Nigel Willmott

Journalist / writer

[Nigel Willmott @WillmottNigel]

I grew up near Andy Burnham. This is what shaped the UK’s new PM https://t.co/3VLZtbYbCM

[NHS Million @NHSMillion]

Number of hospital beds per thousand people according to the most recent figures:

🇰🇷 Korea = 12.6
🇯🇵 Japan = 12.5
🇧🇬 Bulgaria = 8.6
🇩🇪 Germany = 7.7
🇷🇴 Romania = 7.3
🇦🇹 Austria = 6.6
🇭🇺 Hungary = 6.5
🇨🇿 Czechia = 6.4
🇵🇱 Poland = 6.3
🇸🇰 Slovak Republic = 5.7
🇭🇷 Croatia = 5.7
🇱🇹 Lithuania = 5.5
🇫🇷 France = 5.5
🇧🇪 Belgium = 5.4
🇨🇳 China = 5.2
🇱🇻 Latvia = 5.0
🇨🇭 Switzerland = 4.4
🇬🇷 Greece = 4.2
🇪🇪 Estonia = 4.1
🇸🇮 Slovenia = 4.1
🇱🇺 Luxembourg = 3.9
🇦🇺 Australia = 3.8
🇵🇹 Portugal = 3.4
🇳🇴 Norway = 3.3
🇦🇷 Argentina = 3.3
🇹🇷 Türkiye = 3.1
🇮🇹 Italy = 3.0
🇮🇱 Israel = 3.0
🇮🇪 Ireland = 2.9
🇪🇸 Spain = 2.9
🇺🇸 United States = 2.8
🇫🇮 Finland = 2.6
🇮🇸 Iceland = 2.6
🇨🇦 Canada = 2.5
🇳🇿 New Zealand = 2.5
🇧🇷 Brazil = 2.5

United Kingdom…

[Richard Sanders @PulaRJS]

This - in a single graph - is why only rich people can afford houses.

[‏ً @omgsidewalks]

Police DO NOT prevent crime; they respond to it. Crime is prevented by higher wages, guaranteed health care, food security, high-quality child care, housing, good schools, and addiction treatment.

[Nigel Willmott @WillmottNigel]

War is a catastrophe, what happened to the peace dividend

[Branko Milanovic @BrankoMilan]

After this absolutely meaningless war, longer than was WW2 for the Soviet Union, launched light-heartedly by Putin, but with unnecessary tensions and unfriendly moves leading to the war made by both sides, Russia and Ukraine will (if the war ends w/o the use of nuclear weapons) boast at the end of the war the following results.
● About 2 million killed and disabled citizens in total, mostly males which will additionally destabilize gender balance that was already bad.
● Destroyed large parts of infrastructure (heating plants, refineries, warehouses, roads, bridges), and also hospitals and schools, Most of it inherited from socialism which did build things that current regimes have a pleasure to destroy.
● Openly crazy nationalist regimes whose main educational task is to twist history in a pro-fascist direction--while, unlike socialist education, not providing any uplifting and positive message re. the future: ideologies of gloom and hopelessness, of soil and blood.
● In addition to the military losses, both countries will lose millions of citizens who will emigrate for good.
● They would lose best actors, physicists, writers, AI specialists, doctors. In many areas the damage will take two or three decades of peace just to be fixed.
● Ukraine will remain an armed camp, with half of its pre-war population only, and with most of its valuable assets owned by foreigners. It will be part of the EU with constant fights there arguing that no economic aid will ever be a sufficient compensation for Ukraine's human sacrifice.
● Its ideology & art will be extremely nationalistic, with probably being the only country in Europe officially celebrating Nazi fighters.
● Russia will remain for a long time totally cut off (economically, politically and culturally) from Europe which is its natural cultural milieu. It would produce art of ersatz nationalist quality compared to which socialist realism could be considered a top artistic creation.
● Its proponents will mouth-off nonsensical things about Christian values while murder rates, domestic violence, abortion and alcoholism will be at all-time European and Asian peaks.
● Both countries will decline demographically, economically, politically and culturally. And given low population growth rates, it does not seem that they would recover any time soon (I am speaking of half-a-century or more and assuming no new wars).
So enjoy the continued war!

