Is the UK tax gap understated by at least £18 billion?
Funding the Future
Is the UK tax gap understated by at least £18 billion?
There is a report in the International Accounting Bulletin this morning that suggests: The UK’s HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has reported tha...
 The UK tax gap is, according to HMRC, £46.8 billion. But new data on tax not paid by multinational corporations suggests that this may be understated by £18 billion, and maybe more. Shouldn't HM Revenue & Customs tell us the whole truth about the tax gap?
Selling England by the pound
Funding the Future
Selling England by the pound
Two familiar commentators on this blog, Mike Parr and the person known as Colonel Smithers, spent some of the weekend discussing a Substack by some...
 Why is England (and I do mean England, in particular) in such decline? That's because the City put up a 'For Sale' sign over it in the 1980s, and the logic still is that everything must go.
Fiscal rules are as flexible as rubber bands
Funding the Future
Fiscal rules are as flexible as rubber bands
In this video, I explain why Rachel Reeves’ beloved fiscal rules are nothing but political theatre. They’re arbitrary, endlessly changeable, an...
 In this video, I explain why Rachel Reeves’ beloved fiscal rules are nothing but political theatre. They’re arbitrary, endlessly changeable, and stop us investing in what matters. It’s time we governed for people, not ratios.
The FT has published an editorial attacking taxes on the wealthy, and saying we must keep those threatening to leave, come what may. They're horribly wrong. If pandering to tax abuse is the price of keeping the wealthy, we should show them the door.
Funding the Future
The FT needs to get its head around wealth, and the need to tax it
The Financial Times published an editorial yesterday which revealed more about the priorities of the economic establishment than it probably intend...
Trump’s tariffs are destroying hope
Funding the Future
Trump’s tariffs are destroying hope
As the FT noted last night: Lesotho’s trade minister has warned that the country’s textiles industry, a major exporter to brands such as Levi...
 Lesotho, which is a major manufacturing centre for US garment companies, is predicting a national disaster because of the 50% tariff Trump is planning to impose on it, and they're right to do so. If you're not worried, you should be, because the knock-on effects for us all are considerable.
The corporations aiding genocide
Funding the Future
The corporations aiding genocide
I never imagined I would read a report like this in my lifetime, and yet it is in The Guardian, is corroborated elsewhere, and it is about a plan p...
 The evidence now is that many major corporations will, apparently, do anything to make a profit, including actively assisting genocide.
We need a politics that meets needs
Funding the Future
We need a politics that meets needs
I recorded a podcast with Tony Groves and Martin McMahon from the Echo Chamber Podcast in Ireland yesterday, which I do every few weeks or so. This...
 What is it that any party actually needs to do to succeed with the real people in the electorate now? I both ask and answer the question.
Labour is making a mockery of the rule of law
Funding the Future
Labour is making a mockery of the rule of law
I have a fear about what Yvette Cooper did last week. I believe that what she did in promoting the Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (A...
Protest is how change happens – and that's why the powerful fear it
Wes Streeting’s limited vision
Funding the Future
Wes Streeting’s limited vision
Wes Streeting has written an article for The Guardian on his vision for the NHS, which will come out today. Cut out his self-defence and the pad...
 Wes Streeting's vision for the NHS appears to focus on new health centres because hospitals are really BAD, AI note-taking software, and a new app. Why does there always have to be a new app? And that's it. This is not a vision. And that means it will fail.