Don't miss tomorrow's event with @thomaspiketty.bsky.social on global #inequality including preliminary results from the #GlobalJusticeProject. 📍In-person and online public event 🎟️ Registration www.lse.ac.uk/events/globa... @lsepress.bsky.social

“The ‘true cost in law’ of nationalising the UK water sector is far lower than the government’s figure and is in fact ‘closer to zero’, according to a report from the think tank Common Wealth.” Our briefing with @ewanmg.bsky.social featured in @social.newcivilengineer.com 🔗👇

Wealthier democracies have mail, transport, energy + water in public ownership. We still don't. We can keep paying £bns to foreign shareholders, or we can have faster mail and transport, clean energy and water, for lower cost. But we can't do both. 👇 www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

📘 Come to my inaugural lecture "Democratic socialism and the law", 6.30pm, 15 October: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/inaugural-... 🌹 What role does the law play in democratic socialism? It rewires the defects of contract, property, corporate law + residual ‘capitalist’ elements of our law, and more... 👇

📘 Come to my inaugural lecture "Democratic socialism and the law", 6.30pm, 15 October: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/inaugural-... 🌹 What role does the law play in democratic socialism? It rewires the defects of contract, property, corporate law + residual ‘capitalist’ elements of our law, and more... 👇

To make sure AI serves workers—not just tech monopolies—we need bold action: corporate regulation, worker voice, and sectoral bargaining. Read more from @elizabethwwilkins.bsky.social on the scale of #AI concentration in a new blog w/ @eop.aspeninstitute.org ⤵️ www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/w...

"Corporate law, although always far from perfect, was supposed to ensure that the titans of industry acted lawfully and in the best interests of not only the stockholders, but their companies. Now, it seems, Delaware has opted for backsliding." Don't miss this great new post by Kate Jackson!

"My school saves thousands of pounds every year from those solar panels." The TUC directly takes on Reform, a party funded by the fossil fuel Industry. Posted on IG by tradesunioncongress

New Mexico is getting universal pre school childcare, like the next NYC mayor promises. Over 60 years since Eleanor Roosevelt called for it, this is key to ending the gender pay gap. In the UK we now have 30 hours free, but lack public nurseries + proper pay for staff. www.krqe.com/news/politic...

Radical right accommodation really does not work. New paper out with this exceptionally talented team @katharinalawall.bsky.social @robjohns75.bsky.social @drjennings.bsky.social @sarahobolt.bsky.social @zachdickson.bsky.social @danjdevine.bsky.social & @jack-bailey.co.uk doi.org/10.31235/osf...

Petrol and diesel, gas and coal power stations, or toxic rubbish incinerators are leading causes of dementia. So, we need 100% electric vehicles, all solar, wind and clean electricity generation, and for supermarkets to stop producing plastic waste. Easy. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

What should be publicly owned, or privatised? @ewanmg.bsky.social builds develops a theory of when public or private ownership leads to better outcomes, using comparative data from OECD countries in sectors such as water, rail, electricity, and telecommunications ▶️ wid.world/news-article...

What should be publicly owned, or privatised? We have a century of data on what works, so we should be able to get beyond ideology + build an evidence-based theory. New paper from me looks at theory since Adam Smith + maps OECD outcomes. Download + please repost!👇 papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

“In many ways water privatisation has been the greatest failure of the wholesale sell-off of govt utilities”. — @thetimes.com But public ownership *doesn’t* have to “burden the Govt with a huge debt”. @ewanmg.bsky.social explains how we can bring water back into public hands at a low cost 👇

Big news- the major Australian union body is calling for a 3 day weekend.

“If you want an advert for why private companies shouldn’t be involved in certain sectors, this is it.” Privateers have run Thames Water into the ground. This is delaying the inevitable. Relying on the same model to fix what they broke is madness.

The public deserve real solutions — not temporary fixes. When essential services are owned by the public, problems are fixed — not profited from. The true cost of bringing water into public ownership is close to 0. Our recent briefing by @ewanmg.bsky.social 👇 www.common-wealth.org/publications...

We did the largest crowdfund in UK law history to stop pension cuts + divest fossil fuels from the Universities Superannuation Scheme. We settled after the Court of Appeal - USS had folded and restored the pension. But we lost on fossil fuels - here's the story 👇 www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminst...

🎓 Out now is my new paper on 'Social Infrastructure Law in the UK, US and EU'. It focuses on the data in achieving the human rights to free university, universal health care, and the central bank's role in full employment (and fair wages and housing). 👉 papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

And what on earth does “beyond ignites curiousity” mean anyway, even if they spelled curiosity correctly?! “Warwick ignited dictionary” more like it. 😄

On people's decline in being dependable or disciplined, especially 16-39 year olds, another super article by @jburnmurdoch.ft.com. Think of people cancelling appointments last minute, not doing what they promised, being late. Think of smart phone addiction + narcissism. www.ft.com/content/5cd7...

The Bank of England cut interest rates to 4%, when the European Central Bank rate is 2.15% This is bad for every paying mortgages + renters whose landlords pass on the costs. The Bank of England Act 1998 should prioritise reducing living costs, and raising real wages...🧵 www.ft.com/content/236c...

