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About Nick Pearce

Nick Pearce is Director of the Institute for Public Policy Research.

Articles by Nick Pearce

Is there any austerity in the UK?

Nick Pearce 30 April 2013

The Coalition is not cutting the deficit, while many on the right argue that spending is rising. So what's the real picture? The director of centre-left think tank IPPR gives his analysis on whether there is really austerity in Britain.

Thatcher's lessons for social democrats

Nick Pearce 12 April 2013

Thatcher utilised three emergent themes: globalisation, social liberalism and the reconfiguration of class structure. She used the spirits of the age to drive her own key project - unfettered markets. There is plenty the left could learn here.

The optimistic agonist: an interview with Bonnie Honig

Nick Pearce and Bonnie Honig 7 March 2013

The political theorist Bonnie Honig talks to IPPR's Juncture about the roots of her thinking, the radical and positive potential of political contestation and the importance of ‘public things’ in a vibrant democracy.

Why the British left must engage with Europe

Nick Pearce 25 January 2013

Labour needs to re-think its position on Europe. Time to blow off the dust from Tom Nairn's unparalleled 1972 essay on Britain and what was then an infant EU.

Two cheers for the petite bourgeoisie

Nick Pearce 21 January 2013

It's a class with few friends in Britain: dismissed by the left, and sidelined by liberals and conservatives chasing big business. But with the surge in self-employment, the state needs to recognise that the needs and demands of the petite bourgeoisie may be growing.

Welfare debate marks opportunity to renew Beveridge’s legacy

Nick Pearce 15 January 2013

Why has Britain's welfare state lost the popularity it once enjoyed? How can it regain this role and where does Labour fit in?

The Great Moving Right Show (reprise)

Nick Pearce 6 September 2012

Despite the mutation of the 'New Right' from Thatcherism to its contemporary variants, the ideas within remain an influential force in British politics. The parliamentary reshuffle might not mark the dawn of a new political era but the movements  of ‘The Free Enterprise Group’ are worth serious attention. 

Bubbling up: is there strife ahead for UK homeowners?

Nick Pearce 21 August 2012

Proclamations as to the stability of the UK housing market overlook worrying discrepencies between household debt and income. With statistics suggesting that prices are being motivated by forces outside of those fundamental to the housing market, there is clear evidence that the UK is sitting on a bubble. 

Cameron plays politics with Britain's welfare system, can Labour respond with policies?

Nick Pearce 25 June 2012

Britain's Prime Minister has just launched a headline catching speech on welfare reform driven by the need for cuts, justified in terms of fairness and the virtues of self-reliance, and aiming to cash in on prejudice. What it needs now is principled opposition.

The struggle against child poverty: an analysis of Labour's legacy

Nick Pearce 18 June 2012

Last week saw the publication of the UK’s child poverty statistics – significant for indicating the performance of Labour in meeting their target to ‘half child poverty in Britain by 2010’. Nick Pearce, Director of the IPPR provides his analysis of the data and suggestions of the way forward. 

All over Europe: from Pirates to Le Pen

Nick Pearce 14 May 2012

We are not arriving at a moment of choice between socialism and barbarism. Nonetheless, centre ground parties will repeatedly fail unless they can offer new solutions to the economic problems Europe faces. And there are new political players asking if updates are available for this system.

Beyond tax-and-spend: revising social democracy for a new age

Nick Pearce 30 March 2012

The director of Britain's leading progressive think-tank sets out his vision for a transformation of social democracy that could renew its credibility and appeal for a new generation.

Margaret Hodge, the Mandarinate and the black hole of accountability at the heart of Whitehall

Nick Pearce 1 March 2012
In a context of increasing tensions between Whitehall and Westminster, greater distinctions need to be made between the responsibilities of Ministers and officials. British democracy will suffer if we don't stop the culture of passing the buck.

The national question and the greatest living English poet

Nick Pearce 5 January 2012
Can Englishness be articulated to a progressive project? Perhaps its time to turn to Geoffrey Hill, a poet immersed in the complexities and richness of England.

Orthodoxy is wrong: it can pay to default

Nick Pearce 24 October 2011
In the 1990s, Argentina was an IMF poster boy, but it soon became a byword for the failures of the Washington Consensus. Tying its currency to the dollar, cutting public spending and selling its assets led to a deepening debt spiral from which it could not escape, until it defaulted.

This week's editor

Heather McRobie


Niki Seth-Smith is a freelance journalist and co-editor of OurKingdom.

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