@socialistplus.bsky.social
Ex-Labour socialist. Looking for a better world that offers my grandchildren the opportunities that I had - at the very least!
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Has Trump made the world a safer place? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06... The answer is, of course not.
Has Trump made the world a safer place?
The New York Times reported last night:
A preliminary classified U.S. report says the American bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites sealed off the entrances to two of the facilities but did not collapse t...
www.taxresearch.org.uk
June 25, 2025 at 5:55 AM
Has Trump made the world a safer place? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06... The answer is, of course not.
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The NHS can't make us better when big business is making profit by making us sick youtu.be/uQA3jkqOXNQ?... From addictive foods to lifetime drugs, corporations are profiting from your ill-health, and the NHS is left to foot the bill. This is how neoliberalism is eating the state.
The NHS can't make us better when big business is making profit by making us sick for life
YouTube video by Richard J Murphy
youtu.be
June 25, 2025 at 6:06 AM
The NHS can't make us better when big business is making profit by making us sick youtu.be/uQA3jkqOXNQ?... From addictive foods to lifetime drugs, corporations are profiting from your ill-health, and the NHS is left to foot the bill. This is how neoliberalism is eating the state.
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Keir Starmer is in a spot of bother www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06... Will Starmer lose in the Commons to his backbenchers on payments to people with disabilities? Yes, it looks very likely. But the real question is, what happens then? Can he survive in a Labour Party he has lost control of?
Keir Starmer is in a spot of bother
To suggest that Keir Starmer is in a spot of bother with his Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill.
This lot have, so far, opposed his Bill by tabling an amendment that effectively ...
www.taxresearch.org.uk
June 25, 2025 at 6:44 AM
Keir Starmer is in a spot of bother www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06... Will Starmer lose in the Commons to his backbenchers on payments to people with disabilities? Yes, it looks very likely. But the real question is, what happens then? Can he survive in a Labour Party he has lost control of?
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There is space for the left – even in New York www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06... Zohran Mandani's win in the New York Democratic primary is massively good news for everyone who thinks we need to replace the establishment that has corrupted politics.
There is space for the left – even in New York
News coming out of a US primary election in New York overnight is exceptionally cheering.
The vote was to choose the candidate to run for the Democrats to be Mayor of New York, a position the Democra...
www.taxresearch.org.uk
June 25, 2025 at 7:08 AM
There is space for the left – even in New York www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06... Zohran Mandani's win in the New York Democratic primary is massively good news for everyone who thinks we need to replace the establishment that has corrupted politics.
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On the day when NATO is celebrating bombs and promising us many more of them:
June 25, 2025 at 7:17 AM
On the day when NATO is celebrating bombs and promising us many more of them:
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The US attacks on Iran breached international law www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06...
Under the Geneva Convention of 1949 as modified in 1977, an attack on a nuclear installation that is not a power plant is illegal during war, but that is what the USA just did.
Under the Geneva Convention of 1949 as modified in 1977, an attack on a nuclear installation that is not a power plant is illegal during war, but that is what the USA just did.
The US attacks on Iran breached international law
It is worth noting these protocols this morning:
One key clause addresses the issue of attacking nuclear sites, and says:
Those looking for a let-out might claim section 2 of this Article provid...
www.taxresearch.org.uk
June 22, 2025 at 6:03 AM
The US attacks on Iran breached international law www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06...
Under the Geneva Convention of 1949 as modified in 1977, an attack on a nuclear installation that is not a power plant is illegal during war, but that is what the USA just did.
Under the Geneva Convention of 1949 as modified in 1977, an attack on a nuclear installation that is not a power plant is illegal during war, but that is what the USA just did.
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On war: a reflection www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06... This morning, it's worth recalling that around the world, the billions of people who populate this planet have vastly more in common with each other than they have things that separate them.
On war: a reflection
There is, I think, a necessary twofold response when something as significant as last night's US attack on Iranian nuclear facilities takes place.
The first, as I have already noted, is to note that ...
www.taxresearch.org.uk
June 22, 2025 at 7:43 AM
On war: a reflection www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06... This morning, it's worth recalling that around the world, the billions of people who populate this planet have vastly more in common with each other than they have things that separate them.
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Trump has tipped the world into a war situation, and the economic consequences could be very severe indeed. Expect inflation, recession and a stock market crash. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06...
The economic consequences of Trump’s war
Iran has ordered the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. This is the 30-mile gap between Iran and the United Arab Emirates, as shown on this map from Google. The waterway is just above the word 'Arab' in...
www.taxresearch.org.uk
June 22, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Trump has tipped the world into a war situation, and the economic consequences could be very severe indeed. Expect inflation, recession and a stock market crash. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06...
