“It’s not that the UK’s debt-to-GDP doesn’t go up. It’s just that it happens on private sector balance sheets, in a more expensive fashion”.

Mathew Lawrence spoke to Will Dunn for The New Statesman's cover story on the disaster of England's water privatisation.

This week’s cover story: The Great Stink by Will Dunn

Inside:
‣ Harry Lambert 🌻 meets Mehdi Hasan
‣ Grace Blakeley in the diary
‣ Wolfgang Munchau: the Gaza war goes global

I wrote about the HMRC Telephony Standards Team, Britain's least popular but most ubiquitous musical act newstatesman.com/thestaggers/20…

'She did more for the profile of the short story than any other modern writer'. Megan Gibson on the incomparable Alice Munro: newstatesman.com/culture/books/…

If you read one thing today, make it this. Just don’t read it over lunch

The stats on Britain's polluted rivers are grim but the physical reality of what privatisation has done to our waterways is something else.
For this week's The New Statesman I spoke to people around the UK about the politics of the new Great Stink newstatesman.com/environment/20…

Remarkable stat from Resolution Foundation: “Real wages have grown almost as much as in the past twelve months as they have done over the previous 16 years in total (2.1 per cent).”

Had a nice conversation with Will Dunn of The New Statesman for his weekend interview: newstatesman.com/the-weekend-in…

The American economist on how neoliberalism put us on 'the road to 21st-century fascism”.

🗣️ Will Dunn meets economist Joseph Stiglitz

newstatesman.com/the-weekend-in…

I asked Nobel prize winner and former chief economist of the World Bank, Joseph E. Stiglitz, about the UK's low tax on wealth (which Labour has 'no plans' to change).
He told me this is 'inexcusable': newstatesman.com/the-weekend-in…

“Neoliberalism has put us on the road to 21st-century fascism,” says Nobel prize winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz

There’s “no ethical or economic argument” for wealth to be taxed at a lower rate than income, as it is in Britain. By Will Dunn newstatesman.com/the-weekend-in…

I asked Nobel prize winner and former chief economist of the World Bank, Joseph E. Stiglitz, about the UK's low tax on wealth (which Labour has 'no plans' to change).
He told me this is 'inexcusable': newstatesman.com/the-weekend-in…

Natalie Elphicke, who has just been welcomed to the Labour Party by Sir Keir Starmer, cruelly and publicly tormented the victims of her sex offender ex-husband Charlie.

She claimed ***after his conviction*** that he had merely been punished for being 'attractive and attracted'

Last month, I wrote about how high street slot machine company Merkur had exploited a vulnerable gambling addict as she battled cancer.

Today we learn where some of the money Merkur punters feed into those slots is going. By Rowena Mason and me.

theguardian.com/society/articl…

I find this idea genuinely enraging

“It’s the government’s money now. You can’t have it back and it will be spent on things you don’t like, such as an overpriced wooden lectern, or a nuclear weapon, or Grant Shapps.”

💰 Will Dunn
newstatesman.com/business/finan…

“Local authorities have lost £80bn in net worth since the Bank of England began raising interest rates in 2021, according to a new analysis by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR).”

🖊️ Will Dunn
newstatesman.com/politics/uk-po…

Fun fact: the MP for Spelthorne is actually well known for his experience with unsustainable debt. Perhaps he could give his local council a few pointers!

newstatesman.com/politics/uk-po…

🚨As voters go to the polls in local elections today, a new report identifies an £80 billion hole in council finances, with 23 LAs at serious risk of insolvency.

One Tory council has debt servicing costs *three times* its yearly income. newstatesman.com/politics/uk-po…

🚨As voters go to the polls in local elections today, a new report identifies an £80 billion hole in council finances, with 23 LAs at serious risk of insolvency.

One Tory council has debt servicing costs *three times* its yearly income. newstatesman.com/politics/uk-po…