Funding the Future

Why is the left still terrified of the state’s power to create money?

In this video, I set out a straightforward truth, which is that modern governments create money every single day. That is the foundation of public authority in the UK and every other country with its own currency. The government spends money into existence — and then uses taxation, not to fund that spending, but to manage inflation, redistribute wealth, and steer the economy.

And yet much of the political left denies this reality. From Labour’s fiscal rules to tax justice organisations and NGOs obsessed with “fully funded” pledges, left-leaning politicians cling to the false belief that the state must:

Tax before it spends

Borrow from the markets to “afford” investment

Balance budgets like a household

These ideas are myths — inherited from neoliberal economics and reinforced by the power of the City of London. And they severely restrict what democratic politics can achieve.

When the left refuses to use the state’s power to create money, the consequences are enormous. It means:

Unemployment becomes a choice

Austerity becomes a choice

Poverty becomes a choice

Failing public services become a choice

Climate breakdown by inaction becomes a choice

Because the truth is: money isn’t scarce. Political courage is.

In that case, what this video explains is why the left fears being held responsible for the results of power, and why that fear must end. If democracy already has the tools to transform society, why aren’t we using them?

Why the UK budget system is broken — and how to fix it

Blurb

Rachel Reeves just gave us a masterclass in how NOT to run an economy. We got leaks, U-turns, political theatre, but almost no real economic planning.

In this video, I explain what’s gone wrong and how we could get a rational budget delivering:

We deserve better than this.

What do YOU think needs to change? Vote in the poll below.

Why does poverty still exist in one of the richest countries on earth? In this video, I respond to a claim made by Mark Littlewood that poverty “should be over” because the UK spends £300bn a year on benefits.

This video explains how antisocial neoliberal economics deliberately creates poverty — using fear and insecurity to keep wages low, rents high, and wealth flowing up to the richest. Redistribution in that case is not a luxury — it’s justice.

Vote in the poll below and leave your thoughts in the comments 

Rachel Reeves' Budget was a damp squib, delivering austerity by stealth. There was no vision, and no investment. There was just fear of the City of London. In this video, I ask why the Chancellor has surrendered economic power to finance and consider what a politics of care and investment would look like instead.

For more than 45 years, the UK has suffered not one, but two economic curses: the resource curse and the finance curse. Both were chosen, primarily by Margaret Thatcher, and both inflated the pound, destroyed industry, and left Britain dependent on hot money and speculation. In this video, I explain how we got here — and what we must do to rebuild a real economy based on work, fair reward and democracy.

Rachel Reeves says her budget delivers stability. The Office for Budget Responsibility's charts tell a very different story. High interest rates, low investment, falling profitability, rising unemployment and no improvement in household incomes. This government is putting finance first, and people last.

In this video, I break down the OBR data — ignored by the headlines — and show what it means for growth, homes, jobs and Britain’s future. We can do better. And I’ve published the budget that shows how.

Download my alternative budget — available here https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/downloads/

And tell me what you think in the poll below and in the comments.

Rachel Reeves’ 2025 Budget has already collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions. In this video, I explain why tax rises on ordinary people, baseless growth forecasts, and a refusal to tax wealth fairly mean this Budget will fail — and fail fast. Neoliberalism promised growth. It has delivered stagnation and inequality. This is more Tory policy by another name.

Rachel Reeves will not fix Britain today.

So I’ve published my Alternative Budget for 2025 — a complete plan to end austerity, rebuild public services, reconnect savings with investment, reform the Treasury, bring the Bank of England back under democratic control, transform housing, and fund a green transition.

This video is a full guided tour through the ideas in the 20,000-word budget I’ve just released on Funding the Future.

Download the full PDF here: https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/downloads/  

We can rebuild this country. We just need to stop believing the myths about money, tax and “borrowing”.

Hope is a policy choice.

In this podcast, I talk with John Christensen, co-founder of the Tax Justice Network, about whether Britain can escape the final stage of a decades-long inflationary cycle without social and political rupture.

We explore Jersey as an early warning of the “finance curse,” the extraordinary scale of the housing shock, the generational wealth divide engineered by decades of rising house prices, and why younger people are locked out of economic security.

We discuss how government policy helped create the crisis, why zombie banks are now vulnerable to falling asset prices, and what the end of a long inflationary wave has meant throughout history.

We end with the reforms that could save Britain: mass social housebuilding, capital controls, redirected savings, and democratic control of credit creation.

The choice now is stark: reform or rupture.

Ultra-processed foods now make up at least half of all food sold in UK supermarkets. The Lancet has described them as a “corporate-engineered public health crisis.” That is exactly what they are: industrial products designed for profit, not nutrition. They override appetite control, promote over-consumption, and push out real food alternatives.

These foods are cheap because wages are low, access to fresh food is unequal, and corporate concentration has eliminated choice. The result is a society burdened with obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancers — and an NHS stretched to breaking point. None of this is accidental.

In this video, I explain how ultra-processed food became unavoidable, why it is a systemic economic issue rather than a personal failure, and what the government can do now: from food labelling and advertising bans to taxing ultra-processed products and subsidising real food. We can change this — but only if we confront corporate power.