Paul Spicker

I'd love to think that someone out there had read and liked it, but sadly I've no reason to believe that: it has no (zero) citations on Scholar. I've done a little better since ...

I tested something I'd written myself: my first academic article, published 45 years ago. It came in at 77% AI-generated.

Taking both of these points together you can conclude: 1. Excluding men from a women’s facility is less favourable treatment, even if they have access to a men’s facility. 2. If that exclusion is because of sex, that is unlawful unless there is an applicable exception. 3. On a basic comparator test this is clearly direct sex discrimination: if the man was female he would have been included. 4. Since you can only rely on the Schedule 3 exceptions if you’re operating a service based on biological sex, anything other than that is not covered. Therefore a service based on anything other than biological sex which excludes men from a women’s service (and vice versa) necessarily engages in unlawful sex discrimination without an applicable exception.

Poverty is really about social relationships; but even if one insists it's all about low income, this is ill-informed. Prices are relative - they reflect demand, and so the ability of *other people* to pay. Therefore the value of income is also relative. policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-poverty-of…

@vick55top Tell me why this is not like Ronan Point. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronan_Poi…

The Chinese company Broad Group set a record by constructing a 10-story residential building in 28 hours and 45 minutes. During this time, a team of workers, using three cranes, not only erected the walls but also completely prepared the building for occupancy. The secret lies in the modular design; each module is shaped like a standard container and contains utilities and finished surfaces. All that remains is to install the units, tighten the bolts, and connect the water and electricity. "Hightech+"

@HamishMcRae5 writes in the i paper that "If people have to pay more in tax they will have less money to spend on other things." That isn't a problem for transfer payments - higher taxes to pay for higher benefits. There's no good economic argument for child poverty.

"Countries that have cut back on certain types of #Benefits have nevertheless found themselves constrained to leave some forms of income support in place...It’s not an inevitable truth, but it’s something that can be charted and seen." @PSpicker @geomill transformingsociety.co.uk/2025/07/01/pod…

Listen to @geomill and @PSpicker talk about some of the historical roots, moral foundations, and practical workings of different #Welfare systems. #WelfareState transformingsociety.co.uk/2025/07/01/pod…

New in the ‘What Is It For?’ series, ‘What Is the Welfare State For?’ discusses the institutions and methods that characterise #WelfareStates around the world. @PSpicker ow.ly/zC2q50W4VN9

@premnsikka Private equity doesn't rely on 'profit', in the conventional sense, so much as on the extraction of value - often achieved by converting current value into long-term debt. The model represents an existential threat to public services.

Private equity to buy doctors' surgeries, hospitals and hospices with £1.7bn Assura bid. NHS estate privatised by Tories/Blair, now bought/sold for profit. NHS pays rents, less money left for frontline services. All part of creeping privatisation thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/…

My new book has shipped: bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/trade/what-is-… . "A brilliant critical contribution and powerful overview about how we got here and what is at stake" (Camilo Perez-Bustillo) "Concise and superbly written" (Daniel Béland)

@policyatkings @kcl_sfg The key question I have is this: what has been done to mitigate the known vulnerabilities of RCTs - the risk of random findings (e.g. bmj.com/content/324/73…) , and 'bracketing off' the things that matter (see Pawson and Tilley, Realistic evaluation).

Today @kcl_sfg publish 'Designing and delivering randomised trials for social policy' - a major new resource for evidence-based policy making. 📺 Watch the launch: youtube.com/watch?v=9FqUs9…

After 25 years and more than eight million views, I am closing down my educational website, 'An Introduction to Social Policy'. A legacy copy, and my blog, will still be available at observant-paulspicker.wordpress.com Other posts will be at @paulspicker.bsky.social

It doesn't seem to matter how many warnings are posted, some kids playing in the cemetery will try to bring dead ideas back to life. Zero-based budgeting implicitly favours 'core' (in-house) spending over 'peripheral'. Voluntary organisations beware.

The concern about algorithms and surveillance of the poorest people seems to be blossoming as an issue internationally. gijn.org/stories/amnest…

A legal case in France is challenging the principle that the benefit authorities can select suspects to monitor by using an algorithm. laquadrature.net/en/2024/10/16/…

@kateesummers I've written both on managed complexity and on using different elements in the income package, rather than personalization, to achieve different outcomes. The claimed 'simplification' of UC was always nonsense.

@PSpicker Fwiw I think one of the things we are keen to develop further is relationship between simplicity and complexity - what that means in turn for responsibility/ responsibilisation and burden.

Hardly new, people. Richard Titmuss wrote about this 60 years ago and I've been on it for 20.

@jdportes @Heather_Rolfe @britishfuture We see the same pattern in public rejection of social security, where only about a fifth of spending is for people out of work and most of that is for long-term sickness. Stigma fuels the misperception of numbers.

The OBR's new report obr.uk/frs/fiscal-ris… offers projections over 50 years, implying disastrous public finances. 50 years? This is what led the Times in 1894 to write that "in 50 years, every street in London will be buried under nine feet of manure.” blog.spicker.uk/hold-the-horse…