Paul Hebden
@paulhebden.bsky.social
I help people and organisations to speak human: https://www.campaignsalience.co.uk/
Code apps: https://campaignsalience.shinyapps.io/NewsApp3/
Write: https://campaignsalience.substack.com/
Code apps: https://campaignsalience.shinyapps.io/NewsApp3/
Write: https://campaignsalience.substack.com/
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Paul Hebden
@paulhebden.bsky.social
· Aug 12
FWIW - this is how food prices spiked in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and how the cost of essentials is spiking again now.
Reposted by Paul Hebden
The tax system is dysfunctional. It taxes workers more than the wealthy and it's riddled with inefficiencies. Tomorrow's Budget is a chance to fix that.
📺 @rachaelhenry.bsky.social on @gbnewsonline.bsky.social 👇
📺 @rachaelhenry.bsky.social on @gbnewsonline.bsky.social 👇
November 25, 2025 at 9:10 PM
The tax system is dysfunctional. It taxes workers more than the wealthy and it's riddled with inefficiencies. Tomorrow's Budget is a chance to fix that.
📺 @rachaelhenry.bsky.social on @gbnewsonline.bsky.social 👇
📺 @rachaelhenry.bsky.social on @gbnewsonline.bsky.social 👇
I love this idea that's become common on here that income tax rises are sane in a moment when unemployment is rising and nominal wages rises are going on to reverse. Sure let's keep hitting median income earners and small businesses with higher taxes. Someone please speak up for the billionaires.
November 25, 2025 at 7:29 PM
I love this idea that's become common on here that income tax rises are sane in a moment when unemployment is rising and nominal wages rises are going on to reverse. Sure let's keep hitting median income earners and small businesses with higher taxes. Someone please speak up for the billionaires.
No-one has ever claimed a wealth tax is some kind of silver bullet to all society's ills.
People are reacting to a strawman that's a consequence of successful campaigning
But it's up to other parts of the "progressive" movement to advance their demands too.
You don't shit on your comrades.
People are reacting to a strawman that's a consequence of successful campaigning
But it's up to other parts of the "progressive" movement to advance their demands too.
You don't shit on your comrades.
November 25, 2025 at 5:37 PM
No-one has ever claimed a wealth tax is some kind of silver bullet to all society's ills.
People are reacting to a strawman that's a consequence of successful campaigning
But it's up to other parts of the "progressive" movement to advance their demands too.
You don't shit on your comrades.
People are reacting to a strawman that's a consequence of successful campaigning
But it's up to other parts of the "progressive" movement to advance their demands too.
You don't shit on your comrades.
As someone who played a role in wealth tax campaigning, I'm finding this sudden pivot against the wealth tax by the likes of Jo and by Aditya in Guardian last week a bit frustrating. The Wealth Tax campaign has been successful, cos it's been smart, strategic and loud. >>
"Much of the left appears to have convinced itself that wealth tax is all that is needed. This is incorrect — and an incessant focus on wealth taxation is obscuring the need for broader tax increases." Clear and interesting piece by @jomichell.bsky.social:
blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...
blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...
Wealth tax and looser fiscal rules won’t save the Budget | British Politics and Policy at LSE
The narrative on the left that a wealth tax and looser fiscal rules would solve the Chancellor's 2025 Budget headaches has got out of hand.
blogs.lse.ac.uk
November 25, 2025 at 5:14 PM
As someone who played a role in wealth tax campaigning, I'm finding this sudden pivot against the wealth tax by the likes of Jo and by Aditya in Guardian last week a bit frustrating. The Wealth Tax campaign has been successful, cos it's been smart, strategic and loud. >>
Every day on this site is like a groundhog day of centrism suddenly noticing things.
November 25, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Every day on this site is like a groundhog day of centrism suddenly noticing things.
Reposted by Paul Hebden
I'd add here that this underlines that you can't really blame social media too much for this because, well, the rest of the country uses social media too. Why didn't they radicalise as fast and hard as our central media-political class?
November 25, 2025 at 1:42 PM
I'd add here that this underlines that you can't really blame social media too much for this because, well, the rest of the country uses social media too. Why didn't they radicalise as fast and hard as our central media-political class?
Reposted by Paul Hebden
The trans issue is particularly instructive because you can actually see how the spike in anti-trans newspaper articles significantly anticipated any shift in public polling. It very much started in the U.K. as an elite obsession.
November 25, 2025 at 1:15 PM
The trans issue is particularly instructive because you can actually see how the spike in anti-trans newspaper articles significantly anticipated any shift in public polling. It very much started in the U.K. as an elite obsession.
Reposted by Paul Hebden
As a lot of the people I'm subtweeting are men, I am sympathetic that some will have the mindset of "it's not my place to talk over women on a feminist issue", but given how often cis feminists who don't agree with the GC consensus get ignored, or even iced out, too, it's misguided
November 25, 2025 at 1:06 PM
As a lot of the people I'm subtweeting are men, I am sympathetic that some will have the mindset of "it's not my place to talk over women on a feminist issue", but given how often cis feminists who don't agree with the GC consensus get ignored, or even iced out, too, it's misguided
Reposted by Paul Hebden
I don’t like subtweeting people I consider online friends, but there is a subset of people who are very worried about the ongoing radicalisation of our political elite but won’t ever acknowledge the echoes with the radicalisation of their colleagues on trans rights
And few who are sympathetic to us, some who are friendly with me on here, will ever stick their head above the parapet
November 25, 2025 at 12:37 PM
I don’t like subtweeting people I consider online friends, but there is a subset of people who are very worried about the ongoing radicalisation of our political elite but won’t ever acknowledge the echoes with the radicalisation of their colleagues on trans rights
Reposted by Paul Hebden
Sometimes wonder if what the UK needs is a thinktank that doesn't do any new research, it just repeats obviously true statements that people try to ignore because they're inconvenient.
International students cross-subsidise home students. Your pension is paid for out of general taxation.
International students cross-subsidise home students. Your pension is paid for out of general taxation.
November 25, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Sometimes wonder if what the UK needs is a thinktank that doesn't do any new research, it just repeats obviously true statements that people try to ignore because they're inconvenient.
International students cross-subsidise home students. Your pension is paid for out of general taxation.
International students cross-subsidise home students. Your pension is paid for out of general taxation.
Reposted by Paul Hebden
I don't know the criminal standard specifically but Linehan did say *in court* that he was motivated by the victim's status as a trans person. If a clear statement of explicit prejudice isn't enough then you need a new standard.
news.sky.com/story/bluesk...
news.sky.com/story/bluesk...
November 25, 2025 at 1:28 PM
I don't know the criminal standard specifically but Linehan did say *in court* that he was motivated by the victim's status as a trans person. If a clear statement of explicit prejudice isn't enough then you need a new standard.
news.sky.com/story/bluesk...
news.sky.com/story/bluesk...
Reposted by Paul Hebden
Every elite authority in the UK appears to have lost their mind in precisely the same way
November 25, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Every elite authority in the UK appears to have lost their mind in precisely the same way
Reposted by Paul Hebden
Textbook example of how not to do this. Straight from the Laura Kuenssberg/Nick Robinson school of silly analogies.
November 25, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Textbook example of how not to do this. Straight from the Laura Kuenssberg/Nick Robinson school of silly analogies.
Reposted by Paul Hebden
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
Reposted by Paul Hebden
Trevor Phillips proposes banning "remittances" (ie: imposing currency/exchange controls on international cash transfers by foreign nationals from Britain). He says this would disincentivise immigration, in a Times piece saying the Home Secretary needs to go [much] further
archive.ph/RlXPj
archive.ph/RlXPj
November 24, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Trevor Phillips proposes banning "remittances" (ie: imposing currency/exchange controls on international cash transfers by foreign nationals from Britain). He says this would disincentivise immigration, in a Times piece saying the Home Secretary needs to go [much] further
archive.ph/RlXPj
archive.ph/RlXPj
"But... Immigrants"
Susanna Reid: "Most Brits, three in five, think the cost of living crisis is not just bad but will never end"
As Kevin Maguire says, since 2008 workers have had the longest sustained squeeze on wages #GMB
As Kevin Maguire says, since 2008 workers have had the longest sustained squeeze on wages #GMB
November 25, 2025 at 6:55 AM
"But... Immigrants"
Reposted by Paul Hebden
We've had 24 hour news for nearly 40 years now, and during that time news stories do stick around if the press keep banging on about them. Things that don't stick tend to be stuff where right wing politicians/the wealthy are on the hook.
It’s a sign of how insane the news cycle is these days that this historic failure of government policy got just one day of news coverage this week.
Not saying that’s right or wrong, but it’s astonishing how quickly the agenda moves on these days.
Not saying that’s right or wrong, but it’s astonishing how quickly the agenda moves on these days.
BREAKING: UK’s response to Covid was “too little too late”. Acting faster could have saved 23,000 lives in England according to the public inquiry.
Boris Johnson presided over a “toxic, sexist, chaotic culture” in No10, where rule-breaking seriously undermined public confidence.
Boris Johnson presided over a “toxic, sexist, chaotic culture” in No10, where rule-breaking seriously undermined public confidence.
November 23, 2025 at 3:59 PM
We've had 24 hour news for nearly 40 years now, and during that time news stories do stick around if the press keep banging on about them. Things that don't stick tend to be stuff where right wing politicians/the wealthy are on the hook.
