Media Round-Up: November 2022

Last week, Jeremy Hunt announced the Autumn Statement. While it was a significant step in the right direction after the ‘mini-budget’, it still doesn’t go nearly far enough. A number of outlets picked up  our response or responded to the budget with mention of our research:

• Byline Times: After an Era of Austerity, What is Left to Cut?
• Glamour: A guide to Jeremy Hunt’s autumn budget and what it could mean for you
• Socialist Economic Bulletin: A note on the Autumn Statement
• The Poor Side of Life: Hunt’s Budget a Budget for the Rich
• Women’s Grid shared our release on the impact of austerity 2.0 on women: WBG warns against austerity 2.0, a triple whammy for women and our response to the autumn statement: WBG’s response to the Autumn Statement 2022: The budget means real terms cuts to public services that will hurt people and the economy
• The Women’s Organisation referred to our work in its pieces on Sunak: Rishi Sunak… what is his cabinet’s stance on women’s equality?

Childcare – which was not mentioned in Hunt’s briefing despite the urgent need for support – was mentioned by several outlets. Many of those writing on the subject were quick to highlight this absence:

• LBC: Shelagh Fogarty: You can’t be a government that’s serious about growth if you can’t get childcare right
• Pregnant then Screwed: Parliamentary briefing – why the relaxation of ratios in our early years’ sector would be a failed policy
• The Thread Times: Don’t the Conservatives Understand There is a Childcare Crisis?
• Social care was also written about by Diplomatic Courier: Stop Ignoring Care, It’s a Good Investment and Scottish Leftist Review: There is no just transition without social infrastructure

20th November is Equal Pay Day, the day in which women effectively begin working for free due to the average gender pay gap. As such, a number of publications have addressed the gender pay gap:

• The Independent: ‘Deeply disappointing’ gender pay gap has hardly changed, leading charity says
• Daventry Express: Women in Northamptonshire are working for NOTHING from now until 2023
• We Are The City: Equal Pay Day: Stagnated progress towards closing the gender pay gap

Finally, as our work shows, women face many issues as a result of their socio-political context.

• Women’s Grid reports that Harm Caused By Lack of Specialist Support For Young Women With Multiple Unmet Needs – Agenda Alliance
• An article in The Conversation discusses how The economic impact of COVID in the UK depended on where you live
• And the BBC reports on the unobtainable cost of housing in their piece: The exes forced to live together after breaking up