Explores free speech, critical political economy, social movements, monuments, digital media, public space, and social class, but not necessarily in that order.
Joined March 2021
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John Michael Roberts retweeted
New statistics released today show two abysmal new records:
- A record high number of people sleeping rough
- A record high number of households and children living in temporary accommodation
These are the most devastating indicators of the failure of our housing system ⬇️
ALT Graph showing a record high number of people sleeping rough in Autumn 2025
John Michael Roberts retweeted
In our new report with @SocialGuarantee, we lay out a universal basic services approach to housing - to ensure sufficient, sustainable, and secure homes, all within planetary boundaries.
Learn how we can provide good, green homes for all:
neweconomics.org/2025/10/goo…
John Michael Roberts retweeted
#ERSNew 🐣🔓 This article explores how Palestinian university students in the West Bank narrated the precarity of life under Israeli occupation. Article: doi.org/10.1080/01419870.202…
John Michael Roberts retweeted
Last time a Labour Chancellor spoke about financial regulations was to apologise for his role in reducing them in the face of pressure from the City. This was after handing over hundred of billions to bailout the banks because of regulatory failure.
theguardian.com/politics/202…
John Michael Roberts retweeted
"Socialism”
Professor and ‘Godfather of AI’ @geoffreyhinton says that socialist policies are the only way to ensure that wealth generated from AI is fairly distributed
#Peston
John Michael Roberts retweeted
Poorest fifth in England pay 4.8% of household income in council tax; richest fifth 1.5%.
Council tax based on out of date valuations
So many regressive taxes
VAT
Fuel duty
Wages taxed at higher rates than dividends, capital gains.
Need tax justice.
theguardian.com/business/202…
John Michael Roberts retweeted
#OnThisDay in London's medical history: A crowd tries to rescue the body of a soldier executed at Tyburn from dissection, 1770. Surgeons had legal right to bodies of the hanged for medical experiments; friends, relatives often fought to bury the body whole
wp.me/p74yfw-iT
John Michael Roberts retweeted
#OnThisDay in London radical history, 1765: Fleet St bookseller John Williams is locked in the pillory outside Parliament, for reprinting John Wilkes North Briton (which was banned for ‘libelling’ king George III)
John Michael Roberts retweeted
Celebrate a truly great American...
No, not Donald Trump.
Inauguration day is also Martin Luther King Day and a good time to renew his 1967 call at Riverside Church to conquer “the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism.”
See: open.substack.com/pub/theres…
John Michael Roberts retweeted
I have just discovered that my new book, The Fragile Juggernaut: Marx & Engels on Capitalism, Class Struggle and Crisis, all 573 pages of it, is now available as a FREE pdf download brill.com/downloadpdf/displa… - despite not yet being available in hard copy. 😀
John Michael Roberts retweeted
Right to Buy was established 44 years ago today.
Since then, 4 in 10 homes sold under RtB have become private rental housing.
If public housebuilding had continued at the levels seen in the 1970s, we would have an additional 5 MILLION publicly owned homes across the UK today.
John Michael Roberts retweeted
A depressing read, if you can access it. Labour’s had years to think about higher education, but hits government with nice vibes but a stunning lack of vision. 1/3 thetimes.com/uk/education/ar…
John Michael Roberts retweeted
💥 Average rents in England have increased by £107 per month (9.1%), and £207 per month in London (11.2%) between March 23 and March 24.
📉 Survey by @TheFCA found 42% of renters said their disposable income had decreased in the last 12 months and some had no disposable income.
John Michael Roberts retweeted
Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination on April 4, 1968 left behind a vacuum on the American left that has never been filled.
jacobin.com/2018/04/martin-l…
John Michael Roberts retweeted
AGAINST LANDLORDS is out today. I only set out to apply some Marxist thought to today’s housing horrors, but it has (already) proved to be such a wind-up that the Institute for Economic Affairs has labelled me an ‘edgy Maoist rebel’.
I hope you find it useful and/or enjoyable.
John Michael Roberts retweeted
Now NHS is falling apart, services increasingly no longer available and being privatised -think tanks, journals, media , politicians and health unions are waking up. They will wait until it is all over then funding for research into privatisation will appear. Too late too late.
John Michael Roberts retweeted
Is Stealth NHS Privatisation Happening in Plain Sight?
A taxation-funded, largely publicly-provided, universal, free at the point of use service, notionally based on need not the ability to pay, in line with its founding principles. bylinetimes.com/2024/03/19/i…
John Michael Roberts retweeted
The business model of private hospitals in Britain is simple: leech billions out of the NHS in contracts, and when things go badly dump the costs back on to the NHS.
Far from helping the NHS cut waiting lists, they are destroying the NHS. #NHSPledge theguardian.com/society/2024…
