Funding the Future

I can't wait for the 5th of July

After 5 July the hard work begins. Then we have to work out how truly socially transformative ideas can be promoted so that the 2029 election campaign can be won for the people of this country.

The UK’s precarious £15 trillion of wealth

The UK looks to be a wealthy country with £15 trillion of financial assets. But they’ll rapidly disappearif we do not invest in our children and young people, in climate change and in preserving ourdemocracy and most of our politicians appear quite uninterested in that.

Is Labour ready to govern?

The biggest problem Labour will face – as a result of which all of us might suffer – is that almost no one in the Shadow Cabinet has any experience of being in government, or of ever having actually run anything of consequence. This might not turn out well…..

There is almost no money in a bank

The old idea that there is money in a bank is almost always wrong. There’s just a pile of bank statements in a bank these days, and it really is time we got our heads around that rather basic fact.

Savings are dead money

Savings do not create economic wealth. They have a use in terms of financial security, but they rarely create useful economic activity. So why does the government spend £760 billion or more a year subsidising them? 

Nationalisation does not cost taxpayers anything

Nationalisation does not cost the taxpayers of a country anything if it is done properly. Labour knew that in 1945, but apparently, they do not do so now. Why have they forgotten all that they once knew?

Getting rid of the tax anomalies

The UK tax system is riddled with tax anomalies - or tax spillovers as I prefer to call them. And politician who is serious about making the tax system work better should be aiming to get rid of them - but none are saying that’s their plan.

Why do we give small companies a free tax ride?

HM Revenue & Customs reckons more than 30% of all tax owing by small UK limited companies is not paid. Why are our politicians doing nothing about this - and why are they letting down honest small businesses so badly by not doing so?

Tax the bads Tobacco, alcohol, sugar, carbon, plastics

We all know what the ‘bads’ in our economy are -  tobacco, alcohol, sugar, carbon, plastics, and more. Some of them we tax heavily because we know they are ‘bad’. But sugar, plastics and even carbon are still getting an easy ride. It’s time we tackled them properly.

There is no black hole in government funding

Politicians might talk endlessly about black holes in government funding but in reality, there can never be any such thing. All that actually exists are choices about how the government might fund its spending - some of which options those same politicians are refusing to consider, at a cost to us all.