As a lot of new people seem to be joining here, I thought I should have a go at an #introduction.
I am I guess a bit unusual in having been a serial entrepreneur, and a business advisor, but also a life-long socialist. I started my first business while still at school, and another at university; then I discovered social enterprise - using business models and methods not for private gain, but for common benefit. I got involved in the wholefood co-op and radical bookshop movements, then went on to work in social enterprise development, setting up a co-operative specialising in organisational structure design, writing a number of technical guides on this, and on how to restructure conventional organisations as co-ops and social enterprises - and indeed advising on some of the largest transformations to social enterprise in the UK. I went on to work internationally on the development of legislation and financial support for social enterprise, both for governments and international aid bodies.
Throughout I also worked with universities, first in cultural history and then in social enterprise. Alongside my PhD I taught on the Keele University 'American Mind' course - a broad cultural survey course. I've studied many aspects of history, culture and the arts - and been a part-time practitioner in both pottery and music (guitar) - but my main early focus was on literature. Later, naturally, I became more involved in teaching and researching social enterprise development, working with a number of universities and other organisations.
#socialenterprise #coops #companylaw #business #economics #universities #culture #arts #literature #history
I was interested in this story that the enormous French multinational Capgemini immediately decided to sell off a US subsidiary when it discovered it was contracting with ICE - https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2026/02/01/french-it-giant-capgemini-to-sell-us-subsidiary-after-row-over-ice-links_6750021_7.html
Is the US becoming a toxic investment environment even to multinational corporations ?
@lostsettler@mastodon.scot
You're wrong - there are always non-zero-thresholds for tax - if you think it through you'll see why there must always be thresholds. This Labour government very clearly favours the rich, so there is no danger of any dramatic change (nor would I favour that - people plan long term for tax so changes have to be phased in, sometimes over decades).
You also repeat the illogical argument that tax has already been paid. But it hasn't. Person A earns a sum of money and pays tax on it. At some point they die - they no longer exist. Person B is gifted a sum of money (that once may have belonged to A). Person B hasn't already paid tax on it. ALL money previously belonged to somebody else (with the exception of the government. which makes it all) and was almost certainly taxed when it did so - think of money circulating in the economy used repeatedly for VATable purchases.
But you ignore the main point: tax should be paid on all gains, not just 'earnings' - and this is not just for tax justice. If you exempt unearned income you just exempt everybody that is already rich, and ensure the passing on of privilege across generations; you also distort asset values to the disadvantage of everybody except the asset-rich (because you incentivise asset investment over enterprise - ie. earning - so productivity falls, etc, etc - the whole society gradually gets poorer - this has already happened to the UK to some extent because it has been taxing unearned income less than earned income for years).
All of society in the end is better off with a fair tax regime. Believe me, there are simply no rational arguments for exempting unearned income from tax - the incoherent arguments sown in the Tory press are really just covers for greed and privilege, intended to mislead.
I'm not opposed to Scottish independence by the way - nor do I live in the UK anyway - but would be opposed to an independent Scotland not taxing unearned income, because that would simply be shooting itself in the foot.
"Britain is broken, though not in the way most commentators perceive it. This is a nation in which thousands of children live in “almost-Dickensian” poverty, in the words of a recent report from the children’s commissioner for England. In which welfare benefits have covered the cost of essentials in only two out of the past 14 years (those two being the Covid years, when claimants received a universal credit uplift). In which unemployment benefits are the least generous among OECD countries, with the exception of Australia and the US, and lower, in comparative terms, than 50 years ago.
"It is a nation in which employees work the longest hours in Europe and in which there is a higher proportion of low-paid workers than in any other OECD country. In which the growth of “flexible” labour markets has entrenched job insecurity and low wages, driving increasing numbers to labour in multiple jobs. In which more than 7 million people live in “food insecure” households. In which use of food banks has soared but many are forced to reject items such as potatoes because the cost of energy makes it unaffordable to cook them."
https://observer.co.uk/news/opinion-and-ideas/article/britains-social-fabric-has-been-torn-but-its-just-easier-to-blame-immigration
@junesim63@mstdn.social
There has always been a struggle over allotments. Surprisingly, perhaps, it was central to early trade unionism, as documented in Joseph Arch's autobiography 'From Ploughtail to Parliament'. Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries landowners tried to stop workers having allotments, or even large gardens, because they would grow food - and any contribution to making workers less dependent on wage labour was fiercely resisted by their bosses.
@junesim63@mstdn.social
This is, incidentally, the main reason US corporations resist the introduction of a proper state health car system, even though it is clear that it would be cheaper than the insurances costs for them. They choose the more expensive option - lose money - but what they really want workers totally dependent on their jobs.
It's also the reason they ignore the many proofs that a social safety net is cheaper than dealing with the problems arising from not having one - for example simply giving people homes is cheaper than dealing with homeless people in other ways - but it takes away the fear of losing your home,, and what bosses want most is dependent, compliant workers.
Amnesty International has warned the Metropolitan Police that they will be in breach of international human rights law if they arrest peaceful protesters at tomorrow's 'Lift the Ban' protest in London - especially as the legality of the UK's proscription of Palestine Action is itself under judicial review in the UK now.
"Arresting people on terrorism offences for peacefully holding a placard flies in the face of international human rights law."
"Chemical pollution a threat comparable to climate change, scientists warn" - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/06/chemical-pollution-threat-comparable-climate-change-scientists-warn-novel-entities
Are we putting too much emphasis on climate change, when what's really happening is a broad climate-ecological breakdown ?
The problem with the focus on climate is that it may be amenable to technological solutions - but the broader crisis, encompassing other forms of pollution, soil degradation/erosion, deforestation, etc, can clearly only be mitigated by more fundamental changes to our lifestyles/economies.
Great (but alarming) photo in The Guardian now...
As a lot of new people seem to be joining here, I thought I should have a go at an #introduction.
I am I guess a bit unusual in having been a serial entrepreneur, and a business advisor, but also a life-long socialist. I started my first business while still at school, and another at university; then I discovered social enterprise - using business models and methods not for private gain, but for common benefit. I got involved in the wholefood co-op and radical bookshop movements, then went on to work in social enterprise development, setting up a co-operative specialising in organisational structure design, writing a number of technical guides on this, and on how to restructure conventional organisations as co-ops and social enterprises - and indeed advising on some of the largest transformations to social enterprise in the UK. I went on to work internationally on the development of legislation and financial support for social enterprise, both for governments and international aid bodies.
Throughout I also worked with universities, first in cultural history and then in social enterprise. Alongside my PhD I taught on the Keele University 'American Mind' course - a broad cultural survey course. I've studied many aspects of history, culture and the arts - and been a part-time practitioner in both pottery and music (guitar) - but my main early focus was on literature. Later, naturally, I became more involved in teaching and researching social enterprise development, working with a number of universities and other organisations.
#socialenterprise #coops #companylaw #business #economics #universities #culture #arts #literature #history
GeofCox