Hugo Harvey, Author at Charlie Alford

Gary Stevenson’s wealth tax vs Dan Neidle’s land value tax: the difference explained

Post author:Hugo Harvey
Post published:10 August 2026
Post last modified:10 August 2026

Gary Stevenson has been dismantling “childish” arguments against a wealth tax for years on YouTube. His Channel 4 documentary, How to Get Filthy Rich, packaged his arguments as a long-form show for a mainstream audience. Journalists focused on his clash with tax lawyer Dan Neidle, who called Gary’s annual wealth tax proposal “populist claptrap.” The sensationalism around the debate, however, belies a category error: a wealth tax and a land value tax target completely different things, and both can co-exist. Comparing acres and Apple In their discussion, Neidle accused Stevenson of being “unable to separate [his] emotional reaction to inequality with…

The Brick Lane data centre is Labour’s ‘market Stalinism’ in action

Post author:Hugo Harvey
Post published:7 August 2026
Post last modified:7 August 2026

Plans to build data centres have been controversial across the UK, but the latest example comes from Brick Lane. Housing Secretary Angela Rayner approved a £500 million redevelopment of the Truman Brewery on Brick Lane, which will include a data centre. This is despite unanimous opposition to the development from Tower Hamlets council, the local mayor and campaigners. In a borough with over 30,000 households on the social housing waiting list, the council wanted 800 homes on the same site instead. The government’s decision letter gives that plan “no more than limited weight.” Meanwhile, it gives the data centre “significant weight”…

Funny fascism: how Trump launders the unthinkable through jokes and memes

Post author:Hugo Harvey
Post published:4 August 2026
Post last modified:5 August 2026

As the Canary reports, the White House spent last October recruiting ICE agents by using Halo video game memes. It cast agents as space marines and migrants as an alien invasion to be destroyed. Last Friday, at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Trump wore his signature red cap, this time reading “Trump 2028,”, announcing his intention to run for president for a fourth time, which would break the USA’s two-term constitutional limit. He also insisted he had already won three elections, continuing to deny he lost the 2020 election to Biden. The Guardian‘s write-up that night ran under the headline “Donald…

Spain offers Burnham an alternative to Labour’s Danish-style immigration crackdown

Post author:Hugo Harvey
Post published:17 July 2026
Post last modified:18 July 2026

During the Makerfield by-election, Andy Burnham backed Shabana Mahmood’s immigration reforms, aligning Labour’s prevailing strategy to the anti-immigration mood. Mahmood’s position, in short, follows the Danish Social Democrats’ model: harden rhetoric and reduce numbers to take the ground from the far right. Burnham had previously criticised the home secretary’s plans, warning they leave people “in a sense of limbo and unable to integrate”. But he seems to have dropped this concern to appeal to the political context of the Leave-voting, Reform-susceptible constituency of Makerfield. The broader public mood on immigration is, however, more nuanced. Having won the by-election, Burnham now has…

The Left Needs to Stop Running From the Past

Post author:Hugo Harvey
Post published:26 June 2026
Post last modified:27 June 2026

Before Burnham won the Makerfield by-election, he condemned “40 years of neoliberalism.” Blair retorted: “Back to the 70s?” Many voters cried out: “yes please!” And while people are still making their minds up about Andy Burnham, the truth is many people are disillusioned with the present and are reminiscing on the past as a better time, but a fear of sounding conservative is what keeps the left from channeling that energy. In Makerfield, a new party called Restore Britain outpolled the Conservatives on exactly the logic Blair mocks: that something was taken from us, the proper order of things was broken,…