Ewan McGaughey

Hope you get well v soon. I just read failed state, and have been recommending it to everyone. It’s superb.

Inside tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s off-the-record lectures about the antichrist The political svengali and investor has been giving lectures on ‘an evil king or tyrant … who appears in the end times’

Peter Thiel says that Carl Schmitt helped him form the core of his beliefs.

Anyone who knows Schmitt, and who knows how much money and influence Thiel has, knows this is not great.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado wins the Nobel Peace Prize Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has won the Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel committee praised her as a key unifying figure in the opposition, advocating for free elections and...

Back luck Donald. It went to someone who stands up to an authoritarian regime. Maybe next time?

apnews.com/article/nobe...

It really begins with Buckley v Valeo (1976).

Interesting fact, there was unlimited election spending in the Weimar Republic - and guess which party and its industrial cartel backers first figured out they could outspend all parties put together in 1932/1933?

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

🌹 "Democratic socialism and the law" is the topic of my inaugural lecture - next Wednesday 6.30pm, Great Hall, King's College, London.

➡️ Come along! There's even a reception afterwards. Check out the abstract, and register free here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/inaugural-...

Thousands of rogue bosses get away with not paying tribunal awards The government scheme ‘enforcing’ money owed to workers has been unsuccessful in a staggering three-quarters of cases

🚨 Our new investigation out today reveals how thousands of people who've taken their bosses to employment tribunals & won, never got paid, even after they approached the government for help.

This has serious implications for the Employment rights bill.
www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2025...

Poverty: Made in Britain.

©️HM Treasury.

Eleanor Roosevelt, before the Equal Pay Act of 1963, said we needed a right to equal pay in law, but also to equalise child care duties.

Want to end the gender pay gap?
1. Paid parental leave, equal for mums + dads, 26 weeks
2. Universal free child care
3. Sector collective bargaining for fair pay

Study links greater inequality to structural changes in children’s brains Researchers say findings show inequality creates toxic environment and reducing it is ‘a public health imperative’

Important work on inequality changing children’s brain structure from @divyangana.bsky.social and colleagues.

Best ways to reduce inequality:
1. Fair pay agreements for every sector
2. Abolish two child benefit cap, for universal social security
3. Fair tax.

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Seems like you’ve got another big tech media takeover by the far right.

I guess that will be good for Republicans getting votes during elections.

Reeves urged to take 2p off employee NI and add it to income tax in budget Resolution Foundation says move could raise additional £6bn a year and ‘level the playing field’ on income tax

Harmonising NICs, and raising income tax for the wealthy is essential.

The 2% difference in NICs between employees and the self-employed creates a big incentive for sham-self-employment, like Deliveroo and Uber carriers.

+ wealthier people should pay fair tax.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Thomas Piketty on global inequality | LSE Events 3.30pm Fri 19 Sept | Thomas Piketty | Ticket Required | Free public event at LSE

Don't miss tomorrow's event with @thomaspiketty.bsky.social on global #inequality including preliminary results from the #GlobalJusticeProject.

📍In-person and online public event

🎟️ Registration www.lse.ac.uk/events/globa...
@lsepress.bsky.social

“The ‘true cost in law’ of nationalising the UK water sector is far lower than the government’s figure and is in fact ‘closer to zero’, according to a report from the think tank Common Wealth.”

Our briefing with @ewanmg.bsky.social featured in @social.newcivilengineer.com 🔗👇

UK public has paid £200bn to shareholders of key industries since privatisation Analysis reveals ‘privatisation premium’ of £250 per household per year paid to owners of water, rail, bus, energy and mail services since 2010

Wealthier democracies have mail, transport, energy + water in public ownership. We still don't. We can keep paying £bns to foreign shareholders, or we can have faster mail and transport, clean energy and water, for lower cost. But we can't do both.

👇
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

📘 Come to my inaugural lecture "Democratic socialism and the law", 6.30pm, 15 October: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/inaugural-...

🌹 What role does the law play in democratic socialism? It rewires the defects of contract, property, corporate law + residual ‘capitalist’ elements of our law, and more... 👇

📘 Come to my inaugural lecture "Democratic socialism and the law", 6.30pm, 15 October: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/inaugural-...

