Peter Saunders personal website

Sociologist
(Professor Emeritus, University of Sussex, England)

Social researcher
(Distinguished Fellow of the Centre for Independent Studies, Australia; Professorial Research Fellow at Civitas, London)

Writer
(Fiction, non-fiction and journalism)

Consultant
(specialising in social policy issues)

Media commentator and public speaker

"Devastating... Peter Saunders takes an intellectual wrecking ball to [government policy]" (The Sunday Times June 2010)

"The most prominent liberal intellectual in Australia" (Sydney Morning Herald, 2008)

"The antithesis of an Ivory Tower intellectual" (ABC Radio National Counterpoint, 2008)

"Saunders uses spare and stylish English to mow down paddocks of sacred cows" (The Australian, 2008)

Latest:

Debate with the authors of The Spirit Level at the RSA (London), 22 July:

listen to the debate (video available shortly)

Read feedback:

'I have been reminded of the...folly of thinking you finally have the evidence to change the world' ( New Economics Foundation, 23 July)

'I want to believe in the thesis of The Spirit Level, for ideological reasons, but after this event I have serious doubts about whether the evidence stacks up.' Jonathon Rowson (chess Grandmaster) on the RSA's blog

Chris Snowdon corrects some false claims made during the debate here

The Guardian in an Editorial on 26 July defends Wilkinson and Pickett against what it calls a 'polemical attack'

Two new books on inequality:

Published on 8 July by Policy Exchange, Beware False Prophets offers a rigorous critique of the claim in Wilkinson and Pickett's influential book, 'The Spirit Level', that all our lives would be improved if income inequalities were compressed. Get a copy here

'A thorough debunking of the unofficial Koran of the left-of-centre' (David Aaronovitch, The Times, 8 July)
''A hatchet job...racist' (Wilkinson & Pickett on The Guardian website, 9 July; click here for my response)


Published on 1 June by Civitas, Social Mobility Myths challenges the last government's claim that Britain is a 'closed shop society'. Social mobility is extensive, it is not falling, and Britain does not perform badly compared with other countries. Order from Amazon.

Read 'Busting the myth of our rigid classes', my Sunday Times article on social mobility (6 June)

Read press reports of Social Mobility Myths:
Daily Telegraph
Daily Mail