Top articles of 2020

The Bevan Foundation’s online articles provide short, sharp and informative insights into current issues.  Victoria Winckler, Director of the Bevan Foundation, reviews the top reads of 2020.

Over the last year, the Bevan Foundation’s articles have covered everything from the search for a vaccine to protect against Covid-19, to ideas to develop Wales’ towns to analysis of the latest unemployment statistics. They’re always popular, but some have really captured the public’s interest. As 2020 draws to a close, here are the top five  articles of the year (in no particular order).

1. All in it together

In April, Rocio Cifuentes, Chief Executive of EYST, captured the mood of the times with her article about the impact of Coronavirus on people of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic background.  Ahead of most analyses, Rocio highlighted how BAME people were much more likely to be hospitalised with the virus. She explained that this was partly due to the greater exposure to it because of the jobs BAME people do.

2. Six things that the Welsh Government could do to help low-income families through Covid

Another popular article was by the Bevan Foundation’s Steffan Evans.  He set out practical action that the Welsh Government could take as the pandemic began to take its toll on jobs. Not only did this attract readers, it also set the policy agenda with the Welsh Government subsequently implementing three of our proposals.

3. Poverty is everywhere

This article – by me – proves that some comment pieces have a long shelf-life. Pre-dating the pandemic, it highlighted our estimates of poverty for each local authority in Wales. The take-home message was, as the title of the article suggested, that poverty is everywhere.

4. Wonderful care workers deserve fair wages

Another pandemic hit was an article by Lynne Hackett of the union Unison. She contrasted the weekly clap for carers with the poor terms and conditions, and significant risks to health, experienced by many care workers.  What I particularly liked about this piece was that she gave an example of good practice, showing that social care need not be done ‘on the cheap’.

5. Some thoughts on universal basic income

The fifth top read in 2020 was about UBI.  This article looked at some the underlying issues, such as the possible value of a UBI payment, the cost to the public purse, the potential impact on different groups of people, and whether the Welsh Government has the powers to introduce it (spoiler: it does not). The findings informed the debate in the Welsh Parliament a few days later.

There are many more articles that I and others enjoyed that didn’t make it to the top five and you can browse them all here. Our supporters also receive a monthly round-up of articles in our newsletter, The Spark.

Later this week, look out for our most popular reports and briefings.

Victoria Winckler is Director of the Bevan Foundation.