🌹 What role does the law play in democratic socialism? It rewires the defects of contract, property, corporate law + residual ‘capitalist’ elements of our law, and more... 👇

Worker Power in the Age of AI Monopolies: Why We Need Structural Solutions Now Elizabeth Wilkins

To make sure AI serves workers—not just tech monopolies—we need bold action: corporate regulation, worker voice, and sectoral bargaining.

Read more from @elizabethwwilkins.bsky.social on the scale of #AI concentration in a new blog w/ @eop.aspeninstitute.org ⤵️ www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/w...

"Corporate law, although always far from perfect, was supposed to ensure that the titans of industry acted lawfully and in the best interests of not only the stockholders, but their companies. Now, it seems, Delaware has opted for backsliding."

Don't miss this great new post by Kate Jackson!

"My school saves thousands of pounds every year from those solar panels." The TUC directly takes on Reform, a party funded by the fossil fuel Industry. Posted on IG by tradesunioncongress

Governor announces New Mexico will now provide free universal child care NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – New Mexico is becoming the first state in the U.S. to offer free early childhood education to every family in the state. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced a universal ch…

New Mexico is getting universal pre school childcare, like the next NYC mayor promises.

Over 60 years since Eleanor Roosevelt called for it, this is key to ending the gender pay gap.

In the UK we now have 30 hours free, but lack public nurseries + proper pay for staff.
www.krqe.com/news/politic...

I’m reading your argument carefully, much to go, but it strikes me that:

- Norway’s Labour just won re-election on keeping wealth tax
- reformed property tax is a subcategory of wealth tax, no?
- capital gains tax doesn’t tackle capital hoards

But what do you think would address wealth inequality?

Radical right accommodation really does not work.

New paper out with this exceptionally talented team
@katharinalawall.bsky.social @robjohns75.bsky.social @drjennings.bsky.social @sarahobolt.bsky.social @zachdickson.bsky.social @danjdevine.bsky.social & @jack-bailey.co.uk

doi.org/10.31235/osf...

Air pollution can drive devastating forms of dementia, research suggests Airborne particles cause toxic clumps of proteins in brain that are hallmarks of Lewy body dementia, study indicates

Petrol and diesel, gas and coal power stations, or toxic rubbish incinerators are leading causes of dementia.

So, we need 100% electric vehicles, all solar, wind and clean electricity generation, and for supermarkets to stop producing plastic waste.

Easy.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Public ownership outperforms privatisation when an enterprise is a skill-based, natural, or network monopoly - WID - World Inequality Database Public ownership outperforms privatisation when an enterprise is a skill-based, natural, or network monopoly This paper develops a theory of when public or private ownership leads to better outcomes, ...

What should be publicly owned, or privatised?

@ewanmg.bsky.social builds develops a theory of when public or private ownership leads to better outcomes, using comparative data from OECD countries in sectors such as water, rail, electricity, and telecommunications ▶️ wid.world/news-article...

What should be publicly owned, or privatised?

We have a century of data on what works, so we should be able to get beyond ideology + build an evidence-based theory.

New paper from me looks at theory since Adam Smith + maps OECD outcomes. Download + please repost!👇

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

“In many ways water privatisation has been the greatest failure of the wholesale sell-off of govt utilities”. — @thetimes.com

But public ownership *doesn’t* have to “burden the Govt with a huge debt”.

@ewanmg.bsky.social explains how we can bring water back into public hands at a low cost 👇

Big news- the major Australian union body is calling for a 3 day weekend.

“If you want an advert for why private companies shouldn’t be involved in certain sectors, this is it.”

Privateers have run Thames Water into the ground.

This is delaying the inevitable.

Relying on the same model to fix what they broke is madness.

How to Clean Up Our Water: Why Public Ownership in Law Costs Zero The Government has said it would cost £99 billion to nationalise Thames Water. The true cost in law is closer to zero.

The public deserve real solutions — not temporary fixes.

When essential services are owned by the public, problems are fixed — not profited from.

The true cost of bringing water into public ownership is close to 0.

Our recent briefing by @ewanmg.bsky.social 👇
www.common-wealth.org/publications...

We did the largest crowdfund in UK law history to stop pension cuts + divest fossil fuels from the Universities Superannuation Scheme.

We settled after the Court of Appeal - USS had folded and restored the pension.

But we lost on fossil fuels - here's the story 👇

www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminst...