Lee Crookes

“I can’t sleep, I’m so scared.” My report in tomorrow’s Guardian on the disability benefit cuts “domino effect”: losing PIP will see unpaid carers lose their benefits too - pulling away two main strands of a family’s income at once. theguardian.com/society/2025/m…

Keir Starmer is determined to push ahead with cutting people's disability benefits, after months of extensive government research shows its much easier to take money off them than millionaires or big business

“Benefit cuts with a red rosette are no different from those stained blue. And yet cuts signed off by a Labour government are in a sense particularly brutal. They come with a tinge, not just of fear, but despair and betrayal.” My col. in tomorrow’s paper theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Dear @Keir_Starmer aka 'Starmer, Starmer the PIP harmer', I'm just letting you know that I've stopped my Labour subs and I'll be joining the Greens. First winter fuel allowance, now this. Complete silence from Sheffield @UKLabour MPs and cllrs too. Appalling lack of humanity.

Who are the key players named in the Grenfell Tower report? #Echobox=1725445221" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">theguardian.com/uk-news/articl…

The dark heart of this catastrophe lies in this simple, depressing narrative: the state stepped back, corporate greed stepped in and innocent people died. Bit by me for The Guardian: theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Finally, Julia Zielke (@juliaziel @unibielefeld) was highly commended for 'On the (im)possibilities of being a good enough researcher at a neoliberal university' which is an 'important and candid reflection' for researchers today. Read the paper here: doi.org/10.1111/area.1…

📣 One week remains until the deadline for abstracts for #HCD2024 Don’t miss out on your chance to present at the Congress – view the Call for Papers to read the vision statement and Congress streams, and submit here by 23 May: bit.ly/HCD2024Submit healthycitydesign.global

Great coverage of @ArbourthorneCPS at p.25 of the @N8research/@ChildoftheNort1's School Hubs report here: n8research.org.uk/media/CotN_Sch…

Director of @marmotihe, @MichaelMarmot, has written a damning letter to party leaders and MPs across the country after a new UCL IHE report confirmed that UK government policies are cutting people’s lives short. buff.ly/3WFNkT9

@RhiannonWhite84 @ImmyKaur @CIVIC_SQUARE 10/END Read the full chapter and paper at: thecentriclab.com/resourcing-rad…

Just finished reading this, a memoir of growing up in Sheffield in the 1970s and 80s. It got great reviews on publication and deservedly so. #Sheffield

Very pleased to say we are launching this labour of love at The Showroom on May 9th. Tickets here showroomworkstation.org.uk/kesandbooklaun…

“To think that class does not matter is only a prerogative of those unaffected by the deprivations and exclusions it produces.” (Skeggs 1997: 7)

RESEARCH: Today, @TheIFS’s @NuffieldFound-funded report finds children from low-income families living near a #SureStart centre performed up to three grades better at GCSE than those further away - and @HelenGou says we should not be surprised. 1/3 bbc.in/43V5H8a

"Researching Developers and Landlords: A tenant's how-to guide" Brilliant work by @richmg_ for @gmtenantsunion as part of our Centripetal Cities project. Will be useful for tenant unions, housing campaigns + others in UK and further afield tenantsunion.org.uk/news-stories/r…

Very pleased to see my article published in Higher Education Quarterly and even more pleased it’s free to access. The article explores themes emerging from the book ‘The Lives of Working Class Academics: getting ideas above your station': emerald.com/insight/public… Link below:

Margaret Roberts remembering value of the Update series of short text books produced for A Level students/teachers by academics at ⁦@QMULGeography⁩ from 1980s to 2000s in collaboration with ⁦@CambridgeUP⁩ — an idea and format still of value? #GAConf24

"Academics are 25 times more likely to have a parent with a Ph.D. This nearly doubles at prestigious universities & is stable across 50 years...academia is disproportionately accessible to the privileged which shapes their scholarship & reproduction." pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36038774/