Funding the Future

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz is not just another geopolitical shock. It is the beginning of a physical supply crisis that could transform the British economy and everyday life.

Oil, gas, fertiliser and food supplies are all under threat. This is not a banking crisis like 2008, and it is not a pandemic like 2020. This time, the problem is scarcity itself.

In this video, I explain why inflation caused by shortages cannot be solved with interest rate rises, why the Bank of England is going to use the wrong tools in this crisis unless it's told not to, and why rationing, price controls, and direct government intervention in the economy may become unavoidable.

I look at what this could mean for fuel prices, food supplies, mortgages, unemployment, social care, housing and the wider economy.

I also explain why banks could once again require public rescue, why governments may need to support strategic industries directly, and why conventional neoliberal assumptions may no longer work in conditions like these.

This is not an argument for panic. It is an argument for preparedness. Markets alone cannot manage a crisis created by shortages of essential goods. If governments fail to plan now, the social and economic consequences could be severe.

That's why wartime lessons from the past matter again. Rationing and price controls worked in WWII, and they might be needed now, when fairness will be essential to maintaining public trust during a period of major disruption.

The question is no longer whether the UK can afford to respond as I suggest is necessary. The question is whether it has the political courage to do so, because the real risk in this crisis is not that the government runs out of money. It is that it fails to use the powers it already has before events begin to spiral out of control.

Central banks claim they defeated inflation by raising interest rates. The evidence suggests otherwise.

In this video, I look at seven major economies, including the UK, USA, Eurozone, Canada and Australia, and show why inflation was largely driven by supply shocks, not excess demand.

I also explain why inflation was already falling before many interest rate rises had been completed, why higher rates may now themselves be feeding inflationary pressure, and why the social costs of these policies have fallen hardest on working people.

The result is a serious challenge to the entire theory behind modern central banking.

This video also asks whether so-called independent central banks are really independent at all, when they all reacted in almost exactly the same way to the inflation crisis of 2021 and 2022.

The evidence suggests central banks reacted too late, used the wrong tools for the wrong problem, and may now be trapping economies in a cycle of structurally high interest rates and persistent inflation.

So, has the whole model failed?

Andy Burnham says he wants to break with the failed neoliberal economics that have damaged Britain for decades. He talks about public ownership, reindustrialisation, regional investment and rebuilding public services. But does his programme actually deliver any of those things?

In this video I look in detail at what Burnham is really proposing, and whether it amounts to genuine economic change or simply a softer version of the same failed system.

I argue that Burnham’s model of “public ownership” often looks remarkably similar to the regulatory framework that already failed in the water industry. Thames Water, sewage dumping, dividend extraction and infrastructure collapse all happened under systems of public regulation combined with private ownership.

At the same time, Burnham says he would still obey Rachel Reeves’ fiscal rules. That means accepting the same Treasury constraints that have blocked serious public investment for decades.

So can you really challenge neoliberalism while reassuring the bond markets, protecting fiscal rules and refusing to confront the power of finance?

This video examines the contradictions at the heart of Burnham’s programme and asks whether Labour still has any real alternative to the economic model that created Britain’s current crisis.

Who really governs Britain?

In this video, I explore the hidden political power of the City of London Corporation and the offshore finance network linked to it.

Most people have heard of the City of London, but very few understand that it operates under a unique constitutional structure unlike anything else in the UK.

Businesses vote in its elections. It has its own police force. It enjoys extraordinary political access. And it acts globally on behalf of finance capital.

I argue that the City lies at the centre of the global tax haven system connecting London to Jersey, Guernsey, Cayman, Bermuda, Gibraltar, the British Virgin Islands, and more. Together, these places create a network designed to protect wealth from taxation, regulation, and democratic accountability.

This matters because governments increasingly behave as though the financial sector has veto power over democratic choice. Policies are shaped around “market confidence” rather than public well-being.

I also discuss the reforms required if democracy is to regain control over finance, including transparency, beneficial ownership registers, public reporting, sanctions on secrecy jurisdictions, and the abolition of corporate voting rights within the City itself.

The question is simple: should finance govern democracy, or should democracy govern finance?

