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Steve Howell
@FromSteveHowell
, 5 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
1/4 Was Jeremy Corbyn right to say inequality has been rising for decades?

Tony Blair has turned this into a debate about his record. But he hasn't refuted the basic facts - because he can't: whichever measure you take inequality has been on an upward trend since the 1970s.
2/4 IMO the most fundamental indicator of inequality is the graph on the previous tweet showing wages and salaries as a % of national income. This is basically the share of the cake that working people (even very well paid ones) get - and it's fallen from over 60% to 50%.
3/4 In the first couple of Blair years, working people did see their share of the cake increase. But from 2001, it fell again. This is not inconsistent with Labour in those years reducing poverty - because that can be achieved by redistributing wealth among wage/salary earners.
4/4 But mitigating the extreme effects of growing inequality isn't the same actually gaining a bigger share of the cake for ALL working people.

Neo-liberalism has increased the share going to owners of capital. As this Morgan Stanley quote shows, they fear a reversal of that.
Footnote - For those who (rightly) like to check the sources...

The graphic is from an Office for Budget Responsibility paper, here (page 10):
web.archive.org/web/2017081018…
Further details on Morgan Stanley are here:
theguardian.com/politics/2017/…
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Steve Howell
@FromSteveHowell
1/5 Prof Dorling's right call Blair the King in the sense he presided over the highest level of inequality since 1929.

But it was Thatcher who set in motion the huge redistribution of wealth & income in favour of the owners of capital of the last 40 years.
2/5 Thatcher gave owners of capital a bigger share of the cake in three main ways: a/ shifting taxation from capital to working people, b/ crushing the miners/attacking union rights, c/ opening up more of the economy to profit-making through a massive programme of privatisation.
3/5 In 1997, millions of us had high hopes that New Labour would reverse much of this. And there were some advances - the minimum wage, a big investment in the NHS, tax changes that protected those on low incomes. But on the three fundamentals it was business as usual.
Read 5 tweets
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Steve Howell
@FromSteveHowell
1/7 I voted Remain in 2016 on the basis that some reform of the EU's pro-market rules was possible, working with socialists across Europe. But if we're going to sail under the R&R banner again, I think we need a reality check. Things have changed.
2/7 At the heart of the R&R debate are the EU's rules on state aid, which preclude anything that distorts competition. These rules are rooted in the 1957 Treaty of Rome and would require a new treaty supported by all member states to be changed. So do they give any wiggle room?
3/7 Advocates of R&R point out the EU does allow some state aid exemptions and the UK (at 0.36% of GDP) uses them less than Germany (1.31%). But those percentages are low, so how much wiggle room is there for the ambitious plans in Labour's 2017 manifesto? (References at end)
Read 8 tweets
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Steve Howell
@FromSteveHowell
1/7 Paul Mason says he'll "circle the wagons" around Corbyn - but it looks like that's to starve him into abandoning his principles and throwing some his best allies to the wolves.

His article is not the answer to a coup but the manifesto for it.

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
2/7 At the heart of Paul Mason's attack is the claim that Labour's 2017 electoral advance was based "above all" on "large scale" tactical voting by Remainers. This is the basis for his assertion that Labour must embrace Remain and a 2nd referendum. But it's a false premise.
3/7 Even the author of the study Mason relies on admits her model shows "relationship" but "does not imply causation". True, it's likely some Remainers voted tactically, but many factors contributed to Labour's vote going up from 9.3m (30.4%) to 12.9m (40%), our best for 20years.
Read 7 tweets

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SG
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(((Neil))) 👁‍🗨
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Alex Hudson
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Dominic | دومينيك
@domihol
You Mark Curtis & the Corbyn cult are IMO dangerous idiots if you downplay this.
A Muslim Brotherhood salute is a Muslim Brotherhood salute - be it Egypt, Syria or Turkey. If a Westerner flashed this salute it shows either support for the MB and its vision - or UTTER STUPIDITY.
That Cameron's UK together with Obama's USA have made a pact with "political Islam" is a story that Syria has felt for 7 bloody years ... and if "commentators" of the Western "pro-Syria space" are now downplaying the MB - I feel vindicated for NEVER having supported them before.
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Thomas Binder
@Thomas_Binder
After 70 years of imperial/neoliberal indoctrination the web of lies is so obviously absurde (9/11, Skripal, WH = ISIS, etc.), that it is dissoluting. The empathetic humanity connects, closes ranks and sends their eternal psychopathic rulers and their lackeys into nowhere land.
The "evil empire" is a lifelong three year old child. I certainly loved my children at that age too, however only because they created not only a surreal mess, but also made steady progress.

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J.N. PAQUET ✒
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This!
As @theresa_may tells @HouseofCommons it's 'highly likely' Moscow ordered the attack on former Russian spy in Salisbury & most MPs show support to HMG to take strong action against Russia together with West & EU...
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