Ewan McGaughey
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ewanmg.bsky.social
Ewan McGaughey
@ewanmg.bsky.social

🎓Law Professor @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social, CBR, Cambridge + @granthamlse.bsky.social
🌹Labour law, enterprise law, pensions, corporations, human rights
🌍Cares about stopping inequality, climate damage + war
🕸️ https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/ewan-mcgaughey .. more

Reposted by Ewan McGaughey

Fascinating stuff.
A high-resolution dataset of roads of the Roman Empire, this study claims to have identified thousands more miles of Roman roads than were previously known.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Itiner-e: A high-resolution dataset of roads of the Roman Empire - Scientific Data
Scientific Data - Itiner-e: A high-resolution dataset of roads of the Roman Empire
www.nature.com

Reposted by Ewan McGaughey

You pay fuel duty. Why don’t billionaires?

This week, we launched WeWingAnyCar.com to help you qualify for the same tax breaks that private jets get.

Because tax loopholes shouldn’t just be for billionaires.

They’re for everyone.
Australia has so much electricity from solar power that it is going to start offering free electricity to everyone for at least three hours during the day as the wholesale price of power goes negative

electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...
Australia has so much solar that it's offering everyone free electricity
Australia's extensive solar power penetration makes so much energy that the government wants to offer free electricity at peak hours.
electrek.co

As Mamdani wins NYC by a landslide, we must ask, why is democratic socialism so successful - indeed across all wealthy democracies?

My talk unpacks the theories of capitalism's failures, and DS's 3 main goals: common ownership, economic democracy, and fair taxes.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSZ9...
'Democratic socialism and the law', Inaugural Lecture by Prof Ewan McGaughey (15 October 2025)
YouTube video by Ewan McGaughey
www.youtube.com

“That’s right - HS2 have been forced to build a two-lane, state-of-the-art, multi-million pound road bridge to join what is essentially an overgrown footpath to a sort of bridleway with delusions of grandeur.”

Wow: martinrobbins.substack.com/p/how-hs2-bu...

m.youtube.com/watch?v=qNPF...
How HS2 built a bridge to nowhere
YouTube video by The Value of Nothing
m.youtube.com

Reposted by Ewan McGaughey

“Democratic socialism and the law” was my inaugural lecture - now on YouTube, with slides!👇🏽

Are democracy and socialism compatible? And what is its relation to the law? It runs through basic critiques of capitalism + sets out 3 main goals of democratic socialism today.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=WSZ9...
'Democratic socialism and the law', Inaugural Lecture by Prof Ewan McGaughey (15 October 2025)
YouTube video by Ewan McGaughey
m.youtube.com
Kudos to the Guardian for reporting on research published in the European Journal of Political Research. Also: how many more studies on this do we need before centrist parties begin to rethink their strategies?

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
German far right setting agenda as opponents amplify its ideas, study finds
Normalisation of far-right stances likely to affect success of such parties at ballot boxes across Europe, say researchers
www.theguardian.com

Peter Thiel says that Carl Schmitt helped him form the core of his beliefs.

Anyone who knows Schmitt, and who knows how much money and influence Thiel has, knows this is not great.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Inside tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s off-the-record lectures about the antichrist
The political svengali and investor has been giving lectures on ‘an evil king or tyrant … who appears in the end times’
www.theguardian.com

It really begins with Buckley v Valeo (1976).

Interesting fact, there was unlimited election spending in the Weimar Republic - and guess which party and its industrial cartel backers first figured out they could outspend all parties put together in 1932/1933?

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Fascism-Lite in America (or the Social Ideal of Donald Trump)
What explains the election for the 45th President of the United States? Many commentators have said that Trump is a fascist. This builds on grave concern, since
papers.ssrn.com

Reposted by Jonathan Portes

🌹 "Democratic socialism and the law" is the topic of my inaugural lecture - next Wednesday 6.30pm, Great Hall, King's College, London.

