Merrick Langston

@RichardJMurphy It's a wonder the bond markets allowed us to create the NHS after WW2.

We keep being told that bond markets may veto democratic choices, but that is not fiscal responsibility: it is the normalisation of financial power over elected government. The real question is who democracy is meant to serve. Is it people or money? theguardian.com/business/2026/…

NEW: Ed Miliband has told Labour MPs he is committed to looking at decoupling electricity from gas prices, saying it is "complicated but possible". He is said to be looking at a report by Dale Vince, which warns govt's clean energy drive won't bring down bills while gas effectively sets the price of the wholesale market... news.sky.com/story/ed-milib…

Fabulous idea when we know that tax cuts are not sustainably passed on to consumers. Windfall profit tax plus price caps is the way to go.

Rate cuts working to reduce passive income.

Capitalism became more exploitative in the wake of sellers' inflation and Trump made sure it stayed that way.

@AaronBastani Pandering to this anti-WFH narrative only serves to further erode employment rights and concede ground to owners of capital and rentiers like @Nigel_Farage. He could quite as easily be standing there lamenting paid annual leave, sick pay or workers entitlement to a weekend.

I think shared space is really important for some kinds of work. New employees, and particularly younger people, REALLY benefit from it. I’m a big office guy! But if we want more kids, and bigger families, some work from home is ENTIRELY NECESSARY.

Fewer than 60,000 people — the richest 0.001% — now control three times more wealth than half of humanity combined. That is our world’s balance sheet: a planet of over eight billion people ruled by a rounding error.

But tell me again how it's disabled people's paltry benefits that are the problem ...

Zack needs to explain that gilts are a privilege not an economic imperative or a fundamental human right. Say he’s prepared to take the privilege away (or return to tap system) if bond holders abuse it, and that he will not be intimidated because he understands that the purpose of issuing gilts is to establish a risk-free yield curve, not to finance the gov, which is self-financing anyway.

Disgusting levels of inequality. Neo-feudalism.

@RestIsPolitics @ZackPolanski @RoryStewartUK @campbellclaret "anything we can do, we can afford" Is John Maynard Keynes a professional academic economist enough for you @RoryStewartUK ? Perhaps you should interview @StephanieKelton if you need an overview of how our monetary system actually works - what @ZackPolanski was alluding to.

It's nearly here! Catch our Leading interview with @ZackPolanski from Sunday at 6pm. It's not one to miss... 🔥 @RoryStewartUK @campbellclaret

UK govt can save over £20bn a year by stopping payment of interest on commercial banks’ central bank reserves. Subsidy implemented after the 2007-08 crash. Banks now very profitable. Since 2023, the EU stopped paying interest on central bank reserves. leftfootforward.org/2025/11/this-i…

They don't know what to do with someone like @ZackPolanski, who refuses to let their faulty metaphors go unchallenged. As others begin to emulate what he's doing, the metaphor will break.

Politicians constantly claim that the government must “live within its means”, just like any family. In this video, I explain why the household analogy is not only wrong — it is the foundation of austerity, underfunded services, infrastructure decay, suppressed wages and collapsing public trust. Governments create money. Households use money. Governments must manage real resources, not bank balances. And when governments cut spending, their income falls — the exact opposite of what happens to you or me. Understanding this difference is essential if we want a better economy, proper public services, fairer taxation and a stronger democracy. youtu.be/Q03GKwMxmAo?si…

@faisalislam And the Govt could step in and buy the gilts. They could stop selling gilts entirely, and mechanically still be able to spend, limited only by real resources, labour and inflation. Markets answer to our Government and democracy, not the other way around - they are using our pound

Ouch. Considerable spike in 10y gilt rates after FT reports that option of income tax rate increase now off table … 11 basis points up…

What taxes will they increase at the Budget next month?

But who will buy the bonds?

join a union and you too could win favourable conditions and reasonable pay in exchange for your labour!

Bond markets do not rule – governments do taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/09/0… The FT is demanding that the government bow down to the demands of financial markets that will profoundly harm the well-being of the UK and most people who live in it. In the process, they reveal their lack of economic understanding and their own weak relationship with democracy and the right of elected politicians to govern.

This is exactly the kind of despicable scaremongering that @DrAseemMalhotra has made his modus operandi. Insinuations, hearsay, anti-vaxx, non-evidence-based, lurid, self-enriching, anti-scientific claptrap. Of course @reformparty_uk lapped it up. Please know that there isn’t a shred of scientific evidence suggesting Covid vaccines cause cancer. Please disregard this man’s rubbish - he doesn’t work for the NHS & why the GMC hasn’t struck him off long ago baffles innumerable NHS doctors like me. Please, if you are worried about vaccines, chat to an NHS doctor or look on the NHS website for excellent, evidence-based info. Shame on you, Aseem Malhotra. Shame on you.