The Paula Principle

Month: October 2017

Universal Credit and the dominance of the full-time model

Universal Credit must be high up on the list of policy initiatives which begin with a laudable goal and end up pointing in the wrong direction. The goal of simplification, streamlining the  mad proliferation of benefits, is obviously desirable, but there is increasing evidence on the potentially devastating impact it will have on the more marginal members of society. Most of the recent press attention has concentrated on the impact of the 6-week delays in payments on families that have no resources to fall back on.  But now more of us are becoming aware of other implications - see the powerful piece by Pilgrim Tucker in the Guardian .  I'm…
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Social mobility

Some familiar issues but also some progress over the last decade - these are the headlines from a useful new report by the Resolution Foundation for the Social Mobility Commission. The report looks at low pay over the last decade and beyond, dividing people into 3 main groups: the stuck (who have stayed throughout in low pay, i.e. below 2/3 of the median wage); cyclers, who have moved in and out of low pay;  and escapers, who have moved out of low pay and stayed there for at least the last 3 years. Stuck is obviously where you don't want to be.  The good news is that the proportion of…
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Inferior

is a book by Angela Saini which certainly does not live down to its title. The sub-title is How Science Got Women Wrong....and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story, and it's an excellent, very accessible, account of the assumptions that lie behind much of the research on sex and gender differences. I speak with zero scientific authority, but the book seems to me to represent a very well-balanced approach to a range of issues that are often highly tendentious: differential brain size, the biological base of cooperative work, and domination, amongst others.  Saini never shouts, she just covers the ground, making it clear how our understanding has developed and where…
Read More

Universal Credit and the dominance of the full-time model

Universal Credit must be high up on the list of policy initiatives which begin with a laudable goal and end up pointing in the wrong direction. The goal of simplification, streamlining the  mad proliferation of benefits, is obviously desirable, but there is increasing evidence on the potentially devastating impact it will have on the more marginal members of society. Most of the recent press attention has concentrated on the impact of the 6-week delays in payments on families that have no resources to fall back on.  But now more of us are becoming aware of other implications - see the powerful piece by Pilgrim Tucker in the Guardian .  I'm…
Read More

Social mobility

Some familiar issues but also some progress over the last decade - these are the headlines from a useful new report by the Resolution Foundation for the Social Mobility Commission. The report looks at low pay over the last decade and beyond, dividing people into 3 main groups: the stuck (who have stayed throughout in low pay, i.e. below 2/3 of the median wage); cyclers, who have moved in and out of low pay;  and escapers, who have moved out of low pay and stayed there for at least the last 3 years. Stuck is obviously where you don't want to be.  The good news is that the proportion of…
Read More

Inferior

is a book by Angela Saini which certainly does not live down to its title. The sub-title is How Science Got Women Wrong....and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story, and it's an excellent, very accessible, account of the assumptions that lie behind much of the research on sex and gender differences. I speak with zero scientific authority, but the book seems to me to represent a very well-balanced approach to a range of issues that are often highly tendentious: differential brain size, the biological base of cooperative work, and domination, amongst others.  Saini never shouts, she just covers the ground, making it clear how our understanding has developed and where…
Read More

Universal Credit and the dominance of the full-time model

Universal Credit must be high up on the list of policy initiatives which begin with a laudable goal and end up pointing in the wrong direction. The goal of simplification, streamlining the  mad proliferation of benefits, is obviously desirable, but there is increasing evidence on the potentially devastating impact it will have on the more marginal members of society. Most of the recent press attention has concentrated on the impact of the 6-week delays in payments on families that have no resources to fall back on.  But now more of us are becoming aware of other implications - see the powerful piece by Pilgrim Tucker in the Guardian .  I'm…
Read More

Social mobility

Some familiar issues but also some progress over the last decade - these are the headlines from a useful new report by the Resolution Foundation for the Social Mobility Commission. The report looks at low pay over the last decade and beyond, dividing people into 3 main groups: the stuck (who have stayed throughout in low pay, i.e. below 2/3 of the median wage); cyclers, who have moved in and out of low pay;  and escapers, who have moved out of low pay and stayed there for at least the last 3 years. Stuck is obviously where you don't want to be.  The good news is that the proportion of…
Read More

Inferior

is a book by Angela Saini which certainly does not live down to its title. The sub-title is How Science Got Women Wrong....and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story, and it's an excellent, very accessible, account of the assumptions that lie behind much of the research on sex and gender differences. I speak with zero scientific authority, but the book seems to me to represent a very well-balanced approach to a range of issues that are often highly tendentious: differential brain size, the biological base of cooperative work, and domination, amongst others.  Saini never shouts, she just covers the ground, making it clear how our understanding has developed and where…
Read More