➡️ Come along! There's even a reception afterwards. Check out the abstract, and register free here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/inaugural-...

Relative child poverty has remained stubbornly high over the last twenty years and has risen over the past decade.

Without action, levels will soon break records.

Scrapping the two-child limit in full would be the most targeted and cost-effective way of reducing child poverty.
🚨 Our new investigation out today reveals how thousands of people who've taken their bosses to employment tribunals & won, never got paid, even after they approached the government for help.

This has serious implications for the Employment rights bill.
www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2025...
Thousands of rogue bosses get away with not paying tribunal awards
The government scheme ‘enforcing’ money owed to workers has been unsuccessful in a staggering three-quarters of cases
www.thebureauinvestigates.com

Reposted by Ewan McGaughey

The gender wage gap is widening again, and showing “worrying trends.”

Top of the list of reasons, to no one’s surprise: soaring child care costs.

Important read from @kedseconomist.com

Important work on inequality changing children’s brain structure from @divyangana.bsky.social and colleagues.

Best ways to reduce inequality:
1. Fair pay agreements for every sector
2. Abolish two child benefit cap, for universal social security
3. Fair tax.

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Study links greater inequality to structural changes in children’s brains
Researchers say findings show inequality creates toxic environment and reducing it is ‘a public health imperative’
www.theguardian.com

Seems like you’ve got another big tech media takeover by the far right.

I guess that will be good for Republicans getting votes during elections.
🚨 Trump will sign an executive order today to hand TikTok over to his friend Larry Ellison. The White House confirmed that users' data will be stored at Ellison's Oracle and the algorithm would be "retrained."

www.nbcnews.com/politics/don...
Trump expected to sign a TikTok deal Thursday
The proposed structure would comply with a bipartisan law passed in 2024 that sought to ban TikTok if the platform wasn't sold to U.S.-based owners this year.
www.nbcnews.com

Reposted by Ewan McGaughey

🚨 Trump will sign an executive order today to hand TikTok over to his friend Larry Ellison. The White House confirmed that users' data will be stored at Ellison's Oracle and the algorithm would be "retrained."

www.nbcnews.com/politics/don...
Trump expected to sign a TikTok deal Thursday
The proposed structure would comply with a bipartisan law passed in 2024 that sought to ban TikTok if the platform wasn't sold to U.S.-based owners this year.
www.nbcnews.com

Harmonising NICs, and raising income tax for the wealthy is essential.

The 2% difference in NICs between employees and the self-employed creates a big incentive for sham-self-employment, like Deliveroo and Uber carriers.

+ wealthier people should pay fair tax.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Reeves urged to take 2p off employee NI and add it to income tax in budget
Resolution Foundation says move could raise additional £6bn a year and ‘level the playing field’ on income tax
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Ewan McGaughey

A reminder: if you are an aspiring lawyer this fantastic experience is available to you.

Volunteering with FRU is a shortcut to gaining key legal skills.

The entry point is to attend our training. Places are still left on the social security training. Book here www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/fru-social...
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
Thomas Piketty on global inequality | LSE Events
3.30pm Fri 19 Sept | Thomas Piketty | Ticket Required | Free public event at LSE
www.lse.ac.uk
The UK government has calculated that nationalising the water sector would cost around £100bn, but this has been disputed by analysts at @cmmonwealth.bsky.social who argue the government has powers to do it at a far lower cost

Full story: buff.ly/knWquLB
Defra calculates £100bn to nationalise water sector but ‘true’ figure could be much lower | New Civil Engineer
The circa £100bn figure comes from a technical assessment by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). This figure is based on the
buff.ly

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...
UK public has paid £200bn to shareholders of key industries since privatisation
Analysis reveals ‘privatisation premium’ of £250 per household per year paid to owners of water, rail, bus, energy and mail services since 2010
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Colin Murray

📘 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...
Worker Power in the Age of AI Monopolies: Why We Need Structural Solutions Now
Elizabeth Wilkins
www.aspeninstitute.org