Ben Carter

Don't forget the link (or am I not seeing it?)

Inequality is a problem on the scale of climate change, say eminent economists Leading economists have proposed a panel to address global inequality modelled on the UN’s climate body.

The problem of inequality has become so pressing that it needs coordinated global action to address it, a group of over 500 economists and scientists said today.

❓3 Questions we need answers for...

🎁 How big is the tax break the UK govt has already gifted to big tech?
🤫 Why won't Starmer tell us?
💸 And are they planning to give away more of our cash to Trump’s billionaire buddies, just to keep him happy?

We don't avoid gun laws because there are ways around it (3d printing). Why do we avoid making laws against wealth hoarding?

Every #wealthtax, even a partially effective one, makes it that bit more difficult to hoard wealth. The question is do you actually want to make it more difficult?

People who continue to talk about Reform like they're inevitable need to stop doing that. It's a very fractured party that stands for nothing, loads have already defected or quit, and there's no reason to believe they can't be rendered almost irrelevant by the next elections.

I think wealth taxes have sometimes been framed poorly. The argument I've read is a bit more abstract than raising funds per se, it's about reducing the rising inequality in wealth and power

Keir Starmer puts Labour MPs on notice for Budget tax rises Prime minister declines to rule out higher income taxes as Treasury lays foundations for bigger fiscal buffer

Labour government preparing to hike income taxes - blaming bond markets.

not one adult in the room will say the obvious:

1. Britain's fiscal rules are shambles
2. Bank of England has too much power over fiscal decisions
3. ignore bond vigilantes

www.ft.com/content/5c8f...

Isn't this what it's all about? Small acts that add up to something bigger: a movement for a better Britain – for 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙚 who calls our country home ♥️

Thank you so much to the 38 Degrees supporter who sent us this message after taking action with our #RefugeesWelcomeHere poster.

“The UK has a system in which a TV channel can pay a political leader almost half a million pounds a year and give him an hour an evening to react to his rivals without breaking a single rule.”

Event: Just Don't Waste, Friday 24 October, 14:00 - 15:30, Online Logos of The Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scottish Government, NatureScot and JNCC

Groundbreaking discussions on environmental crises are happening in Edinburgh – and you can join online!

📅 24 Oct | 14:00–15:30 BST

👉 Register: jncc.gov.uk/news/scotlan...

#JustDontWaste #ClimateAction 🧵

@royalsoced.bsky.social, @naturescot.bsky.social, @jncc-ceo.bsky.social

"Debt is a cleverly managed reconquest of Africa. Each one of us becomes a financial slave. We are told to repay. We are told it is a moral issue. But it is not... If we don't repay, the lenders will not die. But if we do repay, we will die."

And not getting at all riled up against migrants by Mr Yusuf 👍👍

Audience members lining up one after the other to gush about how much they've enjoyed the increase in diversity in the UK in recent decades

Unusually balming #bbcqt last night, at least for the first question on immigration

Part 2

The word ‘populism’ is a gift to the far right – four reasons why we should stop using it Extremists benefit when we use euphemisms that confer on them an air of legitimacy.

This short piece co-authored with Alex Yates shows why the misuse of populism plays right in the hands of the far right

(Annoyingly, the app is not allowing me to tag colleagues, but follow them!)

theconversation.com/the-word-pop...

One thing that confuses me about this form of wealth tax. If 7%-2% = still 5% growth and the rich have proportionally a higher asset/income ratio than the poor, won't inequality still grow? Doesn't the tax have to outstrip the growth rate at some point?

It's still total gibberish though. I'm thicker for having read it

Read in full: What did we learn over our summer holidays? An anonymous memo has been doing the rounds among Labour backbenchers which bears implicit contempt for the party leadership.

It's still there, I think your link was cut off: www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

Our supporters wrote in about our campaign against hospital car park charges.

If patients and NHS workers are having to pay to go to the hospital, the system is broken.

Israel’s ecocide in Gaza sends this message: even if we stopped dropping bombs, you couldn’t live here | George Monbiot Consider the annihilation of agricultural land alongside the genocide – and grasp the chilling totality of this attempt to eliminate all life, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

When you consider the *ecocide* alongside the genocide being perpetrated in Gaza, you begin to grasp the totality of the Israeli state’s attempt to eliminate both the Palestinians and their homeland.
My column today.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Aneurin Bevan resigned in 1951 because fees were introduced into the NHS. 3 years after its inception the government was already introducing charges. It's high time the NHS got back to its roots and abolished dental fees

I'm a little tense at the start of the UNDP's Learning for Nature course on biodiversity finance that started this week. Not yet said the word "de-risking" but some of the language here is eerily familiar

Reform plans to scrap indefinite leave to remain for migrants The party says scrapping the scheme and restricting migrant access to benefits will save hundreds of billions of pounds.

Over 350000 people accepted for work and family visas in the year till June 2025. Over a million extensions in the same period

www.gov.uk/government/s...

Reform plans to scrap indefinite leave to remain for migrants The party says scrapping the scheme and restricting migrant access to benefits will save hundreds of billions of pounds.

Think this is going to go down as a serious misstep for Farage. Millions and their friends and family will be sitting up at this news right now

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I was never a proper journalist but I always resisted the temptation to use words like "as" and "amid" to link two concepts without evidence in my articles

I have now been a journalist for 40 years. The forces ranged against my profession have never been so powerful | George Monbiot Once, I believed that humanity’s problem was an information deficit. Now, I know you can’t speak truth to power if power controls your words, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

Power is the rock on which truth founders. The mainstream media, with a few exceptions, is a single-issue lobby group, whose purpose is to assert the rights of capital.
Here's what I've learnt about the industry in 40 years in journalism.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Maybe another issue is that the 'left' and 'right' metaphors aren't cutting it anymore and, besides, many policy positions were never a good fit as a left or right policy. People and parties have overlapping constellations of views, rather than falling along a spectrum