Huge respect to the papers for finding both an 88 year old worried about the tax bill on her 6 bedroom Kensington house and a 20 year old fretting about only being able to save £12k a year tax free.
Top work all around. These are not easy case studies to find.
Any possibility you could do something on Freeports in UK?
We now have 2 more in Scotland rebranded as "Green Freeports".
I may be very cynical but seems like evidence is very thin on job creation (limited to displacement from other areas)? It's DHLUC so does it reduce inequality?
Taxing the richest 1% would raise over £70 billion for public services.
Don't buy the excuses. There's more than enough money in the UK to:
🟢 Tackle the climate emergency
🟢 Improve public services
🟢 Lower household bills
It's time to put people and planet before profit. #TaxTheRich
"A coordinated minimum tax on billionaires is the most effective way to create a fairer society—and international tax reforms prove it’s possible. A progressive tax system is both the engine of economic development & a pillar of democracy." 💬 @gabrielzucman.bsky.social at @norad.no conference 2025.
Oakeshott, who recently emigrated to Dubai with her children, explaining how "integrating" there was "not really challenging" as it is "90pc expats", beams in to complain about too many immigrants in London.
Could not make it up. ~AA
The combined net worth of America's twelve wealthiest people passed $2 trillion last year.
12 people. $2 trillion.
Meanwhile, U.S. homelessness increased 18% in 2024.
Our problem isn’t an issue of resources.
Our problem is ever-expanding wealth inequality.
Happy New Year
Here are just some of the now deleted Tweets previously put out by the man Kemi Badenoch has just made an ennobled peer of the realm
John Hartson is given offside in the 2003 League Cup final, hilariously.
In fairness to Rangers, I remember when this iffy cup final decision dominated the media discourse for literally seconds.
Ending poverty and homelessness in Scotland should be front and centre of government policy going forward into 2024
New stats today by National Records of Scotland: 242 deaths of people experiencing homelessness were registered in Scotland in 2023. This is similar to 2022 (244 deaths) and a stark reminder of the impact of socioeconomic hardship on health outcomes. Full report: https://buff.ly/3ZoDUw2
Just a reminder that there were people claiming Syrian refugees were 'economic migrants' and it was perfectly safe for them to go back... www.bbc.com/news/article...
“He wants to build a world in which his cruelty cannot be limited, in which he and his fellow dictators enjoy impunity, and in which no universal values exist, not even as aspirations.”
This certainly applies to other he-devils as well as Assad.
Plenty of Tories would have the US model in a heartbeat as would frog impersonator and "man of the people" Nigel Farage. The threat hasn't gone away yet and won't be anytime soon. We'll need to fight privatisation of the NHS every step of the way.
Child Poverty % (children living in households below the minimum wage)
Denmark 2.4%
Finland 3.2%
Norway 3.6%
Sweden 3.6%
The UK 32.1%
All four of those countries have child benefits, paid by taxing the rich, that make it almost impossible for a child to be in poverty.
Trump and his billionaires think the end point of Maga is authoritarianism with them at the top. They are fools. I do not condone violence, but this article from 2014 by Nick Hanauer seems prescient for today.
www.politico.com/magazine/sto...
Reform UK, what they say and what they do.
www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...
Clive Bailye & Lord Bamford. Who'd have thought this was organised by the Tory donor class?
The Paradox of Tolerance Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. - In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be un-wise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intol-erant. Credit: Karl Popper
Touching on Karl Popper’s ‘Paradox of Tolerance’
Great Video
An egregious waste of taxpayer's money, especially whilst the numbers accessing foodbanks and sleeping rough is growing. Wholly unjustifiable.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Continental Perspectives on the Geopolitical Economy of Football
www.routledge.com/Continental-...
With publication of our book imminent (one of two associated volumes), a BIG thanks to everyone who has contributed to this volume #appreciated
@paulwiddop.bsky.social
youtu.be/s9J0GpnXNhY?...
Great summary as always on the current inheritance tax/farming situation.
DWP admits (finally) what many campaign groups have been saying for weeks - the winter fuel payment cuts will plunge tens of thousands of pensioners into poverty
I wouldn’t want to be the Minister doing tomorrow morning’s interview round
@bigissue.bsky.social
www.bigissue.com/news/social-...
Oh wow Clarkson has double standards about protest? SHOCKED