Interesting story but it's a pretty glaring omission that the FT doesn't give us the *total* number of company directors on the register (about 8 million I think).

This paper shows we should abolish the REF, which wastes £471 million, plus distracts vastly more from academic time. It has nearly identical outcomes in allocating funding as if we simply gave out money by citations (or indeed a per student formula). 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirec...

Letter on the true price and benefits of public water in @theguardian.com. It’s £0 for a failed water company, not £100bn as the Treasury, Steve Reed, and water company lobbyists falsely claim. The cost of privatisation will be £22bn extra in 5 years. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Germany is deliberately alternating between positive and negative growth each quarter just to mock those fixated on the technical definition of a recession.

@ec.europa.eu proposes partial suspension of Israel's association to Horizon Europe ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

EVs Surpass 60% of New Car Sales in Ethiopia in 2024. Africa is shifting away from oil faster than some countries in Western world. birrmetrics.com/evs-surpass-...

Tom Lehrer died today. He was one of the great comedians our culture ever produced. Without Tom, there's no Weird Al, probably no that entire branch of comedy. He went alone and beat the odds. youtu.be/frAEmhqdLFs?...

I love women’s football - England wins here!

It costs £0 to make a failed water co. public. Privatised water will cost £22bn in the next 5 years. We must fulfil Keir Starmer's 2020 pledge to make water public, not be blocked by the Treasury saying there's no money. No more bailouts for shareholders, banks + polluters. @skynewsrss.bsky.social

A new water "super regulator" should have to secure profit for shareholders and banks, just like Ofwat, says the government appointed Cunliffe Review. This isn't the change British people want: (1) clean water, (2) fair bills, (3) water in the public interest, not for private greed. Me on SkyNews👇

1/9 Steve Reed and his £100bn: a timeline. Steve Reed says he won’t nationalise the water industry, because it would cost £100bn. 👀So where does that figure come from?👀 He claims that it comes from his own department. 🚨But it looks like it came from the private water companies. #ComeCleanSteve

🚰🧵 We have heard a lot of claims about the potential cost of public ownership but not much on the actually existing cost of privatisation. This chart - from Ofwat's most recent Price Review - shows the scale: £22 billion in the next five years.

Minister Steve Reed said water “pollution levels in Scotland are worse” than England yesterday, and so it makes no difference if water is publicly owned or privatised. No Steve, that’s what water company lobbyists or failed Defra officials have fed you. Here’s the reality:

Steve Reed is right. We should focus on facts. So let's start with 8 claims made to @krishgm.bsky.social 1. The ⁠£100bn figure. This makes no sense & is not credibly evidenced. The true & fair value in law is close to zero. Expert @ewanmg.bsky.social unpacks www.common-wealth.org/publications...

🎵Well buddy, don't go getting clever🎵

Good question. Assume for simplicity the income earned = the debt service. Then 1. It doesn't change the deficit (obviously). 2. It *does* add to the debt (if you take out a mortage to buy a property and rent it out to service the mortgage, your debt goes up!). [1/2]

I’m on @skynewsrss.bsky.social at 8pm on why the Cunliffe Review of water is old sludge in new bottles: 💰a new regulator will get a duty to secure shareholder +bank profit from our bills ❌it fails to make Thames Water lose its licence over pollution 💧it’s 465 pages yet calls for more reviews! Fail.

🚨NEWS!🚨 - The UK government has pledged to halve sewage discharges by 2030. An admirable target, but we need action, not promises... Our CEO, James Wallace breaks it down in an interview with BBC News 👇

What we all know - also for taking Russian help to get elected in 2016, where Mueller failed to bring any prosecution. The reason the USA ceased to function as a polity starts with the US Supreme Court, and its stranglehold on democracy.

Meanwhile: “The Department for Education doesn’t really have much of a view of what it wants to do with higher education at all.” Faculty and staff have a view-- imagine being asked! www.ft.com/content/3162...

As the author of a book entitled After Chartism, I note that we've now come a long way from Chartism.

⁉️ Is there a better way to scrap barriers for working class students going to uni than billionaires' charity? ✅ Yes, replace forced fees with fair tax + restore grants 😎 Free home student uni costs £12bn p.a. Economic returns x 5. A 2% wealth tax raises £24bn p.a. www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-07...

Very good to see this from @georgemonbiot.bsky.social including our work with @cmmonwealth.bsky.social that public water would cost close to zero. The government must listen to the evidence, not the lobbyists. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

“If we want to clean up politics, we must root out the dark money, hidden money and foreign money. That means banning cryptocurrency donations, donations from unincorporated associations and donations financed by foreign profits.” www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

If a new law makes it harder for Wikipedia to exist - as a non profit, no ad, no data scraping, community project, the world’s 5th biggest website - then the law is wrong. The Online Safety Act is argued to be one. The Wikipedia test: wikimediafoundation.org/news/2025/06...

If the Washington Post's new opinion editor is "Advocating for free markets and personal liberties", will it include scrutiny of Amazon's monopoly + data surveillance of customers? Probably not, because they're not free market, and they don't care about personal liberty. Orwellian corporate-think.