Starmer: a man way of his depth when dealing with the NHS
Funding the Future
Starmer: a man way out of his depth when dealing with the NHS
I listened to what Keir Starmer had to say about the NHS with growing bewilderment yesterday. I really wish that he had not created in me a sense t...
 Starmer's speech on the NHS yesterday offered view of a man unprepared for office who sends out incompetent messages to those who now work in the organisation he leads and who has no comprehension of the economic environment in which he must manage healthcare. It's not surprising that now the UK public is seeing Starmer in action that his popularity is falling.
Starmer’s choice: he won’t fund the NHS even though he knows people will die as a result
Funding the Future
Starmer’s choice: he won’t fund the NHS even though he knows people will die as a result
I just posted this on Twitter: That, I think, summarises what Starmer will really be saying today. He
 Starmer is out today saying the NHS must "reform or die", but since he's refusing to provide the funding required to reform, die is the only option actually on the table, which means that people will do so as well. And this from a supposedly Labour government.
As the July GDP data proves, nothing really changed that month
Funding the Future
As the July GDP data proves, nothing really changed that month
The monthly ritual of the publication of GDP data took place this morning. The Office for National Statistics summarised the situation as follow...
 The GDP data proves what we all knew. We got a new government early that month, and yet nothing changed in the economy. And that will be the message for the next five years. Labour's in office, intent on changing nothing.
Labour should be picking on tax cheats
Funding the Future
Labour should be picking on tax cheats
In this morning
 Instead of picking on children in poverty and pensioners needing support with fuel bills to pay the price for the Tory economic aftermath, Labour should be picking on tax cheats to fill its coffers, as the National Audit Office agrees, and as I show in the Taxing Wealth Report 2024, would not be hard.
Why is Labour picking on pensioners?
Funding the Future
Why is Labour picking on pensioners?
In this morning
 Of all the groups in society anyone expected Labour to pick on when it came into office, pensioners were the least likely, excepting, perhaps, children in poverty. Now it turns out they are the two groups Labour thinks should pay the price for the mess that Labour claims it has inherited from the Tories. Political incompetence on this scale is hard to make up.
The House of Lords really does not understand what they call the ‘national debt’ https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/09/10/the-house-of-lords-really-does-not-understand-what-they-call-the-national-debt/ The House of Lords is panicking about the national debt, but that‘s what happens when you fundamentally misunderstand what it supposedly is, as they do. It’s just a savings facility on which the government is not dependent. Of course there is nothing to panic about in that case.
If Rachel Reeves wants more money, she needs to crack down on small business tax evasion
Funding the Future
If Rachel Reeves wants more money she needs to crack down on small business tax evasion
The National Audit Office (NAO) published a report this morning that says: The UK is losing billions of pounds a year in revenue due to tax evasio...
 The National Audit Office has issued a report today replicating almost exactly a lot of what I had to say on HMRC, its lack of organisation and its resulting failure to tackle the small business tax gap in the Taxing Wealth Report 2024. It's good to see. But will the government act?
They’re not going
Funding the Future
They’re not going
I noted yesterday a report from an estate agent saying one in six UK millionaires is going to leave the country ver the next few years. Then, I ...
 The wealthy aren't going anywhere - as the bankers obviously know.
Labour, critical thinking, and migration
Funding the Future
Labour, critical thinking, and migration
I spent a lot of time last Friday discussing how we can get accounting undergraduates to do critical thinking when many would rather not do so. ...
 I am frustrated by the Labour party's failure to engage in critical thinking. Critical thinking is questioning and evaluating information to form reliable judgments. Labour is nowhere near doing that.
Why the rich aren’t leaving, or coming, to the UK
Funding the Future
Why the rich aren’t leaving, or coming, to the UK
I was on the Matthew Wright show on LBC Radio this morning. I seem to be becoming a bit of a regular on this gig at the moment. The subject was...
 An estate agent has said one in six millionaires might be leaving the UK, and no one will come to replace them. They're wrong about those leaving: most millionaires are going nowhere. They're right about how unattractive we now are to the rich.