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Stephen Kinsella

@stephenstroud.bsky.social

5.4K followers 460 following 4.4K posts

Ex EU Antitrust Lawyer Chair: Laura Kinsella Foundation, Law For Change, Clean Up The Internet and Press Justice Project; Board member: Hacked Off and Reprieve; Director, Stroud Book Festival Member, UK Trade and Business Commission

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Pinned

Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · Feb 22

I need to look up how to pin this.

groups.google.com/g/usaafricad...

British Writer Pens A Description Of Trump

groups.google.com

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Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 1m

You agreed Norway raised 2bn, and we are 6 times the size with many more multimillionaires/billionaires.
You are confusing popular and populist.

Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 3m

This captures it.

groups.google.com/g/usaafricad...

British Writer Pens A Description Of Trump

groups.google.com

Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 16m

I don't think I ever suggested it would be a panacea.
But you seem to agree that in the UK it would raise many billions, which are needed.
Also our polling shows it is popular among those who would pay it, as long as it applies to all.
If there are easier ways, let's try those also.

Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 1h

Our version, yes. They normally get taken in around the end of this month I think.

Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 1h

Unlikely. But neither will the 2% tax remove the entire benefit in one year. Unless of course you are phenomenally wealthy in which case well done you.
I get it, you don't like wealth tax. Whether because you would pay it or for some other reason, we are never going to agree.

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Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 1h

Those are not paid by the recipient. The recipient gets a windfall free of tax.

Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 1h

OK, you are no longer saying that will always be the case. I expect it would be incredibly rare that an individual's assets are so illiquid. But we could devise solutions.

I said it was possible and that it would bring in significant revenue, which you agreed with the examples you supplied.

Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 1h

No, it is not a "fact".
If you inherit a house, sell it, put that money into your account from which you pay the wealth tax, in what possible sense is that from taxed income?
Also, and more pertinently, even if that small bit of tax did come from earned/taxed income, so what? You remain very rich.

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Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 1h

Bar Council shows how to stand up to bullies and bigots.

@thebarcouncil.bsky.social

Shoaib M Khan @shoaibmkhan.bsky.social · 11d

The hatemonger Rupert Lowe MP wrote a whiny letter to @thebarcouncil.bsky.social complaining about the Black Interns scheme.

Well done Bar Council and Bar Chair for this robust response.

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Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 1h

Yesterday’s walk and the 5 cygnets still together. How long before they break away?

Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 1h

We will soon be saying goodbye to the cows on the Commons above #Stroud for another year.

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Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 1h

I suppose it's possible they converted the entire amount into gold which they then melted and had moulded into a statue.

Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 2h

Next time try “Boris Johnson”. Nothing sticks to him.

Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 3h

Crypto-fascism.

BremainInSpain @bremaininspain.com · 3h

Several sources told The Observer that the Electoral Commission had been given prior notice by a party, understood to be Reform UK, that it had received a donation made in cryptocurrency in recent weeks.
Reform is the only political party in Europe to accept donations in crypto

Calls for transparency on political funding after first crypto donation made to UK party

Electoral Commission notified of financial contribution, which is understood to have been handed to Reform UK

uk.news.yahoo.com

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Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 3h

I did the economic migrant thing to Belgium for 6 months and came home. Then did it for 20 years and came home.
Most people do return home.

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Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 3h

a frog wearing sunglasses and a yellow tongue is waving

ALT: a frog wearing sunglasses and a yellow tongue is waving

media.tenor.com

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Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 3h

Some people who oppose wealth taxes totally (choose to) miss the extent to which the debate is also about fairness - both the reality and the perception.

Big Issue @bigissue.com · 3h

A typical British worker would need to save all of their earning for 52 years to become wealthy, new research has found.

Typical Brit must save entire lifetime's worth of earnings to become wealthy

www.bigissue.com

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Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 3h

Make Americans Grenouilles Antifas.

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Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 3h

No representation without taxation.

Dale Vince @dalevince.com · 10h

Why does this tax exile 'foreigner' think our government should discuss policy with him? He should feck off back to Monaco. Made his choice based on his own interest, to avoid tax. Anything he has to say will be only in his own interests, again.

buff.ly/6XvNGfT

Miliband refused to discuss North Sea with me, says Ratcliffe

Ineos owner urges policymakers to reform net zero taxes or risk ‘irreversible decline’

www.telegraph.co.uk

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Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 4h

I would be happy for it to last for the first couple of years or until they achieve a certain modest turnover or value. After that, yes take out cover. And be personally liable for avoidable pollution, personal injury etc.

Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 4h

You are positing an individual with over £11m net wealth who doesn’t have £20k in the bank.
How are they paying the school fees, nanny and holidays? Do they have to sell shares each time they go to Waitrose?
You keep going on about “taxed income” which you know is largely irrelevant.

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Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 4h

I am just happy that we are now talking more about a “wealth tax” in principle and about a fairer distribution of the tax burden between income and capital.

There are many ways to skin a cat but you do have to catch the cat first.

Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 4h

At what point do we reach sufficient circumstantial evidence and reasonable suspicion for the police to launch an investigation? Or do they plan to wait until after the next election?

Lady Bee Middlemast-Neal @mistyswoman.bsky.social · 7h

Oh.

Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 9h

“Here Farage is, in Gill’s office, with Voloshyn’s wife Nadia, on the day Gill makes an intervention on behalf of Medvedchuk’s channels, with an employee of one of those channels, whose husband started bribing Gill to make these statements 6 days earlier”

bylinetimes.com/2025/10/11/s...

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Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 7h

In that discredited wealth report the only tangible reason they cited for people leaving the UK was Brexit.
Most people are here for a host of reasons: culture, language, schools, safe society etc.
There is little evidence that many will leave because of a 2% tax that they would barely notice.

Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 7h

No, not necessarily. It is paid out of your bank account, which might have been funded from sale of an asset.
Under our proposal if you have net wealth of £11m you will pay £20,000 tax. Your wealth if prudently invested should have increased by around £500,000 in that time.

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