Trish Burns

Benefit changes and larger families We are a group of university-based researchers investigating how families with more than two children are coping with the benefit cap or the two-child limit.

New analysis with @ruthpatrick0.bsky.social and @kittyjstewart.bsky.social: If we are serious about trying to reduce child poverty we cannot rely on employment alone. We need serious investment in social security.

largerfamilies.study/publications...

Yes, this is correct. And the reason is because our capitalist classes have decided that it is not sufficiently profitable, so they're not going to do it.

We must understand this reality. Capital *cannot* be relied upon to address the climate crisis.

Against the championing of moral sensitivity and evidential examination, the Counter-Enlightenment was born.
Riled by the promotion of universal compassion and empirical objectivity, the Anti-Woke strikes back.
Their continuing mission - keep people in the dark
henry-tam.blogspot.com/2023/09/coun...

The Southern US county honouring its dark past While other places in the US are increasingly censoring how they tell their multicultural histories to travellers, one community is highlighting them.

Memorializing the Enslaved in Arlington is a collaboration between the Arlington Historical Society and the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington. It aims to commemorate the names and lives of those who were long erased from the area's historical narrative. www.bbc.com/travel/artic...

I can’t envisage a child poverty strategy which garners any credibility without fully scrapping the two-child limit.

Unconvinced? Check out (even better share) this summary of the peer-reviewed evidence base @kittyjstewart.bsky.social @aaronreeves.bsky.social

largerfamilies.study/publications...

John-Paul Stonard · At the National Gallery: View from a Prison Window Carl Gustav Carus made copies of paintings by Caspar David Friedrich, or sought out the locations he had painted,...

‘Carus was a pioneer, but also a dilettante and an idealist who couldn’t renounce Romanticism.’

@johnpaulstonard.com on a German scientist and painter whose career was heavily influenced by Caspar David Friedrich.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Zohran Mamdani shows how Democrats can defeat authoritarians like Trump | Isabella Weber Democrats have two choices: fight to make life affordable again for ordinary people or watch voters embrace authoritarians

If guaranteeing essentials sounds radical, it speaks to how far we have drifted from democracy‘s core promises. Markets will not beat back the far right. An antifascist economics might. Mamdani provides a playbook for democrats around the world.

My latest

Thomas Piketty: ‘The left has been a victim of its own success’ The economist on populism, fiscal debt and the long-term trend of economic equality

💬 New interview:

@joelsuss.ft.com caught up with @thomaspiketty.bsky.social at our recent public event to talk about the rise of populism, wealth taxation, fiscal debt, intergenerational inequality and artificial intelligence.

Read the full feature in @financialtimes.com ⬇️

1. This is a thread on freedom, and how easy it is to lose.

Over the past 2,000 years in Europe, there have been few periods and places of freedom. For much of the time we lived under highly oppressive tyrannies of various kinds, whether small or grand, local or imperial, secular or religious.🧵

YouTube video by Cottereau The History of Europe: Every Year

While agreeing in the round,
I've found this (below) both reassuring and highlighting of the need for constant vigilance. There is no perfect end state. See if you can see where the 'thousand year reich' occurs (also, that Roman Empire lasted quite a while).

m.youtube.com/watch?v=UY9P...

10. The freedoms we take for granted – political, economic, sexual, individual - were won through a combination of extraordinary struggle and extraordinary luck. There’s nothing “natural” or inevitable about them. They are in fact highly anomalous. And we won’t know what we’ve lost till it’s gone.

How employers can help their staff stay in work | Letters Letters: Readers respond to the government’s Keep Britain Working review that aims to tackle the growing worklessness crisis

Very thoughtful letter from my brilliant aunt @katharinesut.bsky.social @theguardian.com we need to do much more to make work work, & we need to address the systemic issues that lock ppl in poorly paid jobs. Improving procurement practices would be a great start www.theguardian.com/money/2025/n...

Happy birthday 🥳

Including the family of Anne Frank.

TheyWorkForYou Update: A richer view of Parliament A big update to TheyWorkForYou, covering APPGs, open letters, alerts, and much more.

Here's a full list of all the new things on TheyWorkForYou from last week www.mysociety.org/2025/10/23/t...

