Duncan Robinson
@duncanrobinson.bsky.social
Write Bagehot column for the Economist. Comment writer of the year at British Journalism Awards 2024
Mad
This (not from that piece) is one of those charts where I am completely aware of the data but my mental map of how the global economy works still almost refuses to update to the new reality. Because the pace of change has been so rapid.
November 10, 2025 at 7:58 AM
Mad
Reposted by Duncan Robinson
Breaking the tax pledge is the right call...and politically sulphurous. Reeves must argue, far more forcefully, that taxes are *the* essential downpayment we all pay for a fairer society.
Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇
renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇
renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
If Labour want a fairer society, they must argue for it
Labour must make the political argument: taxes are the critical downpayment we all pay to live in a fairer society.
It now seems all but certain that direct taxes will rise in the forthcoming Budget...
renewal.org.uk
November 10, 2025 at 7:34 AM
Breaking the tax pledge is the right call...and politically sulphurous. Reeves must argue, far more forcefully, that taxes are *the* essential downpayment we all pay for a fairer society.
Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇
renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇
renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
Reposted by Duncan Robinson
Yes I really, really feel there's a worrying elision going on here (and I've been doing a lot of reporting on dodgy high street shops!)
I really think the money laundering thing is enormously overplayed based on very little evidence and the tax evasion / lack of minimum wage underplayed.
I really think the money laundering thing is enormously overplayed based on very little evidence and the tax evasion / lack of minimum wage underplayed.
November 9, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Yes I really, really feel there's a worrying elision going on here (and I've been doing a lot of reporting on dodgy high street shops!)
I really think the money laundering thing is enormously overplayed based on very little evidence and the tax evasion / lack of minimum wage underplayed.
I really think the money laundering thing is enormously overplayed based on very little evidence and the tax evasion / lack of minimum wage underplayed.
All pain, less gain
There’s nothing wrong with it as a policy, other than it just raises much, *much* less money than just raising income tax. And Labour needs to be one and done with tax rises. The way they’re doing this…won’t raise enough.
I’m with Vince.
And 2p on income tax plus 2p off NICS to raise £6bn feels like being hung for half a lamb.
www.ft.com/content/9e56...
And 2p on income tax plus 2p off NICS to raise £6bn feels like being hung for half a lamb.
www.ft.com/content/9e56...
November 8, 2025 at 1:07 PM
All pain, less gain
Odd shift imo
On the left in Britain, tax has turned from a fundamental bargain with the state to a cost-of-living issue
If Labour cranks up income taxes, the left will boo loudest
Many seem to believe in the common good without shared sacrifice
econ.st
November 8, 2025 at 10:46 AM
Odd shift imo
Gavin speaks on behalf of Concerned Millennial Fathers At The Economist Group
Good argument here for not reducing childcare ratios.
economist.com/finance-and-...
economist.com/finance-and-...
Universal child care can hurt children
Its growing popularity in America is a concern
economist.com
November 8, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Gavin speaks on behalf of Concerned Millennial Fathers At The Economist Group
Reposted by Duncan Robinson
Good argument here for not reducing childcare ratios.
economist.com/finance-and-...
economist.com/finance-and-...
Universal child care can hurt children
Its growing popularity in America is a concern
economist.com
November 8, 2025 at 7:48 AM
Good argument here for not reducing childcare ratios.
economist.com/finance-and-...
economist.com/finance-and-...
Reposted by Duncan Robinson
The Green surge is about to break Labour
🖊️ Scarlett Maguire
🖊️ Scarlett Maguire
The Green surge is about to break Labour
Polanski's increasing popularity has huge implications for the future of British politics
www.newstatesman.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:49 AM
The Green surge is about to break Labour
🖊️ Scarlett Maguire
🖊️ Scarlett Maguire
V good on the importance of Fat Men
New on my similarly new Substack: why Keir Starmer needs fat men around him, the person actually doing a good job inside No 10, and the best books on Brownism
substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com/home/post/p-...
Get some fat men around him
Keir Starmer's government is full of the wrong Brownites
substack.com
November 7, 2025 at 11:15 AM
V good on the importance of Fat Men
Reposted by Duncan Robinson
"China can produce almost a terawatt of renewable-energy capacity in a year. That is enough to supply as much energy as more than 300 big nuclear-power plants."
www.economist.com/leaders/2025...
I love The Economist's bullishness here
www.economist.com/leaders/2025...
I love The Economist's bullishness here
China’s clean-energy revolution will reshape markets and politics
The world’s biggest manufacturer now has an interest in the world decarbonising
www.economist.com
November 7, 2025 at 11:08 AM
"China can produce almost a terawatt of renewable-energy capacity in a year. That is enough to supply as much energy as more than 300 big nuclear-power plants."
www.economist.com/leaders/2025...
I love The Economist's bullishness here
www.economist.com/leaders/2025...
I love The Economist's bullishness here
Lovely interview with Anthony Barnett www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
Anthony Barnett: “The Sixties were a catastrophic failure”
The writer and campaigner on nationalism, the rise of the new right and how a fractured left can organise in response
www.newstatesman.com
November 6, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Lovely interview with Anthony Barnett www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
Reposted by Duncan Robinson
I say this a lot (and I happily admit that it's the old fashioned romantic in me and it isn't coming back, for good or ill) but the decline in the scope and size of a lot of working class cultural and social bodies. (the trades unions, Co-Ops, WMCs) has contributed to that left-wing atomisation.
November 6, 2025 at 4:08 PM
I say this a lot (and I happily admit that it's the old fashioned romantic in me and it isn't coming back, for good or ill) but the decline in the scope and size of a lot of working class cultural and social bodies. (the trades unions, Co-Ops, WMCs) has contributed to that left-wing atomisation.
