Melissa Benn

About Melissa Benn

Melissa Benn is an award-winning writer, journalist and campaigner. She has written five fiction and non-fiction books, and writes for the Guardian and several other publications on social and political issues. She is a regular public speaker and broadcaster.

Class of their own by Melissa Benn

28 January 2010 | Melissa Benn

Labour’s attempt to play the class card against David Cameron is undermined by its failure to bridge the inequality gap. Both parties should focus on policies Read more...

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Gordon’s taxing week, by Melissa Benn

13 November 2009 | Melissa Benn

The PM surprised many with his call for a ‘Tobin tax’ on banks. But the move is in tune with the economic climate and public distaste for excessive earnings Read more...

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A tough conference call, by Melissa Benn

17 September 2009 | Melissa Benn

The party conference season is as much a fixture in the national autumn calendar as the new school term and Guy Fawkes night. It briefly takes the spotlight off Parliament and the TV studios and for a few heady days illuminates both top and bottom of the political parties that claim the right to govern us. Read more...

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It is not all academic, by Melissa Benn

11 September 2009 | Melissa Benn

In his last PF blog, Conor Ryan suggests that union opposition to academies is based largely on uncertainty about performance; oh, and just a smidgen of carping self-interest and general negativity. Read more...

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Save our local everything! By Melissa Benn

23 July 2009 | Melissa Benn

If a tired Labour government, 12 years in, struggles to develop a credible vision to sell to the voters, the Conservatives seem to have hit on a rich and popular idea that I am sure we will hear more of as the election edges near, an idea I shall crudely summarise as ‘Save our local everything!’ Read more...

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Playing catch-up

2 July 2009 | Melissa Benn

The government has been falling badly behind in the popularity stakes. But the new education white paper is earning it brownie points Read more...

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A win-win solution

1 May 2009 | Melissa Benn

It was not the stuff of banner headlines. Potentially dodgy economic dossiers took that particular crown. But Alistair Darling’s Budget day announcement of 50,000 new traineeships in social care for unemployed young people Read more

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Giving something back

13 February 2009 | Melissa Benn

The tone was positively Churchillian: ‘Britain can beat this… just like we’ve beaten everything else this world has thrown at us. We’ll win by pulling together, not by facing the storm alone.’ Read more

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The single mother of all battles

5 December 2008 | Melissa Benn

This week’s announcements of stringent welfare measures have just a whiff of Groundhog Day about them. Those ministers with longer political memories, including the prime minister and his deputy, Harriet Harman, are surely alive to the dangers. Read more

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Joined-up government?

10 October 2008 | Melissa Benn

It could be the biggest political news story of the autumn: the return of the Prince of Darkness, or the Prince of Sleaze as one newspaper unkindly called him. Read more

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