News

The Demos team and its work features regularly in the press on the key issues of the day. Read our statements and articles by our team here.

Scouting for character

Politicians on both sides of the despatch box have recently emphasised the importance of building ‘character’ into our education system. The Prime Minister launched the National Citizen Service with the aim of building character skills among young people. The Step Up...

ESOL policy needs a re-think

Net migration to Britain has been running between 200,000 and 250,000 per year over the past decade. Despite what political rhetoric sometimes implies, not all immigrants are the same. Beyond the distinctions between EEA and non-EEA origins, immigrants come to...

Evidence-based campaigning

On a day when the Work and Pensions select committee confirms the Universal Credit IT system is becoming a white elephant and the JRF calculates how little the Bedroom Tax has saved once you account for additional costs, it’s tempting to dismiss the current...

#BenefitsStreet

I’ve rarely seen a programme talked about as much as Channel 4’s documentary Benefits Street. The kitchen sink drama has been hailed as a gritty real life account of life on welfare; bemoaned as ‘poverty porn’ that demeans and stereotypes poor...

Bottom-up public services

Yesterday, Ed Miliband set out his party’s vision for a more responsive, more accountable state. While he acknowledged the need for further cuts, it is also highly encouraging to see Labour committing to public services designed from the bottom up as the...

People Power

Ed Miliband is due to give the Hugo Young Lecture next week. It comes at a time when the opposition is starting to show its hand on policy, but these sorts of occasions are often worth watching in any case....

Mind the gap

GCSE figures released last week show that the gap in attainment between richer and poorer students is widening. Demos analysis of the latest figures show that, in 2013, 38.1% of children on Free School Meals hit the government’s benchmark of 5 or...