Reposted by Duncan Robinson
Labour needs to stop fooling itself and lean in to the political logic of its choices. It is a high taxing, high spending government. www.ft.com/content/00a5...
November 6, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Labour needs to stop fooling itself and lean in to the political logic of its choices. It is a high taxing, high spending government. www.ft.com/content/00a5...
Reposted by Duncan Robinson
I think two questions this raises is the extent to which the modern left has an idea of the common good/really cares about it, and whether 'anti-bedtime leftism' is an expression of left individualism
Tax policy on the British left is pure "anti-bedtime left". Bizarre idea that you can have a big social democratic welfare state without everyone contributing properly www.economist.com/britain/2025...
November 6, 2025 at 2:01 PM
I think two questions this raises is the extent to which the modern left has an idea of the common good/really cares about it, and whether 'anti-bedtime leftism' is an expression of left individualism
Reposted by Duncan Robinson
Rhetorically, Gary Stevenson and Zack Polanski are on to something though. No question about it.
November 6, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Rhetorically, Gary Stevenson and Zack Polanski are on to something though. No question about it.
Reposted by Duncan Robinson
My own view is that you do need to raise taxes on median earners in the current fiscal context, when financial repression and/or higher inflation is not a realistic political prospect and when growth remains low. You should also tax some wealth/capital for reasons of fairness and symbolism.
November 6, 2025 at 1:40 PM
My own view is that you do need to raise taxes on median earners in the current fiscal context, when financial repression and/or higher inflation is not a realistic political prospect and when growth remains low. You should also tax some wealth/capital for reasons of fairness and symbolism.
Reposted by Duncan Robinson
It's easy to dismiss this as just a online thing - but increasingly the 'wealth tax/billionares will pay for it' is cutting through more generally
You can see it on normal, non-politicos insta feeds-particularly driven by the Greens. It's hugely damaging to the leigitimacy of actual progressive tax
You can see it on normal, non-politicos insta feeds-particularly driven by the Greens. It's hugely damaging to the leigitimacy of actual progressive tax
Tax policy on the British left is pure "anti-bedtime left". Bizarre idea that you can have a big social democratic welfare state without everyone contributing properly www.economist.com/britain/2025...
November 6, 2025 at 11:54 AM
It's easy to dismiss this as just a online thing - but increasingly the 'wealth tax/billionares will pay for it' is cutting through more generally
You can see it on normal, non-politicos insta feeds-particularly driven by the Greens. It's hugely damaging to the leigitimacy of actual progressive tax
You can see it on normal, non-politicos insta feeds-particularly driven by the Greens. It's hugely damaging to the leigitimacy of actual progressive tax
Reposted by Duncan Robinson
Yes. Ironically the MMT many on the left once supported tells us just this. We need taxes not to raise money but to control inflation. To do this, we need to cut spending rather than saving - which means taxes on the middlingly well-off.
November 6, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Yes. Ironically the MMT many on the left once supported tells us just this. We need taxes not to raise money but to control inflation. To do this, we need to cut spending rather than saving - which means taxes on the middlingly well-off.
Reposted by Duncan Robinson
So many lovely lines and phrases in this - I think “fractal cowardice”, to describe the interplay between leftwing thinktanks and the government at the moment, is my favourite:
Tax policy on the British left is pure "anti-bedtime left". Bizarre idea that you can have a big social democratic welfare state without everyone contributing properly www.economist.com/britain/2025...
November 6, 2025 at 12:07 PM
So many lovely lines and phrases in this - I think “fractal cowardice”, to describe the interplay between leftwing thinktanks and the government at the moment, is my favourite:
Reposted by Duncan Robinson
Good stuff. Time for tax rises. www.economist.com/britain/2025...
If Labour cranks up income taxes, the left will boo loudest
Many seem to believe in the common good without shared sacrifice
www.economist.com
November 6, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Good stuff. Time for tax rises. www.economist.com/britain/2025...
Tax policy on the British left is pure "anti-bedtime left". Bizarre idea that you can have a big social democratic welfare state without everyone contributing properly www.economist.com/britain/2025...
November 6, 2025 at 11:06 AM
Tax policy on the British left is pure "anti-bedtime left". Bizarre idea that you can have a big social democratic welfare state without everyone contributing properly www.economist.com/britain/2025...
Fun dynamic of the budget is that the Tories did all the easy bits when it came to hosing the rich, leaving behind an unbelievably progressive income tax system www.economist.com/britain/2025...
November 6, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Fun dynamic of the budget is that the Tories did all the easy bits when it came to hosing the rich, leaving behind an unbelievably progressive income tax system www.economist.com/britain/2025...
Wrote about the rise of the anti-tax left. If Labour cranks up income taxes, the left will boo loudest
economist.com/britain/2025...
economist.com/britain/2025...
If Labour cranks up income taxes, the left will boo loudest
Many seem to believe in the common good without shared sacrifice
economist.com
November 6, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Wrote about the rise of the anti-tax left. If Labour cranks up income taxes, the left will boo loudest
economist.com/britain/2025...
economist.com/britain/2025...
Yup
“We will never use the main tax levers at our disposal no matter how bad the fiscal picture gets” is a terrible message to give when you’re reliant on the confidence of bond markets. The political cost of not doing dumb things is surely a cost worth paying especially since they’re already unpopular.
November 6, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Yup
Salami splicing: jamming it all together to make a tax sausage
Salami slicing your way to fiscal headroom introduces more tax complexity, likely means poorly targeted measures increasing deadweight costs, raises uncertainty (where might they look to tax next?), and reduces flexibility going forward (pulling all but the obvious levers sends a signal in itself).
November 6, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Salami splicing: jamming it all together to make a tax sausage