The ‘purely relative’ definition of poverty is one that is based entirely on the usual or average living standards in … Continue reading “On the socialist origins of the concept of “relative poverty””

58 per cent! This is the “statistic of the year” according to the Royal Statistical Society. It is the share … Continue reading “The RSS “statistic of the year” is absolute bunk”

The United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty, Philip Alston, recently published his second and final report on poverty in … Continue reading “Is the special rapporteur right about poverty? (Part 1)”

A few years ago, when my grandfather was still alive, my father took him to see Angela’s Ashes at the … Continue reading “How the UN gets poverty wrong (Part 1)”

Jonathan Portes: Last week, the Equality and Human Rights Commission published an analysis, by Howard Reed and me, of the impact … Continue reading “The Portes-Snowdon bet: will relative child poverty really rise above 37%?”

I recently visited a foodbank at the invitation of the Trussell Trust, the admirable charity which runs the UK’s largest network … Continue reading “Three cheers for the Trussell Trust – but we still need a free market agenda to truly cut poverty”

Most people in poverty in the UK are white. According to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) report on … Continue reading “Stop denigrating work – it’s the best route out of poverty”

150 years after Karl Marx first proposed it, the theory of immiseration continues to have an uncanny hold on the … Continue reading “How Danny Dorling (and Oxfam) recycle Karl Marx’s wretched ‘immiseration theory’”

Remember April 2015? The tail end of the coalition government seems a long time ago. The bien-pensants now have a … Continue reading “Poverty, inequality and the day before yesterday”