Matthew T. Johnson – The Conversation

Former PM Gordon Brown says more than 3 million children born after 2010 live in poverty. Victoria Jones/PA Images/Alamy

May 16, 2024

Gordon Brown wants £3 billion for the ‘austerity generation’. But the UK needs a more enduring solution

Elliott Johnson, Northumbria University, Newcastle; Daniel Nettle, Northumbria University, Newcastle, and Matthew T. Johnson, Northumbria University, Newcastle

Targeting benefits at the most vulnerable sounds like good sense – but a wider support system could be more effective at tackling poverty.

Rishi Sunak’s claims of a sicknote culture are nothing new. Muhammad Aamir Sumsum/Shutterstock

April 24, 2024

Rishi Sunak wants to cut the cost of ‘sicknote’ Britain. But we’ve found a strong economic case for benefits

Elliott Johnson, Northumbria University, Newcastle; Howard Reed, Northumbria University, Newcastle, and Matthew T. Johnson, Northumbria University, Newcastle

Welfare reforms targeted at the sick and disabled won’t boost government coffers. In fact, spending on those who need support and investing in less conditional systems has a real financial return.

EPA/Adam Vaughan

April 23, 2024

Labour can afford to be far more ambitious with its economic policies – voters are on board

Matthew T. Johnson, Northumbria University, Newcastle and Matthew Flinders, University of Sheffield

Are Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves focusing on the same criteria for economic competence as Britain’s voters?

Grusho Anna/Shutterstock

June 12, 2023

How universal basic income’s impact on people’s finances could transform the nation’s health

Matthew T. Johnson, Northumbria University, Newcastle and Elliott Johnson, Northumbria University, Newcastle

Research shows a progressive basic income is needed now.

Aaron Chown/PA

May 25, 2020

Dominic Cummings and Boris Johnson have lost control of the fear factor

Matthew Flinders, University of Sheffield; Dan Degerman, Lancaster University, and Matthew T. Johnson, Lancaster University

Fear is actually an important element of a government’s toolbox but once you lose control of it, you can’t get it back with ease.

The legacy of dispossession continues to this day.

June 12, 2015

What residents of an English mining town learned from visiting Aboriginal communities

Matthew T. Johnson, Lancaster University and Mary Graham, The University of Queensland

How to communicate across centuries of misunderstanding and dispossession.

Women in the Netherlands protest against ISIS. Robin van Lonkhuijsen/EPA

July 28, 2014

ISIS may not be enforcing FGM, but Iraqis still have to face the horrors of war

Matthew T. Johnson, Lancaster University

The July 24 report by UN official Jacqueline Badcock that ISIS, the militant Jihadist group now controlling areas of Syria and Iraq, had ordered all women between the ages of 11 and 46 to undergo female…

Conflating a lot of issues. Rufai Ajala

May 12, 2014

The anti‑FGM campaign may undermine the wellbeing of those it should be helping

Matthew T. Johnson, Lancaster University

Police and border officials have been running a campaign at airports across the UK to intercept families who could have taken their children abroad for female genital mutilation (FGM). Now the Metropolitan…

Contact Matthew for