates though. The value of good documentation is noted which is crucial for this kind of analysis

Great paper on stability of nonresponse bias despite increasing nonresponse rates. DAG in a survey methods paper! doi.org/10.18148/srm...

My boys

Sometimes London theatre is just what you need. “Who will buy this wonderful morning?”

Deadline to apply to join my Core Scientific Team is 4 April europeansocialsurvey.org/news/article... @ess-survey.bsky.social

Sir Roger Jowell Memorial Lecture 2025 | City St George's, University of London This lecture will examine changes in the economic and social lives of people in mid-life, focussing especially on how women and men balance the demands of paid and unpaid (care) work in this new rush.

Find out about balancing employment and (unpaid) care at the 2025 Sir Roger Jowell Memorial Lecture next month.

@janefalkingham.bsky.social will discuss @cpc-cg.bsky.social 🇬🇧 research at City St George’s, University of London 🇬🇧 and online from 6-7.30pm (BST) on Wednesday 9 April.

Really pleased to be part of this project via @guide-cohort.bsky.social Great to be working alongside @ess-survey.bsky.social @ggp.bsky.social and SHARE

YouTube video by European Social Survey Doorstep interactions to drive data

Last week, Michalina Siemiatkowska and Steven Gilliland (Office for National Statistics) delivered a #webinar on the Transformed Labour Force Survey.

The event focused on using Knock-to-Nudge alongside an Adaptive Survey Design to improve response rates and #data quality.

youtu.be/bleifeasknc

Sir Roger Jowell Memorial Lecture 2025 | City St George's, University of London This lecture will examine changes in the economic and social lives of people in mid-life, focussing especially on how women and men balance the demands of paid and unpaid (care) work in this new rush.

Professor Jane Falkingham CBE (@cpc-cg.bsky.social 🇬🇧) will discuss balancing employment with providing unpaid care from 6-7.30pm (BST) on Wednesday 9 April.

The lecture in memory of our co-founder, Sir Roger Jowell, will be held at @citystgeorges.bsky.social 🇬🇧 and streamed online.

The Trade-Off Between Political Trust and Political Participation This article explores the possibility of a trade-off between citizens’ trust in government and their rates of political participation.

Research recently published by Political Studies Review (@journals.sagepub.com) focused on the relationship between political trust and political participation.

Erasmus Häggblom (University of Antwerp 🇧🇪) analysed data from the first nine rounds of our survey (2002-19).

Socioeconomic Inequalities in Diabetes Prevalence in Europe Diabetes prevalence is steadily increasing in Europe. This study aims to compare diabetes prevalence and the existence of related socioeconomic inequalities between 19 European countries.

A study into whether there are socio-economic inequalities in the prevalence of diabetes was recently published by Sage Open.

Sahar Sidahmed, Siegfried Geyer and Johannes Beller (Hannover Medical School 🇩🇪) assessed our Round 7 (2014/15) data on diabetes, education and employment.