@lukehildyard.bsky.social
Director: High Pay Centre think tank, author: 'Enough - Why it's time to abolish the super rich' Work on inequality, economic democracy, corporate power etc Book via https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745348568/enough
Just a quick note to say that I am leaving @highpaycentre.bsky.social this week
Many fond memories of nearly 11 years(!) at HPC but narrating the the Liz Truss premiership was certainly a particuarly interesting time
Am moving to @shareaction.bsky.social to work in the UK policy team
More likely the exact opposite of this
US has big economic advantages (eg energy resource, younger population) leading to higher per capita wealth.
But still has lower living standards - worse crime, health, poverty - because of extreme free market dogma & refusal to regulate/redistribute
This deserves *way* more attention than it’s getting
Reform’s former Wales leader admits he received corrupt payments in exchange for making statements in the European Parliament to promote Russia’s interests in #Ukraine.
The most abominable recent innovation in football, divorcing the game from its purest form, is not VAR but the increased number of substitutions
24.09.2025 18:16 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Watching Trump's speech to the UN for some reason prompted a second look at this Vice article from 2013...
www.vice.com/en/article/w...
fascinating research from @theifs.bsky.social
most people greatly underestimate wage inequality in their country. Accurate information generally has little impact on policy preferences, but makes far right voters significantly more supportive of redistributive measures
ifs.org.uk/publications...
A lot of the terms in the immigration debate... cheap foreign labour and "unskilled workers" vs "the brightest and the best" with whom they're contrasted... also illustrate what the people using them think about British people at different income levels
22.09.2025 09:59 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
V interesting to see Nick Clegg use the term "Vassal State" to describe US/UK economic relationship, echoing Angus Hanton's book of the same title
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
guardianbookshop.com/vassal-state...
such an under discussed issue in UK politics
rly interesting, thanks! Was at a Chatham House seminar recently on Labour's first year of FP & found it slightly depressing/myopic that focus was entirely on getting a good deal out of Trump, with no reflection on long-term implications of the increasingly extreme direction of the US
18.09.2025 08:38 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0do u think there should be more think tank energy on this topic?
Feels like a detailed vision of progressive alternative to US vassalage (covering eg tax coordination, climate, gaza) is lacking - particularly given relationship between economic & foreign policy in a globalised economy
[me, a journalist who spends all day every day on a social media app where the discovery algorithm is personally controlled by its owner, captain birdseye] you know, a lot of people are talking about fish fingers, we should probably cover that
16.09.2025 07:25 — 👍 2783 🔁 719 💬 4 📌 2
Interesting to contrast what the actual Pope sees as socio-economic priorities from a Christian perspective, compared to other campaigners adn activists supposedly animated by Christianity
edition.cnn.com/2025/09/15/b...
Pope Leo XIV, possibly an avid reader of @highpaycentre.bsky.social output, decries rising CEO to worker pay gaps
edition.cnn.com/2025/09/15/b...
Thanks… I’m sure its legally/ethically/economically complicated but surely fiduciaries should be at least seriously interrogating whether investing in the success of the company under Musk’s leadership is in their members’ interests - lots that funds could do short of full on divestment
15.09.2025 07:39 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0I wonder how many UK pension funds are invested in Tesla while the CEO uses the prominence/respectability deriving from his position at the company to call for racial violence in our country?
It feels unlikely that this is consistent with a happy, comfortable retirement for pension savers…
As far as the Anglo consensus is concerned, Spain's assertive centre-left government has done everything wrong: Keynesian, redistributive, socially open, net-zero-friendly, multilateralist, Trump-sceptical.
Yet the governing PSOE just hit 33% in latest CIS poll, above even its 2023 election win.
Barclays CEO paid £10.5m last year says teachers, nurses & local government workers shouldn't get a payrise
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
interesting poll.
would be kind of curious to understand more about the 17% still sticking with the Tories over Reform
I was a guest on the 'anti social economics' podcast, supported by @jrf-uk.bsky.social & hosted by @wealtherty.bsky.social of @lseinequalities.bsky.social discussing limits to extreme wealth with Fernanda Balanta of @neweconomics.bsky.social
open.spotify.com/episode/1bFz...
interesting piece! I would foresee a tax paid by all Londoners in exchange for free travel on the tube and buses only not being incredibly popular in South East London.
04.09.2025 13:08 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0It’s also ‘interesting’ how people raising this point are increasingly happy to make claims about hereditary iq & genetics in reference to educational or economic underperformance of other groups
31.08.2025 08:19 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Thank you - that’s good to hear & much appreciated
22.08.2025 11:45 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Other recommendations:
- create seats for worker directors on company boards
- more detailed disclosure from companies on how they distribute expenditure on pay across their workforce.
First steps to getting more of the income that flows to executives & wealthy investors going to workers instead
Findings illustrative of wider of inequality that characterises the UK economy
Govt should fully implement Employment Rights Bill, particularly provisions expanding access to trade unions
Research shows higher union membership = lower ceo/worker pay gaps
. highpaycentre.org/ceo-pay-in-t...
new High Pay Centre report on FTSE 100 CEO pay
- Median CEO pay up 6.8% to £4.6 million, 122 x pay of the median UK worker
- number of firms paying their CEO over £10 million increased by 30%
- FTSE 100 firms spent £1bn on the pay of just 217 executives
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Thank you Graham - that’s very kind and much appreciated!
03.08.2025 08:24 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
This surely means they will end up recognising Palestine in September anyway, and in the meantime the conditions will raise awareness of concrete commitments Israel needs to make, in Gaza *and* the West Bank.
Isn’t that actually…better than straight up recognition?
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Enjoyed this guerilla signpost on the rame peninsular in Cornwall
28.07.2025 17:26 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Imagine being rich and successful, living in a lovely town in Portugal, and choosing to spend your time watching David Starkey’s youtube channel
24.07.2025 12:31 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
The risk of attracting lesser people than the current crop of water industry executives seems tolerable for the benefit of sending a firm message about the public service ethos expected of public utility bosses & the limits to indulgence of executive entitlement
A missed opportunity!
