Funding the Future

Rachel Reeves' record as Chancellor has not been good. Today provides her with another opportunity to get everything wrong.

The wealthy say they are terrified of the national debt, but they aren't really. It only exists because they don't pay enough tax, and they'd hate that even more. 

Many people on the UK's left want wealth taxes. The trouble is that would take years to deliver. Taxing income and gains from wealth more makes a lot more sense. 

What would the world be like if we set out to eliminate the causes of war? We've tried it before. Why can't we try again? 

Education that pretends the world isn't going to change serves no one. It's time we taught people how to change with the times.

No one talks about extreme centrists. They should, because they're the people who want to maintain the status quo when it's glaringly obvious that we need change. 

The idea that bond vigilantes can set government policy suits the City and neoliberal politicians, who'd like it to be true. But is it?

The obsession with Russia in the defence review is wrong. The real risk is from fascists wherever they come from, and Russia is a long way from being the only threat in that case. 

Trump wants to use tax as a weapon in international trade wars. That could backfire horribly for him.