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The state isn’t broken, but the politics of the market is. Years of cuts have gutted public services to feed private profit. We need a state that serves people, not markets.
June 22, 2025 at 7:26 PM
The state isn’t broken, but the politics of the market is. Years of cuts have gutted public services to feed private profit. We need a state that serves people, not markets.
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Farage has a plan to increase migration into the UK at cost to everyone already living here - and he obviously thinks we're daft enough to fall for it. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06...
Farage is planning to boost migration into the UK at cost to the poor
Reform has come up with one of the most stupid tax proposals I have ever heard of. As The Guardian summarises it:
Reform UK are to offer wealthy foreigners and returning British expats a bespoke tax ...
www.taxresearch.org.uk
June 23, 2025 at 6:23 AM
Farage has a plan to increase migration into the UK at cost to everyone already living here - and he obviously thinks we're daft enough to fall for it. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06...
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The time to tolerate Netanyahu's government has long gone: we need sanctions on Israel now with the aim of ending fascism, promoting peace and creating a new international settlement in the Middle East. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06...
The government of Israel has to go: peace requires it
It is rare that a newspaper like the Financial Times will think that there is only one real headline news story, but that is the case today. This comes from one of its emails this morning:
Every on...
www.taxresearch.org.uk
June 14, 2025 at 7:20 AM
The time to tolerate Netanyahu's government has long gone: we need sanctions on Israel now with the aim of ending fascism, promoting peace and creating a new international settlement in the Middle East. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06...
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The Guardian is discussing a supposed crisis for Rachael Reeves today, when no such crisis exists. Whether she meets her fiscal rules is irrelevant. Poverty, poor housing, and suffering children are the realities they should be talking about. Why aren't they? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06...
The Guardian is part of the problem
As The Guardian notes this morning:
Rachel Reeves is braced for revised forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to blow a £20bn hole in her tax and spending plans before the autumn bu...
www.taxresearch.org.uk
June 15, 2025 at 7:49 AM
The Guardian is discussing a supposed crisis for Rachael Reeves today, when no such crisis exists. Whether she meets her fiscal rules is irrelevant. Poverty, poor housing, and suffering children are the realities they should be talking about. Why aren't they? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06...
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We've always assumed increasing NHS spending is a good thing, because it makes us better. But suppose that it is now becoming a measure of just how sick our economy is making us? Shouldn't we be looking at curing the problems that make us ill in that case? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06...
Neoliberalism is consuming our well-being
As The Guardian has noted:
Britain is on track to become a “National Health State” where half of all public spending is allocated to the NHS and social care by the end of the decade, according to a l...
www.taxresearch.org.uk
June 13, 2025 at 6:26 AM
We've always assumed increasing NHS spending is a good thing, because it makes us better. But suppose that it is now becoming a measure of just how sick our economy is making us? Shouldn't we be looking at curing the problems that make us ill in that case? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06...
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Thank you to @robertkellyphoto.ie for sharing today's #foxoftheday on BlueSky !
May 24, 2025 at 7:01 AM
Thank you to @robertkellyphoto.ie for sharing today's #foxoftheday on BlueSky !
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Starmer’s J-turn www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05... Starmer's trying to get out of the deep hole he dug for himself on the Winter Fuel Allowance. It is not going to work, and he only has himself to blame.
Starmer’s J-turn
Some say Starner has U-turned on the winter fuel allowance (WFA).
I disagree. I prefer the idea put forward by Richard Bergon MP on Channel 4 News last night that he has J-turned. In other words, wha...
www.taxresearch.org.uk
May 22, 2025 at 6:46 AM
Starmer’s J-turn www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05... Starmer's trying to get out of the deep hole he dug for himself on the Winter Fuel Allowance. It is not going to work, and he only has himself to blame.
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Starmer’s insignificant deal www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05... When you base your policy on Europe within the context of the continuing stupidity of Brexit, nothing can make it credible. Starmer's deal yesterday has to be seen within that context.
Starmer’s insignificant deal
Starmer has done a deal with the EU. Only, of course, just like the deal with Trump, most of the detail has yet to be worked out. In that case, let’s not get overly excited. Detail matters in these th...
www.taxresearch.org.uk
May 20, 2025 at 6:26 AM
Starmer’s insignificant deal www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05... When you base your policy on Europe within the context of the continuing stupidity of Brexit, nothing can make it credible. Starmer's deal yesterday has to be seen within that context.
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Wes Streeting and Bridget Phillipson, as Labour cabinet ministers, have said that children need more 'grit' to manage their mental health. Are we really back in the dark ages when we told people to 'pull themselves together'? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05...
