Niall Cooper: The curse of usury

25/10/2013 | Reform

The dangers of being trapped by debt

Debt is now big business – and everyone is affected by it. Debt damages many people’s lives; all the more so if you are already struggling on a low income.

Take Donna, a … Read More

Niall Cooper: Reclaiming welfare

02/10/2013 | Reform

‘Welfare has almost become a dirty word’

I’m proud to live in a country which can count the creation of the modern welfare state as one of its finest achievements, and one of its key founding principles in 1945 was … Read More

Niall Cooper: Speak truth to power

02/09/2013 | Reform

Having been brought up a Methodist, I can’t ever quite get away from thinking of September as the start of the New Year. The next 12 (or more precisely 20) months are likely to tell us a lot about what … Read More

Niall Cooper: Faith in the fragments

16/07/2013 | Reform

‘For many, the experience of urban life is shattering’

Fragmentation is increasingly the shared experience of most of us living in urban communities. Manchester, the melting pot of the industrial revolution, is now more fragmented than at any time in … Read More

Niall Cooper: Look forward in hunger

22/05/2013 | Reform

The Enough Food for All IF campaign was launched earlier this year in response to the growing numbers of people in the world who are experiencing hunger; but the shocking reality is that hundreds of thousands of people are also … Read More

Niall Cooper: Don’t panic

24/04/2013 | Reform

“Don’t panic! Don’t panic!” Sergeant Jones’ famous refrain would be an apt response to the increasingly strident headlines in recent weeks about the future of the welfare state: “Benefit claimants flooding system”, “The government must reform the welfare state now”, … Read More