The Financial Times has published remarkable data on inheritance tax in the UK. Just five London parliamentary constituencies paid more inheritance tax than the whole of Scotland and Wales combined. Ten London seats paid more than the entire north of England over five years.

But the FT then drew the wrong conclusion.

This video explains why the real story is not that Britain depends on wealthy Londoners to fund the state. A currency-issuing government does not depend on the rich for money. Instead, the data reveals something much bigger and more important, which is the catastrophic consequences of the concentration of wealth in London and the long-term failure of UK regional economic policy.

I explain what tax is actually for, why inheritance tax is meant to redistribute wealth, and why the UK economy has become so distorted that entire regions have been systematically left behind.

This is a story about inequality, financial power, failed neoliberal economics and the political choices that created modern Britain.

The real question is not whether the government can afford to, or should, tax wealth. It is about why wealth has been allowed to become so concentrated in the first place.

If you want to understand inheritance tax, inequality, the role of the Financial Times in the wealth tax debate, and why Britain’s economy increasingly works only for a wealthy minority, this video explains the bigger picture.

The three failing wars — and what each one proves:

What the pattern tells us:

What actually works and what the UK should be promoting is something quite different:

The UK is sleepwalking into a 3% GDP defence commitment at the precise moment three superpower militaries are demonstrating that military spending does not win wars. This video asks the question Westminster refuses to ask: what is it actually for?

Donald Trump may accidentally have told the truth this week. He openly admitted that he was not thinking about the financial well-being of ordinary Americans when deciding his policy on Iran. That matters because it reveals something fundamental about both Trump and the system that created him.

In this video, I explore why Trump’s government increasingly looks like a government of billionaires for billionaires, detached from the economic reality facing ordinary people. Rising food prices, fuel costs, inflation, shortages and supply chain failures are becoming real pressures across the world, and yet those at the top appear indifferent to the consequences.

I argue that this is not simply about Trump as an individual. It is about the endgame of neoliberalism itself. A political and economic system built to transfer wealth upwards is now failing economically, politically, socially and even militarily. The warning signs are everywhere: disrupted trade, shortages, financial instability, rising insecurity and growing public anger.

The question now is what comes next. Can politics based on care, security and well-being replace a model built on extraction and inequality before the damage becomes irreversible?

UK government borrowing costs are rising fast, and the official explanation does not make sense. Britain is paying far more to borrow than France or Italy, despite having its own currency, a central bank, and no meaningful risk of default.

So what is really going on?

In this video, I argue that the City of London is using the bond market to discipline government and protect wealth. The institutions that own most UK government debt are banks, pension funds, insurance companies, and wealthy investors. Rising interest rates mean rising income for them.

I explain who actually owns UK government debt, who receives the £111 billion a year in interest payments, and why most ordinary households see almost none of that money.

I also look at the role of the Bank of England, quantitative easing, central bank reserve accounts, and why UK rates are so much higher than those in much of Europe.

Most importantly, I explain why the government does not need to accept this situation. There are alternatives. A government that understood how money and central banking really work could take back control of interest rates and stop this ongoing transfer of wealth to the financial sector.

If you want to understand how bond markets really work, and why UK economic policy seems designed to protect wealth before people, this video is for you.

Why does Britain keep ending up with weak Prime Ministers?

In this video, I argue that the problem is no longer simply about personalities or political parties. The deeper issue is that the UK political system now rewards the wrong qualities and filters out many of the people who might actually be capable of governing well.

I look at the five essential qualities any serious Prime Minister should possess:

I also explain why recent leaders have so often failed these tests, and why modern politics increasingly rewards ambition without vision, media management without substance, and spin without understanding.

The Labour Party may soon face another leadership contest, but I argue that the recruitment process itself is deeply contradictory. MPs and party members often want very different things, and the system may actively prevent genuinely capable candidates from emerging.

I also explore the extraordinary challenges facing the next Prime Minister:

This is not really a video about personalities. It is a diagnosis of a political system that increasingly struggles to produce leaders capable of governing in an age of permanent crisis.

Why do so many people feel alienated from politics in Britain today? Why has trust in political parties collapsed? And why do so many voters now feel politically homeless?