News stories, research and blogs I found interesting this week

1. Media portrayals of social security recipients in the UK, Denmark and Sweden
2. How business profits from forced labour, Joseph Rowntree Foundation research.
3. Nudge theory as a means of removing moral agency, by Frank Furedi.
4. Budding journos run 24-hour poverty reporting project using JRF guidelines 
5. Economics students reject orthodoxy in theory AND as rational self-interested ‘customers’ 
6. Esther Mcvey MP continues to belittle and smear the jobless 
7. And finally, watch Jeremy Hunt MP get booed at a Pride event, delish! 

Blair on media's influence: vastly overstated

Since leaving government Tony Blair has downgraded the influence the media has on government.

Speaking to the Mile End Group last month he said:

 'One of the most difficult things today in politics is there's such noise generated around you and around your decision making, I think it's really hard for a political leader to take a step back and work out what is real and what isn't… I sometimes get political leaders who'll say to me, you know, "You want to see what's happening on Twitter around such-and-such." And I say to them, "That may be real, and it may be representative, or it may not. Or it may be a spasmodic burst of opinion rather than a considered strand of opinion." …  dealing with that, I think, is very tough. The other thing I think's really interesting, when I look back on my time - and I say this to leaders a lot - is that as a result of the way the media works today, scandals and crises, that is just part of your life. So you're living with a constant, as I say, barrage of noise and static around you.
The interesting thing is when you finish your time and you look back and say, "Well, what did I do and what did I achieve?" a lot of that really falls away, and what's left is the residue of things that are actually important. So I think keeping your mind focused in that way is very hard today, but more necessary than ever.'

Watch the discussion here: