What do you do when the target’s wrong?
Funding the Future
What do you do when the target’s wrong?
As the Guardian noted yesterday: Bank of England rate-setter Catherine Mann has warned there is “very clear upside evidence” that UK ...
 The Bank of England is missing its 2% inflation target, but so what when the target is artificial, meaningless and decidedly harmful? Isn't it time we had better economic policy rather than spending time fretting about missing goals that were set in the 1990s for reasons that no one can now recall, or explain?
We could have avoided a crash
Funding the Future
We could have avoided a crash
This came from an email from The Economist yesterday: Today Gita Gopinath, a former chief economist of the IMF, sounds a warning. In a guest essay...
 Everyone now agrees we are heading for a global financial crash. It's only a matter of when, and not if. And the sad thing is, if only we'd reformed our tax reliefs on pensions and ISAs we might have avoided this disaster that's now in the making.
Inequality is not falling
Funding the Future
Inequality is not falling
The background The claim that inequality is falling is a claim that is often trotted out by right-wing commentators, backed by selective income...
 Right-wing politicians and commentators are claiming that inequality is falling in the UK based on a tiny change in one national statistic, which is itself statistically insignificant. This is not the case in reality. Inequality is rising. In this post, I explain why and what we can and should do about it.
Fascism, Trump, Reform, and the silencing of dissent
Funding the Future
Fascism, Trump, Reform, and the silencing of dissent
Chris Hedges, the noted anti-fascist campaigner in the USA,  has recently pointed out that fascists are unusually candid. They tell you what they ...
 Criticising Trump was deemed to be a terrorist act in the USA last week. Reform is already trying the same approach here - accusing Starmer of inciting terrorism for criticising Farage. In both cases, the direction of travel is the same - and is towards full-on fascism. We should be profoundly worried.
Bond markets do not rule – governments do
Funding the Future
Bond markets do not rule – governments do
James Carville, adviser to Bill Clinton, once said that if there were reincarnation, he would like to come back as the bond market, because then he...
 The FT is demanding that the government bow down to the demands of financial markets that will profoundly harm the well-being of the UK and most people who live in it. In the process, they reveal their lack of economic understanding and their own weak relationship with democracy and the right of elected politicians to govern.
Beating fascism is the task ahead
Funding the Future
Beating fascism is the task ahead
A US-based writer called Chris Armitage has noted in his Substack that: Once fascists win power democratically, they have never been removed dem...
 Beating fascism now is essential. Once fascists get into power, they do not give us the option of voting them out again.
The case for recognising and supporting those with special educational needs and disabilities
Funding the Future
The case for recognising and supporting those with special educational needs and disabilities
Introduction I rarely write blog posts as long as this one. I am rarely as passionate about a subject as I am about the provision of special ...
 The right-wing assaults on the rights of children and all people who have autism, ADHD, AuDHD, and other special needs keep growing, and that's especially worrying for all those who know, care, teach and value such people for who they are and what they can do.
Is Rachel Reeves going to extend national insurance to investment income?
Funding the Future
Is Rachel Reeves going to extend national insurance to investment income?
I received a pile of emails from estate agents and financial advisers — otherwise known as people living in fear of losing their sinecures — du...
 Will Rachel Reeves begin to tackle the inequalities between work and wealth in our tax system this autumn? I hope so.
It is our duty to defend human rights
Funding the Future
It is our duty to defend human rights
There are moments when it is necessary to point out that there are good reasons why the UK has, since 1945, had such a strong tradition of supporti...
 Farage is going to announce his plan to end human rights in the UK this morning. We should all be profoundly worried.
Why we need migrants into the UK
Funding the Future
Why we need migrants into the UK
Background As I mentioned yesterday, I have written a column for the National on migration and the impending crisis that is going to envelop the...
 Without inward migration, the UK faces a massive pension crisis. To pretend otherwise is to simply misrepresent the truth: without continuing inward migration, the UK, and those who live here, will be in the deepest trouble.