There are moments when any writer wonders whether anyone but their friends and family is taking a lot of notice. I admit that social media data provides me with some reassurance on this issue, but it was still interesting to note that the Taxing Wealth Report is still getting attention from Guardian writers.
Polly Toynbee had this to say earlier this week:
Making all forms of income pay the same tax, earned or capital gains, rents or self-employed, pays out £12bn, says the economist Prof Richard Murphy.
And Larry Elliot also noted its existence yesterday:
But there are other options. ... Limiting pension tax relief to the basic rate of income tax – as suggested by the tax expert Richard Murphy – is another. But no matter what Reeves chooses, she needs to start making the case now that you can't get better public services on the cheap.
That this still contributes to debate is useful. No one else has tried anything like it.
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The Elliot article was good, the picture was hilarious, a grinning Reeves and behind her blokes looking as though they has been told they were sacked. Hats off to the subs for that one.
Sadly at no point did the article note that the Uk gov owns a bank & that bank is the only one that can print money. The main thrust was a discussion of tax n spend – in fairness, Elliot did challenge the “iron-clad rule” – but failed to point out that the gov could quite easily fund many things via the BoE (and not the bond markets).
I did hear Polly Toynbee advocating for this on one of the news programmes on Radio 4 not so long ago. Also, there’s a weekly discussion on ‘World at One’ between Sarah Montague and Evan Davis on some topic in economics. I wrote an annoyed email a week or two ago complaining that the discussion was entirely based on the current orthodoxy ‘there is no money’, while you are offering an alternative, but you are ignored. I included a link to the Taxing Wealth Report, just to be helpful.
I have also, in the past, advocated for how government manages its finances to be a topic for an edition of the ‘Today Debate’.
My hopes of success are low, but I’m trying to do my part.
Thanks
Good to see Richard’s TW report getting salience in the Guardian etc.
Even if BBC did manage a more considered discussion about whether there really is no money, this would only ever be in a ‘specialised’ side programme and would never ever be raised with a politician. The only challenge they ever bring in their political interviews is ‘ there is no money’.
I think complaining to the BBC is always worthwhile and they do make it very easy to do. They have to reply and, unlike MPs, usually address the points raised. They are sometimes evasive, but you can complain about this too. Not everyone has the time, of course, but the more people that do it the better! At the moment they have a consultation running called Our BBC, Our Future, with a section at the end allowing 200 words to say how they might improve. Just the place for a bit of a push around bias in the presentation of how a national economy works.
Huh! The Guardian writers are well behind the curve.
Six weeks ago I had a reasonably lengthy letter in the Wigan Observer, which was based almost entirely on the Taxing Wealth Report 2024, with full attribution to the source.
It was a reply to a clearly Conservative correspondent who was up to the usual trick of defending unearned wealth.
Not on my watch, by jingo!
Thanks, Karl
Having given up on the Guardian some time ago, I have broken my “below the line” silence and commented on both articles, drawing attention to the Taxing Wealth Report, and including a link to it, gathering 17 upticks. It’s small thing, but might just spread the word a little. What else can one do?
Thank you!
If we keep mentioning it, ripples will spread. I will mention your report again to my MP.
Larry Elliott and Polly Toynbee are your personal friends and sit on the left. I would have hoped for a full splash at the time of the report not a cursory mention a couple of years after it was published. I find the reaction extremely disappointing to be honest.
I had an article in The Guardian at the time.
I would not describe as Polly as a friend.
Maybe, when this current economic and political Sh*%Sh@w ends and people are looking for ideas lying around, your report falls into the right hands. It can’t always be the ideas of sociopaths like Milton Friedman that get picked up, can it?
According to Robert Shrimsley in the FT, Keir Starmer is looking for a new economics adviser.
https://www.ft.com/content/bbf54d9e-eab5-413d-b441-7c158367aaa3
Will you be applying?
No