[Labour Left Podcast @BrynHGriffiths]

Ed Milliband was central to preventing the Syria bombing in 2013, he restrained Starmer’s alignment with Trump on the bombing of Iran and Stephen Pollard called Ed’s new role at the foreign office the "most nauseating political appointment of my lifetime".

It is true that the Left mustn’t lose its critical faculties. We must criticise when Ed does things wrong but to carry on as if nothing has happened makes us all sound as if we’re the little boy who cried wolf! A bit more nuance wouldn’t go amiss.

[Nigel Willmott @WillmottNigel]

Burnham completed his ministerial appointments below cabinet level yesterday but the BBC and the "serious" papers don't seem to think it worthy of reporting (can only find it on Politico, Standard and LBC)

[Mark Seddon @MarkSeddon1962]

Typical BBC coverage: 1) Interview with retired military chief: 'We need more defence spending': 2) Interview with ex MI5/MI6 Chief: 'We need more defence spending': 3) Interview with 'economics expert': 'We need to stick to the finance rules' 4) Interviews ad nauseam: 'We need welfare cuts'.

[Nigel Willmott @WillmottNigel]

Finding the money is not a problem, the BoE simply creates it. The challenge is identifying the resources and guiding them to where needed by investing that money.

[Robert Peston @Peston]

Why Healey as chancellor? And can he find the money? https://t.co/R2cV22OJTk

[Nigel Willmott @WillmottNigel]

Ridiculous nonsense, he came to power on a promise of real change from what the previous government offered, of course he would have to change the top team to try and achieve that

[Beth Rigby @BethRigby]

WATCH: Day one & a new cabinet. Burnham made much of ending factionalism only to purge 11 Starmer loyalists from cabinet & leave another couple only just hanging. After talking a good game on unity Burnham’s first act failed to follow thru

By @IzzyLosseff @JoshGafson1

[Richard Murphy @RichardJMurphy]

This is so tedious. Equalising income and capital gains tax rates could also raise £10 billion, be much easier to do, and deliver fundamental tax justice at the same time. Why do a wealth tax when there are so many better ways to deliver tax justice? https://t.co/0AsBZNDK7r

[Press Gazette @pressgazette]

A judge has dismissed all six of UnitedHealth Group’s defamation claims against The Guardian over a story alleging the US health giant made secret payments to reduce costly hospital transfers https://t.co/KJK7qROJbd

[susan abulhawa | سوزان ابو الهوى @susanabulhawa]

I’m proud to announce that we’ve just built another school in Gaza that will be open for 500 more students at the start of the new school year in September. Our schools are 100% free. We also provide books, supplies, and uniforms, as well as psychological and nutritional support.

[Ihab Hassan @IhabHassane]

Yes, those Israelis protesting at the Gaza border are sick and openly genocidal. Their actions and rhetoric deserve the strongest possible condemnation. But calling Israeli society “the most genocidal society on earth” is a disgusting act of collective dehumanization.

You can’t dehumanize an entire population for the actions of a group—we, as Palestinians, know exactly what that feels like. After October 7th, the world rushed to dehumanize all of us because of the actions of a few.

No society is immune to extremism. But Israeli society is also home to people who take to the streets day after day, holding photos of Gaza’s dead children and demanding an end to the war. Even at the Gaza border yesterday, there were Israelis who showed up to confront those extremist demonstrators.

Blanket vilification is lazy, dangerous, and no different from the hatred and racism inflicted on Palestinians. We should reject collective demonization no matter who the target is.

Enough. Stop it.

[Nigel Willmott @WillmottNigel]

Sad to see supposedly progressive think tank whose main priority is to make millions of old people poorer

[JamesSmithRF @JamesSmithRF]

Perhaps the biggest challenge for Andy Burnham is going to be how to balance the books. So here's a thread on the challenges ahead drawing on a new RF report with Simon Pittaway, Cillian Sheehan and Andy King.

https://t.co/hWKPcYGL3Q

[The Iran Spectator @IR_Media24]

Journalist Janine di Giovanni:

"If a missile hits a hospital in Ukraine,
Europe calls it a war crime."

"But if missiles hit a hospital in Gaza and 100 people die, it’s Israel's right to defend itself."