The problem with the "Farage was a racist" story is that we have a "left wing" gov't essentially saying that racism is a normal and expectable response to immigration. We are in a position where we have to argue "why it is wrong to be racist" and Labour need to take some responsibility for it
November 25, 2025 at 6:43 AM
The problem with the "Farage was a racist" story is that we have a "left wing" gov't essentially saying that racism is a normal and expectable response to immigration. We are in a position where we have to argue "why it is wrong to be racist" and Labour need to take some responsibility for it
Reposted by Paul Hebden
On Shabana Mahmood's contemptible attempt to mobilise her identity in support of her sadistic immigration policies, this from Nesrine Malik is exactly what needed saying.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Shabana Mahmood is an avatar of open Britain – that’s what makes her fable about immigration so seductive | Nesrine Malik
‘She is the daughter of immigrants,’ supporters of her cruel asylum policies say. ‘How can she be wrong?’ Let me put them straight, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik
www.theguardian.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:13 AM
On Shabana Mahmood's contemptible attempt to mobilise her identity in support of her sadistic immigration policies, this from Nesrine Malik is exactly what needed saying.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Youthful Reform-curious voters believe Gary Lineker, more than the believe in Andrew Tate.
Riddle me that!
Riddle me that!
November 24, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Youthful Reform-curious voters believe Gary Lineker, more than the believe in Andrew Tate.
Riddle me that!
Riddle me that!
There's been alot of talk about young people turning to Reform / the far right. And it's mostly wrong, yet the "Contrarian Youth" segment (just 9% of the Reform base) uncovered by Hope Not Hate's analysis of Reform curious voters is fascinating:
Topline: these are young people looking for meaning. >
Topline: these are young people looking for meaning. >
November 24, 2025 at 11:19 AM
There's been alot of talk about young people turning to Reform / the far right. And it's mostly wrong, yet the "Contrarian Youth" segment (just 9% of the Reform base) uncovered by Hope Not Hate's analysis of Reform curious voters is fascinating:
Topline: these are young people looking for meaning. >
Topline: these are young people looking for meaning. >
The Independent is literally willing an exodus of the wealthy from the UK. But the truth is, by far the majority, and the wealthy that count are going nowhere. What is the Independent's agenda?
Steel billionaire latest to leave UK ahead of proposed tax squeeze on the ultra-rich
Steel billionaire latest to leave UK ahead of proposed tax squeeze on the ultra-rich
Steel billionaire latest to leave UK ahead of proposed tax squeeze on the ultra-rich
www.independent.co.uk
November 24, 2025 at 8:58 AM
The Independent is literally willing an exodus of the wealthy from the UK. But the truth is, by far the majority, and the wealthy that count are going nowhere. What is the Independent's agenda?
Reposted by Paul Hebden
Today in Tech Lords control everything you are allowed to see and know
Meta halted internal research that purportedly showed (young) people who stopped using Facebook became less depressed and anxious, according to an unredacted legal filing released on Friday. www.cnbc.com/2025/11/23/m...
Meta halted internal research suggesting social media harm, court filing alleges
Meta is alleged to have halted internal research suggesting social media harm, according to court documents.
www.cnbc.com
November 24, 2025 at 6:03 AM
Today in Tech Lords control everything you are allowed to see and know
These MAGA Twitter accounts that are "based" abroad. I'm bit dubious tbh. It's VPNs, right? People using VPNs to set up accounts?
Also, of you were a fash adjacent "influencer" are you really likely to give away accurate information about your location?
Also, of you were a fash adjacent "influencer" are you really likely to give away accurate information about your location?
November 24, 2025 at 6:25 AM
These MAGA Twitter accounts that are "based" abroad. I'm bit dubious tbh. It's VPNs, right? People using VPNs to set up accounts?
Also, of you were a fash adjacent "influencer" are you really likely to give away accurate information about your location?
Also, of you were a fash adjacent "influencer" are you really likely to give away accurate information about your location?
The likes of Rubio and Witkoff should have been sacked for this farce.
Everyday that goes by, the Americans reveal themselves as untrustworthy at best, lazy and stupid. At worst they appear like stooges.
It's good Europe & Ukraine continuously say "no".
share.google/0L6ftWh35WUn...
Everyday that goes by, the Americans reveal themselves as untrustworthy at best, lazy and stupid. At worst they appear like stooges.
It's good Europe & Ukraine continuously say "no".
share.google/0L6ftWh35WUn...
US and Ukraine promise ‘updated’ peace framework after criticism of pro-Russian points in original plan
US-Ukraine statement comes hours after European countries propose their own alternative peace
share.google
November 24, 2025 at 5:16 AM
The likes of Rubio and Witkoff should have been sacked for this farce.
Everyday that goes by, the Americans reveal themselves as untrustworthy at best, lazy and stupid. At worst they appear like stooges.
It's good Europe & Ukraine continuously say "no".
share.google/0L6ftWh35WUn...
Everyday that goes by, the Americans reveal themselves as untrustworthy at best, lazy and stupid. At worst they appear like stooges.
It's good Europe & Ukraine continuously say "no".
share.google/0L6ftWh35WUn...