Kentucky Historical Society marker to Peter Postell dedicated Peter Postell fled slavery during the Civil War to join the Union Army. Then, he returned to Hopkinsville to become a wealthy business owner.

Kentucky Historical Society marker to Peter Postell dedicated
hoptownchronicle.org/kentucky-his... Postell was enslaved in Christian County when he fled during the Civil War to join the Union Army, then returned after the war and became a wealthy business owner.

John-Paul Stonard · At the National Gallery: View from a Prison Window

‘The term “landscape painting” (𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘪) became a bugbear for Carl Gustav Carus: “There is something artisan-like about it that revolts my whole being.”’

@johnpaulstonard.com on the German painter:

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Yes, thank you Ruth.

It's a wonderfully clear post, thank you. The point that "redistribution by stealth," by failing to explain and hence win strong public support, leaves policies vulnerable to repeal later, is particularly well made.

Bred to rule: What a £180,000 private tutor job reveals about the education arms race What does the explosion in private tutoring mean for educational inequalities - with huge sums offered for a private tutor to help babies prepare for Eton?

What does a £180,000 job ad for a private tutor *for a baby* reveal about the global education arms race?

Lee Elliot Major assesses the issue and considers what can be done to level the playing field. Could tutoring – ironically – be part of the solution? #LSEInequalitiesBlog

buff.ly/dAisTWb

Democracy SOS On the International Day of Democracy, a new report sharing eight steps to save the UK’s democratic system.

A voting system that can be manipulated by wealthy donors and the circulation of malicious disinformation poses a threat to us all.
We need to save democracy before it's too late: citizen-network.org/news/democra... @simonduffy.bsky.social @compassoffice.bsky.social

Care about what matters to you - Or Lose It. Clip from Prof Danny Dorling speaking at Festival of Politics in Holyrood. @dannydorling.bsky.social

Today, after what feels like a lifetime of campaigning, we are relieved.. — Class Divide After reviewing all objections, the Schools Adjudicator has published his final decision on school admissi ons. He sided with objectors on one key point - stopping the planned reduction of places...

"Our goal was to create a more socially and economically mixed school system ... We always thought that changing our city’s catchment and admissions policies was a legitimate way to do this, and the Schools Adjudicator has now confirmed it is."
www.classdivide.co.uk/news/today-a...

📢 We're calling for an independent process that ensures UC standard allowance reflects the real world cost of a basket of essentials.

To be able to afford the essentials in 2025/26, we calculated a single person needs at least £120 a week and a couple needs at least £205.

Mosquitoes found in Iceland for first time as climate crisis warms country Three specimens discovered in what was previously one of the few places in the world without the insects

How to make a place more miserable: just add mosquitoes.

Our participant James has written an excellent piece for @scotsman.com. ✏️

"The fight for true social justice is long and arduous. But for that hour or so, in that grand room, we were not just the ‘marginalised’ or ‘the beneficiaries’, we were the experts."

Read: www.scotsman.com/news/politic...

Tweet of the day.

Our investigation finds that 1611 people experiencing homelessness died in 2024 - a 9% increase on the previous year. — Museum of Homelessness We are devastated to share our latest research into the deaths of those who die. It has revealed the continued impact at the sharpest edge of the homelessness crisis, as the Labour Government has fail...

With heavy hearts we release our findings of our annual investigation into the deaths of people experiencing homelessness in 2024.
Read more on our site here:

museumofhomelessness.org/news/new-res...

Citizen Network: Citizen Participation and Land Use Planning Citizens must have the right to shape their own communities through the planning process.

The Govt sets a target of 1.5 million new homes to be built, & says planning controls must be relaxed.
If only developers would build the 1.4 million new homes they already have planning permissions for, instead of moaning about the planning system ...
citizen-network.org/library/citi...

Chart showing average annual non-pensioner real household income growth, by income percentile: GB/UK

Britain has seen an acute living standards slowdown over the past 20 years.

This has affected incomes across the distribution.

A typical family today would be £20,000 richer if incomes had continued growing at the same rate since 2005, when the Foundation was founded.

⤵️ buff.ly/NuhNFF9