Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Nigel Farage’s declaration of war on teachers is a war on compassion, empathy and kindness

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 1d

Farage is saying all teachers are Marxists. They're not. They just teach that we should care for one another. But that offends his fascist instincts. The result is he is turning on a profession that teaches about compassion and empathy - because he loathes it. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/10...

According to The Guardian, Nigel Farage, speaking at an event at a private Christian college in Michigan, USA, has accused teachers in the UK of “poisoning our kids” and predicted that they would go o...

Why government lost its courage — and how we get it back

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 1d

Why government lost its courage — and how we get it back youtu.be/ipwqMPMbBsI?...

In 2011, I wrote The Courageous State — a call for governments that act with purpose and confidence, not cowardice.

Fourteen years later, it’s time to reclaim the language of democracy

Japan is teaching us the lesson that without serious levels of inward migration we’re going to be in deep trouble

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 2d

Japan is teaching us the lesson that without serious levels of inward migration we’re going to be in deep trouble www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/10...

What happens in a country that has insufficient inward migration and a massively declining birth rate (as many, including the UK, are now at risk of having)? The FT has the answer in the case of Japan...

Is it now game over for the Tories?

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 2d

Is it now game over for the Tories? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/10...

This is another morning when I have to struggle with the question of whether comments made at the Conservative Party conference are worth noting here, and where I succumb to the temptation to do so pr...

What if the UK admitted it uses MMT and turned that into its superpower?

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 2d

What if the UK admitted it uses MMT and turned that into its superpower? youtu.be/ufst9cxbyZA?... What if the UK government admitted it already uses modern monetary theory? Would markets panic — or would we finally have the power to rebuild Britain?

Inequality is not falling

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 3d

Right-wing politicians are claiming that inequality is falling in the UK based on a tiny change in one national statistic. This is not the case in reality. Inequality is rising. In this post, I explain why and what we can and should do about it.
www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/10...

The background The claim that inequality is falling is a claim that is often trotted out by right-wing commentators, backed by selective income statistics. It happened in a comment on this blog in t...

AI is killing the graduate job — now what?

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 3d

AI is reshaping work faster than universities, employers, or governments can adapt.

In this intergenerational conversation, I talk with my son Tom about how artificial intelligence has destroyed the old promise: work hard, get good grades, and you’ll get a good job.

youtu.be/tKw-U_fMHbs?...

Progress towards a police state

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 4d

Progress towards a police state www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/10... The US is heading for civil war unless Trump suddenly changes trajectory. How far behind are we in the creation of a police state?

As the FT notes this morning: Donald Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 to deploy troops to American cities, intensifying a stand-off with Democratic-led states resisting his ...

What happens when £47 billion disappears from Britain’s economy?

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 4d

What happens when £47 billion disappears from Britain’s economy? youtu.be/tFwmfxMP1hs?...

Tory Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride wants to take £47 billion out of the UK economy — mostly by cutting benefits for migrants and those with mental ill health. That isn’t prudence. It’s managed decline.

Tory plans to cut aid are racism in action

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 5d

Tory Mel Stride wants to slash the UK’s overseas aid to 0.1% of national income. That’s not just cruel, it’s racism dressed up as fiscal prudence.

Cutting aid means condemning millions to poverty, fuelling migration, and destroying economic stability.

youtu.be/eOzRnwaxFjM?...

Richard Murphy: How long until support for independence is made a terrorist offence?

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 5d

Richard Murphy: How long until support for independence is made a terrorist offence? www.thenational.scot/politics/255...

THERE are moments when I would dearly love to return to writing about the Scottish economy in more detail, exploring how it works and how it might…

www.thenational.scot

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 5d

The Economist has claimed Britain is trapped in a “debt doom loop.” But they’re wrong. The UK does not face a government debt crisis. What we really face is chronic underinvestment, inequality, and an elite media pushing austerity to protect the wealthy.
youtu.be/myNUVF_Kl7o?...

Britain isn't in a debt doom loop, whatever some people say.

Why do we have so much stuff but don't meet needs?

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 6d

Why do we have so much stuff but don't meet needs? youtu.be/sPMKp1MkAiA?...
John Kenneth Galbraith’s The Affluent Society asked a question that still matters: how can we live with private luxury alongside public squalor?

What is fascism really about?

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 7d

Fascism is an ideology that divides humanity into “superior” and “inferior” groups — with catastrophic consequences. In this video, I explain what fascism really means, why its essence is exclusion, and why true democracy depends on equality and respect for all. youtu.be/H7pjd_G3088?...

Reform means broken councils — and broken lives

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 8d

Reform means broken councils — and broken lives youtu.be/JfK4u0DO_l4?...

What Trump’s new order on domestic terrorism really means for America

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 8d

Trump’s new order on domestic terrorism really means fascism has arrived in the USA youtu.be/hKvBzvVYlKw?...

Will it be women who fight tyranny?

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 9d

Will it be women who fight tyranny? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/10...

I did an interview with New York–based finance podcast host Jack Farley yesterday. He had done his research, and the discussion was good. I will share it here when the video and podcast are released. ...

Fascism, Trump, Reform, and the silencing of dissent

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 9d

Criticising Trump was deemed to be a terrorist act in the USA last week. Reform is now trying the same approach here, accusing Starmer of inciting terrorism for criticising Farage. In both cases, the direction of travel is towards full-on fascism. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/10...

Chris Hedges, the noted anti-fascist campaigner in the USA, has recently pointed out that fascists are unusually candid. They tell you what they are going to do. The problem is not that they hide the...

Why do all political parties sound the same now?

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 9d

Why do all political parties sound the same now? youtu.be/ba2PF_bR4yQ?...

Nigel Farage's Reform Party isn’t democratic—and that should worry you

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 11d

Nigel Farage's Reform Party isn’t democratic—and that should worry you youtu.be/QAL_mADPVnk?... Nigel Farage's Reform Party isn’t democratic—and that should worry you

Starmer and the terror that might yet come

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 11d

Starmer talked gibberish about the threat from Reform, which he totally misanalysed, to a bunch of flag-waving idiots, otherwise called Cabinet Ministers, at the Labour Party conference today. We have to hope his days are numbered. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/09...

Keir Starmer said in his Labour conference speech that the threat from Reform was, as far as the UK is concerned, as great as the challenge of rebuilding after World War II ever was, and that to rebui...

UK economy grew faster than thought in first six months of Labour government – business live

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 11d

So, GDP has been very slightly restated. Does anyone feel better as a result? No? I thought not.

www.theguardian.com/business/liv...

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as Office for National Statistics releases newly updated GDP data

www.theguardian.com

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 11d

Our economy isn’t working. If we want a sustainable society, we need a new moral code for the economy.

In this video, I set out ten commandments for a just economy.

youtu.be/3vSz_RkUQZU?...

The ten commandments of a just economy

Labour: racist, immoral and likely to tear the country apart

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 12d

Labour is now saying Reform is racist, abusive and utterly immoral. But so too is Labour planning to be on the rights of those with indefinite leave to stay in the UK. We do not need to choose one over the other. We need to reject both. it. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/09...

Yesterday, Keir Starmer described Reform's policy on the right to indefinite leave to remain (ILR) in the UK as “racist”, “immoral” and likely to “tear the country apart” by stripping ILR from people ...