James Wilson
@jameswilson
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Economist, data analyst, public policy. Formerly @ausgov @govuk 🇦🇺🇬🇧 Views my own.
London
Joined November 2007
There are few words in government I detest more than “hub”.
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If I wanted to completely kill momentum for future tax reform I would start by proposing road user charging
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I despair at tax changes being used to hit mad self-imposed fiscal rules, rather than to improve efficiency, simplicity and fairness. This biannual circus is creating an ever more punishing tax system. It’s shortsighted, it’s counterproductive.
Reports suggest Labour may introduce capital gains tax on home sales in the Autumn Budget. It sounds like an easy revenue raiser - but the evidence shows it would slash transactions, gum up housing chains, and could even collect less tax overall. Thread:
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High personal taxes, high student loan repayments, high house prices - a toxic political and economic mix. The rich and powerful suggesting to blithely add to the pile is extremely grim.
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Many such cases
This reminded me of another insane stat:. 78% of noise complaints lodged against Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport were made by a single household.
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Public health lobby has been coming for alcohol relentlessly for a decade now. All I have to say is Jesus turned the water into wine, he didn’t turn it into a matcha smoothy.
Good gravy. Percentage of young people who believe moderate alcohol consumption is "bad for your health" doubled over the last decade.
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I wish I had something positive to write about Labour and Kier’s first year in government, I really do. I am desperate for them to succeed.
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But never mind this horrific failure of public infrastructure. Never mind that there has been no major water storage construction in England in 30 years. You must do more, citizen, because your government will not and/or cannot. No more data centres. No more growth, because that.
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I can’t find official estimates of water usage by different sectors so the emails line is made-up poverty island vibes bullshit. The Times estimate data centres use >20b litres a year. But srsly who cares because water companies lost >1 TRILLION litres to leaks in 2023-24.
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Holy shit it’s real. I am going to fucking LOSE IT.
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£4.95 salmon fillets are locked in plastic security boxes at my local Tesco in London
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I tell everyone I know remotely close to politics here to read his submission to the Covid inquiry. One day I’ll publish my own screed that I drafted on the CS after I left.
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I’m from the other side of politics to Dom but he is 100% right on the issues with the British state. It’s completely broken. Culture. Process. Authority. Everything. Labour made a mistake thinking that things would work just because they weren’t the Tories.
Five years ago, the thought that Dominic Cummings and his ideas would have an influence on Labour would have been unthinkable. But now, some Labour MPs are looking to Boris Johnson’s former SpAd for ideas on how to fix the country. My report for @NewStatesman
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> create a law with a super broad definition of harm.> crippling fines for breaking law.> criticise companies for being risk averse in following law. Not a serious country.
"ministers were frustrated by the “overzealous” application of the law by some platforms, amid suggestions that some companies are intentionally over-interpreting the legislation in order to undermine its credibility." LMAO.
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In London, victims are reminded by the police to not be victims of crime.
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Have the police tried preventing crime, or will other retailers soon be roped in to remind victims about their completely failure to do so?.
🚨 MIND THE GRAB 🚨. A phone is stolen in London every 7.5 minutes. Every 15 minutes in Westminster alone. We want to be part of the solution. So, we’ve launched a campaign to help.
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Look, I know Minority Report is a very overused cliche so I’m saying it in a separate tweet.
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The actual recommendation is a very British-sounding positive duty on every organisation to eliminate racial discrimination, but the language the Commissioner uses is very uhh…
Current race discrimination law places the burden of proof on targets of racism, requiring them to be harmed before charges can be pursued against perpetrators. That has to change, says Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman
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