Our children do not need more ‘grit’. They need a government that understands, and delivers
The Telegraph has an article this morning that features the combined thoughts of Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, who are noted as saying, whilst announcing a...
www.taxresearch.org.uk
May 16, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Wes Streeting and Bridget Phillipson, as Labour cabinet ministers, have said that children need more 'grit' to manage their mental health. Are we really back in the dark ages when we told people to 'pull themselves together'? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05...
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It is a travesty of justice that Labour had a landslide victory at last year's UK general election with the support of just 20% of the UK electorate. We need electoral reform, and we need it now.
youtu.be/mMKaVxyTTDM?...
youtu.be/mMKaVxyTTDM?...
We need electoral reform in the UK, and we need it now.
YouTube video by Richard J Murphy
youtu.be
May 13, 2025 at 6:04 AM
It is a travesty of justice that Labour had a landslide victory at last year's UK general election with the support of just 20% of the UK electorate. We need electoral reform, and we need it now.
youtu.be/mMKaVxyTTDM?...
youtu.be/mMKaVxyTTDM?...
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Starmer wants growth, strong public services and reduced migration. He might as well wish for fairies at the bottom of his garden. Without inward migration, his other hopes cannot be fulfilled. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05...
Starmer is swinging his wrecking ball
This is Starmer's foreword to the White Paper on migration, published yesterday:
The key section is:
In 2023, under the previous government, inward migration exploded to over a million people a yea...
www.taxresearch.org.uk
May 13, 2025 at 6:40 AM
Starmer wants growth, strong public services and reduced migration. He might as well wish for fairies at the bottom of his garden. Without inward migration, his other hopes cannot be fulfilled. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05...
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I am going to find it hard to forgive a man as deeply racist as Keir Starmer.
www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05...
www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05...
How dare Keir Starmer tell my family that we have caused incalculable damage to the UK?
These are Guardian headlines, published late this morning:
I find these words exceptionally difficult to note when said by someone who claims to have the moral authority that comes from being the p...
www.taxresearch.org.uk
May 12, 2025 at 2:39 PM
I am going to find it hard to forgive a man as deeply racist as Keir Starmer.
www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05...
www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05...
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Israel is committing genocide in Gaza by seeking to starve its population. Western leaders, including those in the UK, are saying nothing of consequence about this. Why not? Have they really chosen to walk on the other side in the face of this atrocity? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05...
Why are our political leaders ignoring the genocide in Gaza?
There are moments when I think that we are just about, at best, clinging on by our fingertips to the concept of civilisation.
There are other occasions when I very much doubt there are any real signs...
www.taxresearch.org.uk
May 7, 2025 at 6:38 AM
Israel is committing genocide in Gaza by seeking to starve its population. Western leaders, including those in the UK, are saying nothing of consequence about this. Why not? Have they really chosen to walk on the other side in the face of this atrocity? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05...
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The government has borrowed a bit more than expected. Thank goodness for that. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/04...
The government has borrowed a bit more than expected. Thank goodness for that.
As The Guardian has reported:
Britain entered the economic shock from Donald Trump’s trade wars with government borrowing having overshot official forecasts by almost £15bn in the most recent financi...
www.taxresearch.org.uk
April 23, 2025 at 8:05 AM
The government has borrowed a bit more than expected. Thank goodness for that. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/04...
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We cannot have a better society unless those with the lowest income have a larger share of the income of the UK. When will politicians realise that this is the path to growth and the path to justice, which they should want, or why are they in office? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/04...
The problem with the UK is that we do not redistribute income – let alone wealth
This chart comes from the House of Commons Library.
They, in turn, took it from the Office for National Statistics
What it shows is four versions of the Gini coefficient for the UK:
The Gini coef...
www.taxresearch.org.uk
April 14, 2025 at 6:39 AM
We cannot have a better society unless those with the lowest income have a larger share of the income of the UK. When will politicians realise that this is the path to growth and the path to justice, which they should want, or why are they in office? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/04...
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China is cutting off the export of essential supplies to the US economy. There is no tariff response Trump can make to that. They have the capacity to massively harm the US economy. He cannot do the same to China. Is that game over, then? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/04...
Trump’s been snookered by China
As the New York Times has noted in an email this morning:
China has suspended exports of certain rare earth minerals and magnets that are crucial for the world’s car, semiconductor and aerospace indus...
www.taxresearch.org.uk
April 14, 2025 at 6:57 AM
China is cutting off the export of essential supplies to the US economy. There is no tariff response Trump can make to that. They have the capacity to massively harm the US economy. He cannot do the same to China. Is that game over, then? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/04...