Are the rich going to leave? In the run up to the budget I have seen claims that as many as one in five people are planning to leave the UK because taxes are too high. If they are, they’re in for a shock. The well-off and the wealthy get a great tax deal in the UK that they’re going to find hard to replicate anywhere else.
Let’s stop pretending that we are going to live comfortably
Funding the Future
Let’s stop pretending that we are going to live comfortably
As the Guardian noted yesterday: Many of Earth’s “vital signs” have hit record extremes, indicating that “the future of humanity hangs i...
 The climate tipping point has arrived, or may already be in the past. The idea that the future might look anything like our past is absurd; massive change is now going to be demanded of us if human life on earth is to survive, and society with it. Can we make those changes? That is now the question.
Does the next Tory leader matter?
Funding the Future
Does the next Tory leader matter?
Today we will know who the two candidates that Tory party members will have to chose between to be their new leader might be. One of those two l...
 The Tory leadership campaign is drawing to its close. but does it matter when, whichever of the uninspiring candidates wins, the Tories have no chance of developing messaging to challenge the electoral assaults heading their way from all directions?
The state of economic debate
Funding the Future
The state of economic debate
As readers of this blog will know, I don
 Current debates about the national debt are between the economically illiterate on something equivalent to the number of angels capable of standing on a pinhead, the outcome of which discussion has no relationship to the real world because the data used is not really derived from it in any meaningful way.
Government surpluses don’t create cash piles waiting to be spent
Funding the Future
Government surpluses don’t create cash piles waiting to be spent
The idea that government surpluses are good because they create piles of cash waiting to be spent in the event of a national emergency is absurd. A...
 The idea that government surpluses are good because they create piles of cash waiting to be spent in the event of a national emergency is absurd. All money paid in tax is cancelled on receipt by the government. So, all government surpluses actually do is reduce the amount of cash in the private sector economy.
Should the nations and regions send envoys to Starmer?
Funding the Future
Should the nations and regions send envoys to Starmer?
I noted Sue Gray
 Starmer has created a deeply patronising role for Sue Gray as ‘envoy to the nations and regions’ that makes a mockery of her and all those living outside the south-east. Is he really so detached that he thinks envoys are required?
Starmer’s new climate policy is unforgivable
Funding the Future
Starmer’s new climate policy is unforgivable
The Sun reports this morning that: The PM is announcing a £22billion cash injection over 25 years for “game-changing” carbon capture technol...
 Starmer's denying the science on managing climate change. He's pursuing lousy economics, with the likelihood that most, if not all, of his new investment money will be wasted. And he's gambling with our security in a way that we cannot afford. That is unforgivable.
UK company law is a joke: it exists, but no one enforces it
Funding the Future
UK company law is a joke: it exists, but no one enforces it
UK company law exists to protect society and honest traders from fraudsters, but since no one has the job of properly enforcing that law, it might ...
 UK company law exists to protect society and honest traders from fraudsters, but since no one has the job of properly enforcing that law, it might as well not exist. This failure represents a massive failure on the part of successive governments that needs to be addressed now.
The economic consequences of the war
Funding the Future
The economic consequences of the war
Listening to political speakers over the last day or so, from Starmer to Biden and beyond, it is apparent that they share a common view. It would s...
 Expect inflation, increased interest rates, recession and deep austerity, and all to support Netanyahu's desperate attempts to avoid justice.
Can Starmer stop the stench from rising?
Funding the Future
Can Starmer stop the stench from rising?
Will Keir Starmer ever get anything right? Having made a complete mess of Labour’s reputation for both honesty and integrity within weeks of g...
 Will Keir Starmer ever get anything right? Or are his days inevitably numbered now?