Max Khan Hayward

Associate Professor of Philosophy, Uni of Sheffield; Research Fellow, School of Advanced Study, Uni of London; formerly Fellow, Safra Centre for Ethics, Harvard

[Alex Fisher @AlexFisher32]

Some more positive news for today: I'll be participating in this fantastic event on 18th February at Senate House in London - please share with any school students/teachers you know who may be interested!

https://t.co/UUYhpiMTSY

[Max Khan Hayward @MaxKhanHayward]

@Shrink_at_Large Extending the freeze means people pay *more* inheritance tax, not less.

[Max Khan Hayward @MaxKhanHayward]

@s_everson @lastpositivist Agreed!

[Max Khan Hayward @MaxKhanHayward]

@s_everson @lastpositivist Economically, the Starmer enthusiasm for industrial strategy signals a confidence in the role of the state that is probably closer to Corbyn than, say, Blair.

Probably the biggest difference is beliefs about the costs and risks of borrowing, printing money and high taxation.

[Max Khan Hayward @MaxKhanHayward]

@s_everson @lastpositivist Morally, the Starmer comfort with private enterprise doesn't imply acceptance of the rightwing view that profit reflects moral desert and that redistribution is wrong, and the Corbyn desire for nationalisation doesn't imply moral opposition to the existence of all private profit.

[Max Khan Hayward @MaxKhanHayward]

@lking_mirotech @lastpositivist I must admit I find little to like or admire in the UAE's social-economic system.

What makes me a leftist is that my interest is NOT whether a system benefits entrepeneurs, but whether it benefits society more generally. Encouraging entrepeneurs can do that. But it often doesn't

[Max Khan Hayward @MaxKhanHayward]

@s_everson @lastpositivist Yes! Absolutely! And of course our priorities should change over time. When many people are suffering malnutrition because of sheer lack of access to calories our priorities will be different from a situation where obesity and cancers are a greater threat.

[Max Khan Hayward @MaxKhanHayward]

@s_everson @lastpositivist Absolutely! But framing the debate as one between "Radical Left" and "Boring Centre" occludes options between wild-west free markets and centralised state industries (well-regulated markets, industrial strategy, commercialised state-owned firms, public-private competition etc.).

[Max Khan Hayward @MaxKhanHayward]

@s_everson @lastpositivist ...an extremist to think that privatised infrastructure monopolies are frequently inefficient, incompetent and extractive, driving up costs and reducing benefits to ordinary people and the poor.

If we can acknowledge these things, I think it would greatly improve our politics.

[Max Khan Hayward @MaxKhanHayward]

@s_everson @lastpositivist ...treating this as an ideological debate between a monolithically-defined "Left" and "Centre".

It doesn't make someone inegalitarian to think that private interprise often produces innovations that benefit the less-well-off, nor does it make someone...