At the BBC we've had a whole independent review which made it very clear we shouldn't use profoundly misleading household finance analogies for the public finances. But now the Labour front bench keeps doing it. And it's not the first time: theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

At last the 2 child limit is going. I want to pay tribute to all those who stood firm in the campaign to scrap this appalling policy including all those of my colleagues who faced disciplinary action in the Labour Party but never wavered. We’ve won.

Whatever else one can say about today’s Budget, getting rid of the Two Child Benefit Cap is a way of righting a huge wrong, and addresses a terrible injustice towards some of our most vulnerable fellow (future) citizens. 👏👏👏 fairnessfoundation.com/two-child-limit

the Labour government, in its infinite wisdom, wont raise revenue from taxing banks more, or Silicon Valley more, but from taxing a successful export sector, universities! export tax now, who needs foreign revenue?

Sixty percent of those hit by the two-child cap are in working families. It would be extremely interesting to know how many Gail’s Bakery employees are on Universal Credit. When the state subsidises low wages, does Luke count that as welfare? #BBCQT

Last Week in Media: a new post at Modern Media Theory. modernmediatheory.wordpress.com/2025/11/29/las…

I keep this on my desktop: “Words are innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across the incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they’re no good anymore. “I

Spare a thought for Andy Verity, who has enough intellectual curiosity to realise that the economic discourse going on around him is insulting drivel.

Britain saw one of the greatest transfers of wealth in history through widespread privatisation—40% of the total assets privatised across the OECD 1980-1996. We need a massive correction back in the direction of public ownership, whether via nationalisation or municipalisation.

We also need widespread democratisation of the rest of the economy through a plurality of ownership forms, from the commons and cooperatives (worker and consumer) to land trusts, social enterprises, not-for profit-activity, decommodification, and more.

We cannot continue with plutocratic billionaire ownership, which is destroying the planet and democratic politics, and causing backlash and the rise of far right politics, which it funds and amplifies.

The solution is broad-based ownership in all its variety.

On public ownership: static1.squarespace.com/static/668c154… On privatisation: opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocra… On democratising capital: opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocra… On municipal ownership: opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocra… On public enterprise: opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocra…

Extraordinary that this model would have John McDonnell and Ian Byrne as 2 of the 3 remaining Labour MPs. 👇

On the original post, too: Social Democracy in its classic European form would be nearly unimaginably radical (not 'centrist') in most of the developed world at this point.

.Rory Stewart ALASTAIR CAMPBELL

You: government spending to meet human need is inefficient, the free market is much better at allocating resources The free market: