On euphemism & sheer cloudy vagueness: the case of tax credits
In his celebrated essay Politics and the English Language, Orwell talks about politicians calculated use of purposively vague language. Last week’s vote on tax credit reform, if you listen to Tory commentators, has precipitated a constitutional crisis in the UK....
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Social policy and austerity outcomes
It has been argued that sociologists should ‘catch up’ with behavioural scientists and get more involved in trials of social policy, engaging in a culture of ‘experimental government’. I would be the first to agree that we could develop a...
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Disability and austerity
In the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008, disabled people in the UK have been hit disproportionately hard by austerity. Austerity measures have had a strong impact on economic redistribution, in terms of widening income inequalities between disabled and...
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8 billion by the quarter century (2025)
As inequalities in income and wealth within the USA and the UK increase, it is hardly surprising that those currently at the top would like to avoid having to realize that they are creating an even more unequal world in...
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A case for ‘action sociology’
Five of us studied sociology at university while the sixth only demurred because her early artistic talent shone brightly. We think and act as one across a range of social and political domains. Moreover we share the view that ‘doing...
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Brexit and its discontents