Media Coverage
08 March 2025 | CNN
A German experiment has found that people are likely to continue working full-time even if they receive no-strings-attached universal basic income payments. Universal basic income, also known as guaranteed income, is the idea of giving money to everyone regardless of how much they already earn – to give them the freedom to move between jobs, train for new positions, provide care, or engage in creative pursuits. Read more here…
08 March 2025 | The Guardian
“Public opinion research shows that the vast bulk of the population are more progressive and ambitious than what political parties present as being in the centre.” This is one of the conclusions of the Common Sense Policy Group (including Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson, whose classic study of equality and wellbeing, The Spirit Level, first published in 2009, is still both admired and ignored by policymakers), at the end of its 2024 collection of “manifesto” essays, Act Now. Read more here…
25 February 2025 | Manchester Evening News
Up to 200 people in Greater Manchester would get £1,600 a month with ‘no strings attached’ under plans put to Andy Burnham. The Labour mayor committed to bringing forward a ‘Basic Income’ pilot in his election manifesto last year. A group of academics have now put forward a proposal setting out how the trial would work, urging the Greater Manchester mayor to ‘make good on his word’. Under the proposal by the UBI Lab Network, the pilot would run over two years and target homeless people in the city-region. Read more here…
27 January 2025 | The Guardian
It would appear that Rachel Reeves would rather put growth ahead of protecting our children’s future with net zero policies (Rachel Reeves’s bid to expand Heathrow could add £40 to airline ticket, 23 January). Yet in the acres of coverage about this government’s growth mantra, three crucial questions are never asked, let alone answered. Read more here…
16 January 2025 | The Tablet
An urgent summons to act, to improve the social determinants of health and well-being which have got worse for millions of people in the UK in recent years, should not sound strange to Catholics. Read more here…
23 November 2024 | Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh
As part of this Radical Book Fair 2024 panel entitled ‘We Are It: Community Power in Our Time’, Common Sense Policy Group member Kate Pickett discusses Act Now in the context of community power in policymaking. To view a YouTube recording of the session, click here…
10 August 2024 | The New European
The New European’s Lucy McCormick examines the case for Basic Income in the UK and covers Common Sense Policy Group modelling on the subject. Read more…
04 August 2024 | Wilderness Festival
At this Wilderness Festival talk, Common Sense Policy Group members Kate Pickett and Danny Dorling discussed Act Now, an inspiring manifesto offering a better vision for Britain and its implications. An audio recording of the talk is below and for more information on the event, click here…
02 August 2024 | Morning Star Online
Morning Star Online’s Sylvia Hikins reviews Act now: A vision for a better future, by the Common Sense Policy Group. Read more…
09 July 2024 | Tribune
Common Sense Policy Group members Elliott Johnson, Howard Reed and Matthew Johnson argue that Labour’s claim that there is no money left will condemn Britain to more austerity while letting billionaires, landlords, and corporations off the hook. Instead, the focus should be on shifting taxation away from productive employment and onto passive wealth. Read more…
05 July 2024 | BBC Radio Newcastle and Tees
Common Sense Policy Group member Elliott Johnson explains proportional representation and why the right of British politics is suddenly interested. Read more…
05 July 2024 | BBC Radio Newcastle and Tees
Common Sense Policy Group member Elliott Johnson provides day-after 2024 UK General Election analysis. He discusses Labour’s landslide win in terms of seats but significant under-performance in share of the vote. He refers to the danger posed to Labour by both left and right at the next election and the relevance of Act Now. Read more…
04 July 2024 | BBC Radio Newcastle and Tees
Common Sense Policy Group member Elliott Johnson provides 2024 UK General Election night analysis. He discusses Labour’s exit poll landslide, but early indications of under-performance overall and the threat posed by both right and left to their future success. Read more…
29 June 2024 | Times Radio
Common Sense Policy Group member Kate Pickett speaks to Jeremy Griffin on Times Radio about Act Now. Interview begins at 02:05. Read more…
27 June 2024 | Labour Hub
On the day of the London launch of Act Now, Common Sense Policy Group Chair Matthew Johnson introduces the group and summarises the report. Read more…
27 June 2024 | TIME
TIME’s Astha Rajvanshi examines the impact of austerity policies on poverty among young people in the UK with thoughts from Common Sense Policy Group member Elliott Johnson including solutions from Act Now. Read more…
25 June 2024 | Labour Hub
Labour Hub’s Mike Phipps previews Act now: A vision for a better future, by the Common Sense Policy Group, published today by the Manchester University Press. Read more…
17 June 2024 | Prospect
Common Sense Policy Group member Jamie Driscoll argues that a new Beveridge Report is needed to address the modern giant societal evils and previews the recommendations of Act Now: A vision for a better future and a new social contract. Read more…
12 June 2024 | GlobeLynx
Common Sense Policy Group member Howard Reed argues that the Conservatives’ manifesto pledge to cut National Insurance by 2p is unlikely to sway the electorate measurably. Read more…
12 June 2024 | Byline Times
Common Sense Policy Group members Elliott Johnson, Howard Reed and Matthew Johnson examine the Labour Party’s green energy proposals and argue that a return to their £28 billion a year pledge is essential to net zero and the economy. Read more…
12 June 2024 | Northern Agenda
Common Sense Policy Group members Matthew Johnson and Elliott Johnson argue that national policy has had a hugely damaging effect on the North of England and that an incoming Labour Government must not take the support of voters in the region for granted. Instead, it must invest at scale with an ambitious policy platform. Read more…
06 June 2024 | GlobeLynx
Common Sense Policy Group member Elliott Johnson shares his thoughts on reports that at least one in four children are in poverty in two-thirds of constituencies and what needs to be done to resolve this. Read more…
02 June 2024 | Big Issue
Common Sense Policy Group members Kate Pickett and Matthew Johnson argue that the UK’s children are poorer and getting sicker too, and that action is needed now. Read more…
30 May 2024 | Byline Times
Common Sense Policy Group member Jennifer Nadel argues that Westminster’s dysfunctional system under a potential Labour government could leave the door open to far-right politics in the years ahead. Read more…
30 May 2024 | The QT
Common Sense Policy Group members Matthew Johnson, Elliott Johnson, Ian Robson and Irene Hardill warn that today’s politicians need to match the transformative ambitions of William Beveridge and his 1942 report. Read more…
16 May 2024 | The Conversation
Common Sense Policy Group members Elliott Johnson, Daniel Nettle and Matthew Johnson highlight the need for new solutions to poverty and inequality rather than returning to the targeted approaches of the New Labour years. Read more…
24 April 2024 | The Conversation
Common Sense Policy Group members Elliott Johnson, Howard Reed and Matthew Johnson examine policy intended to reduce the disability benefit caseload and why a focus on increasing conditionality is always destined to fail. Read more…
23 April 2024 | The Conversation
Common Sense Policy Group member Matthew Johnson and Founding Director of the Sir Bernard Crick Centre for the Public Understanding of Politics Matthew Flinders argue that there is evidence to suggest that a more ambitious economic policy platform from Labour would be popular with the electorate. Read more…
28 February 2024 | The QT
Common Sense Policy Group member Elliott Johnson shares his thoughts on the dysfunctional state of social care in a piece written by the QT’s Jane Hall. Read more…