Topic
UK Politics
Where Whitehall policy meets your portfolio, written for the saver who wants to know which way the rules are bending.
Personal finance and politics are not separate fields. The ISA allowance is a political number. Frozen tax thresholds are a quiet policy choice that takes more from you every year through fiscal drag. The CGT-versus-income-tax gap is a political settlement. The state pension age, the LISA rules, the pension annual allowance - all of it is set by people who can change their minds, and almost certainly will.
These articles take the political weather seriously. Frozen Tax Thresholds covers the stealth tax rise running since 2021 that costs an average earner more than the headline rate changes. Gary Stevenson's Wealth Tax and Why the UK Won't Tax Wealth cover the live debate. The Case for a UK Sovereign Wealth Fund takes the long view. Auto-Enrolment: How Britain Became a Nation of Investors is the policy success story.
5 articles
Gary Stevenson's Wealth Tax: The Missing Manifesto
A Citi trader spent his twenties betting against the economy he grew up in and won. Now he's on the BBC arguing Britain needs a wealth tax. The bit of his case that doesn't land.
Auto-Enrolment: How Britain Became a Nation of Investors
Around 10 million UK workers now own global equities. Almost none of them would have signed up. Nobody voted for it. It's the biggest change to British household finance in 50 years.
Frozen Tax Thresholds: The Silent UK Tax Rise
The number of UK higher-rate taxpayers doubled in a decade. No party stood on a manifesto to do it. So how did 4 million workers get there?
The Case for a UK Sovereign Wealth Fund
Norway turned its North Sea oil into a $1.7 trillion fund owned by its citizens. Britain turned its oil into a tax cut, and the windfall is gone.
Why the UK Won't Tax Wealth
A working professional on £110k pays 60% at the margin. A duke passing farmland through the right relief pays close to nothing. Britain taxes income, not wealth. By design.