http://blogs.independent.co.uk| Blogs from the Independent newspaper - news, views and features from the world's most free-thinking newspaper| Wed, 22 May 2013 14:48:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2| en hourly 1 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/08/31/your-middle-class-guide-to-the-jobcentre-could-there-be-a-more-valiant-cause-than-teddy%e2%80%99s-21st-at-funky-buddha/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/08/31/your-middle-class-guide-to-the-jobcentre-could-there-be-a-more-valiant-cause-than-teddy%e2%80%99s-21st-at-funky-buddha/#comments Fri, 31 Aug 2012 14:43:38 +0000 Tom Davies http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=28072 Look at you with your university education, horrible red trousers and penchant for Starbucks macchiato. You’ve graduated, now you find yourself unemployed and Daddy’s just cut you off. ]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/08/31/your-middle-class-guide-to-the-jobcentre-could-there-be-a-more-valiant-cause-than-teddy%e2%80%99s-21st-at-funky-buddha/feed/ 2 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/08/08/forced-adoption-the-demonization-of-parents-in-care-proceedings/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/08/08/forced-adoption-the-demonization-of-parents-in-care-proceedings/#comments Wed, 08 Aug 2012 05:00:30 +0000 Charlotte Rachael Proudman http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=27182 The Children and Families Bill expected to be introduced in 2012/2013 sets out plans to speed up adoption and care proceedings. ]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/08/08/forced-adoption-the-demonization-of-parents-in-care-proceedings/feed/ 159 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/07/23/how-should-we-talk-to-men-about-sexism/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/07/23/how-should-we-talk-to-men-about-sexism/#comments Mon, 23 Jul 2012 11:23:13 +0000 Laurie Penny http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=26673 Laurie Penny and Martin Robbins are both writers, both feminists and both happened to be sitting alone at their computers on a Friday night when the question of ‘how to talk to men about sexism without scaring them off?’ came up on Twitter. Reasoning that the best way to encourage conversation is to start one, they did. ]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/07/23/how-should-we-talk-to-men-about-sexism/feed/ 290 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/07/04/henley-regatta-an-outsider%e2%80%99s-perspective-on-a-right-royal-knees-up/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/07/04/henley-regatta-an-outsider%e2%80%99s-perspective-on-a-right-royal-knees-up/#comments Tue, 03 Jul 2012 23:00:45 +0000 Kieran Connell http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=25908 The first thing you notice, as you walk around Henley-on-Thames during the Royal Regatta, is the blazers. And it’s a competitive business, these blazers. “Don’t take this the wrong way”, I overheard one young man say to his friend during Regatta week, the climax of which was on Sunday. “But your blazer isn’t exactly made from high-end tweed”.]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/07/04/henley-regatta-an-outsider%e2%80%99s-perspective-on-a-right-royal-knees-up/feed/ 6 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/29/top-of-the-posts-the-bullingdon-club-king-kong-and-parents-got-talent/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/29/top-of-the-posts-the-bullingdon-club-king-kong-and-parents-got-talent/#comments Fri, 29 Jun 2012 14:19:51 +0000 Laura Davis http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=25793 The most read blogs this week, as determined by stats.]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/29/top-of-the-posts-the-bullingdon-club-king-kong-and-parents-got-talent/feed/ 1 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/29/its-not-the-school-you-go-to-that-determines-how-well-you-do-its-the-class-system-stupid/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/29/its-not-the-school-you-go-to-that-determines-how-well-you-do-its-the-class-system-stupid/#comments Fri, 29 Jun 2012 10:09:06 +0000 Owen Jones http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=25805 If we’re going to improve educational results in this country, it means less of an obsessive focus on the schools – and more attention to the grotesque broader inequalities of modern British society.]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/29/its-not-the-school-you-go-to-that-determines-how-well-you-do-its-the-class-system-stupid/feed/ 188 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/28/do-we-have-a-culture-of-entitlement/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/28/do-we-have-a-culture-of-entitlement/#comments Thu, 28 Jun 2012 11:31:46 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=25775 I say neither the rich nor the poor in this country have; Christina Patterson disagrees. Our debate was posted yesterday in the Notebook and Eagle Eye sections of Independent blogs. Pitch in. ]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/28/do-we-have-a-culture-of-entitlement/feed/ 3 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/28/moral-judgements-have-no-place-in-the-benefits-system/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/28/moral-judgements-have-no-place-in-the-benefits-system/#comments Thu, 28 Jun 2012 01:00:39 +0000 Ruth Whippman http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=25725 If there’s one thing that David Cameron is clear about, it’s that he wants us all to do the ‘Right Thing,’ a phrase that popped up no less than seven times in his deeply moralising speech about the benefits system earlier this week. ]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/28/moral-judgements-have-no-place-in-the-benefits-system/feed/ 176 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/28/britain-is-about-as-socially-mobile-as-anywhere/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/28/britain-is-about-as-socially-mobile-as-anywhere/#comments Wed, 27 Jun 2012 23:00:36 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=25707 I saw a report last week, which I put aside to read later, assuming that it would be reported prominently in the next day's newspapers. It made the important argument that Britain is, contrary to what most people think, a socially mobile country.]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/28/britain-is-about-as-socially-mobile-as-anywhere/feed/ 6 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/27/the-debate-do-we-have-a-culture-of-entitlement/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/27/the-debate-do-we-have-a-culture-of-entitlement/#comments Wed, 27 Jun 2012 08:54:36 +0000 Laura Davis http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=25629 The Prime Minister feels we have a "culture of entitlement" when it comes to welfare, and polling shows huge public support for a crackdown on benefit payments. But do many young people leave school expecting to be looked after financially? Do the wealthy elite expect to rule?]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/27/the-debate-do-we-have-a-culture-of-entitlement/feed/ 35 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/27/how-we-all-started-working-for-free-3/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/27/how-we-all-started-working-for-free-3/#comments Wed, 27 Jun 2012 07:00:09 +0000 Ruth Whippman http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=25651 When I was a student, back in the early nineties, I had a holiday job at the frozen-food supermarket chain, Iceland. One morning, presumably fresh from a leadership course at Frosty HQ, our manager called all the staff together to admonish us for our apparent lack of enthusiasm for the sale of turkey nuggets. “Sometimes I feel that some of you are only in this for the money” she hissed. She was cut off by incredulous laughter. After all, what other motivation could there be for spending one’s weekend restocking a giant fridge freezer? ]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/27/how-we-all-started-working-for-free-3/feed/ 54 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/27/file-sharing-is-no-different-from-jimmy-carr%e2%80%99s-clever-accounting/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/27/file-sharing-is-no-different-from-jimmy-carr%e2%80%99s-clever-accounting/#comments Wed, 27 Jun 2012 01:00:37 +0000 James Bloodworth http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=25630 At some point during the last 10 years or so, the idea that everything that can be taken for free has become widely accepted. The most intriguing thing about the 2009 parliamentary expenses scandal was not the relaxed set of regulations governing the expenses process, but rather the widespread assumption by MPs that if it was possible to put in a claim for something it would be fit and proper to do so - the morality of the claim itself being a moot point.]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/27/file-sharing-is-no-different-from-jimmy-carr%e2%80%99s-clever-accounting/feed/ 75