PHIL FRIEND

How disabled people are turned from citizens into burdens—and why that matters. When I first read Jeremy Clarkson’s suggestion that people receiving benefits should send weekly thank-you messages to taxpayers, I thought it was another deliberately outrageous column. The idea was that a claimant should be given the email address of someone who gets up and goes to work each day, so that they could express their gratitude. It was offensive, certainly. But it was also easy to dis

Social care reform, the Assisted Dying Bill, and an economic argument nobody is making. Andy Burnham gave a big speech yesterday. He talked about 22 failed attempts to reform social care over 30 years. He promised a National Care Service, a fair pay deal for care workers, and a cross-party conversation. Good. All of it is genuinely good. But I want to add something to that conversation. Something that didn't make the speech. There are more than 400,000 people in England curre

We've been married nearly 50 years. In all that time, we have never once run out of bleach. Meanwhile, I regularly forget we're having dinner with Fred on Saturday. Despite being told three times. I've missed booking our August holiday leave until the last minute. Last week, I double-booked myself because I had forgotten about something my wife had mentioned just days earlier. But bleach, it never runs out. How is this possible? You see, I get bored with solutions faster than