[Labour Left Podcast @BrynHGriffiths]

I was responsible as assistant director for planning at Suffolk County Council - with a few breaks - for around 20 years and I fully endorse what @CHinchliffMP has to say about the National Planning Policy Framework.

“No amount of deregulation will ever satisfy them [developers] – and so it has proven, with the clamour for relaxed fire safety standards, the weakening of environmental policies, and for there to be less opportunity for ordinary people to influence decisions in the planning system as loud as ever”.

We need more and stronger planning that enables local communities to determine the course that their place takes. What we get is deregulation that enables the developers.

[Laurie Macfarlane @L__Macfarlane]

The 2016 sale of ARM to Japan’s SoftBank was a prime example of how the UK’s laid back approach to foreign takeovers has harmed economic sovereignty.

We handed over one of our most strategic tech firms with barely any scrutiny. So short sighted.

[Nigel Willmott @WillmottNigel]

Cuts to the globally respected BBC and NHS, every successful company sold off to foreign private equity, who can make sense of modern Britain

[Mark Seddon @MarkSeddon1962]

Since the BBC is apparently reaching ever larger global audiences, why the cuts? Kind of self-defeating...

[Nigel Willmott @WillmottNigel]

A pretty good framework for real change

[Mark W Tebbutt @mwt2008]

Top 10 policy recommendations to reduce #inequality and restore the social contract in the UK

1. Build a massive programme of affordable and social housing

Housing is the foundation of economic security.

Build significantly more homes every year.
Prioritise affordable and social housing.
Brownfield first, but accept carefully planned greenfield development where necessary.
Build supporting infrastructure alongside housing.
Prioritise first-time buyers over speculative investment.

⸻

2. Reform taxation of wealth

The tax system should reward work and productive investment, not simply ownership of existing assets.

Possible reforms include:

Align capital gains taxation more closely with income tax.
Reform inheritance taxation on very large estates.
Close avoidance loopholes.
Consider a modest wealth tax on extremely large fortunes.
Reduce taxes on work where possible.

The aim isn’t to punish success but to prevent wealth becoming permanently concentrated.

⸻

3. Reform property taxation

Housing should be homes first and investment assets second.

Possible reforms:

Replace Council Tax with a proportional property or land value tax.
Higher taxes on second homes and large residential portfolios.
Discourage speculative land banking.
Tax long-term empty properties.

⸻

4. Give everyone the opportunity to build wealth

The goal shouldn’t simply be reducing poverty.

It should be enabling ordinary people to accumulate assets.

Policies could include:

Easier access to home ownership.
Better workplace pensions.
Employee share ownership.
Government-supported savings schemes.
Support for first-time buyers.

⸻

5. Restore education as a route to opportunity

Education should increase social mobility, not leave young people beginning adulthood with decades of debt.

Reduce student debt.
Invest in apprenticeships.
Expand lifelong learning.
Improve technical education.
Better childcare.

⸻

6. Make work pay again

For many people born after 1990, working full time no longer guarantees the opportunities their parents enjoyed.

That means:

Higher productivity.
Better wages.
Secure employment.
Strong employment rights.
Policies that allow wages to rise with productivity.

⸻

7. Invest in infrastructure and the net-zero transition

Investment creates productive jobs.

Priorities include:

Renewable energy.
Electricity grids.
Public transport.
Water infrastructure.
Digital infrastructure.
Modern manufacturing.

This reduces regional inequality while improving energy security and cutting pollution.

⸻

8. Strengthen competition and reduce monopoly power

Markets work best when they’re genuinely competitive.

That means:

Stronger competition policy.
Prevent monopolies.
Support SMEs.
Encourage innovation.
Reduce economic rents.

⸻

9. Invest in public services

A strong society depends upon:

NHS
Education
Social care
Mental health
Local government
Affordable childcare

Good public services improve both equality and productivity.

⸻

10. Protect democracy from excessive concentrations of wealth

Economic power eventually becomes political power.

Therefore:

Greater transparency of political donations.
Strong lobbying rules.
Proper funding for HMRC.
Anti-corruption measures.
Evidence-based policymaking.
Electoral reform (if supported through democratic processes).