Alex Collinson

@alexcollinson

Research and analysis officer at the TUC.

355 Siguiendo639 Seguidores341 Publicaciones

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Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· Jul 16

A lot of chat about who is to blame for the England defeat and its time to come clean: it is entirely my fault.

Message from eight pm, where I tell a friend I’m confident about the match

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· Jul 10

Seems like a good place to post this as bsky must have the highest density of policy officers of any social media platform: TUC looking for a policy lead for employment rights and labour markets. A nice team. Key experience needed in screenshot. www.tuc.org.uk/jobs/policy-...

What key experience, skills, knowledge and understanding do you need?
You will need:
Experience in evidence-based policy development on issues related to employment rights and/or labour markets
Ability in writing in a compelling and accessible style whether it is a blog for the TUC’s website or a detailed response to a government consultation
Confident skills in evaluating and communicating a range of data sources from legal material to quantitative data
If this is you, then take a look at our job description and person specification.

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· Jul 6

Four match ban probably

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· Jul 1

Very unsurprising to see a former Goldman Sachs economist come out against taxing bank profits, but good to see it balanced out with TUC general secretary Paul Nowak explaining why increasing the tax on bank profits makes sense. www.ft.com/content/fc5a...

Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, argued that Burnham could raise £9bn over four years simply by reversing the previous Conservative government’s cut to the so-called bank surcharge.

Paul Nowak of the TUC said Andy Burnham would need to ‘take on vested interests’ © Anna Gordon/FT
“I don’t think there’s any value at all in an incoming prime minister, if you’re keeping his hand on the handbrake,” he told the FT, arguing that Burnham would need to “take on vested interests” and “send a very clear signal to the public of whose side you’re on.”

Nowak, the TUC chief, said banks could easily afford to pay more tax given they had handed out record bonuses in the last year, as a period of higher interest rates boosted the sector’s profits.

Additional tax of £9bn would be enough to offer two-thirds of households “emergency” protection from rising energy bills and introduce a permanent “social tariff” lowering bills for a majority, the TUC estimates.

A more radical move to impose a 35 per cent surcharge on bank profits, matching the Conservatives’ windfall tax on energy companies, could raise £60bn over four years, it said.

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· May 19

2010 Sunday Times Rich List write up has this almost impressively detached from reality Everything Is Great introduction.

Fortunes in Britain are soaring as the world recovers from the 2008-09 crash. Stock markets are up, the banks are back from the brink and economic confidence is blossoming. As a result, the collective wealth of the 1,000 multimillionaires in the 2010 Sunday Times Rich List has climbed to £335. 5 billion, up £77. 265 billion on 2009 .

This is a 29.9% increase, easily the biggest annual rise in the 22 years of the Rich List. This sharp improvement comes ahead of a general election looming in just 11 days . With hefty public spending cuts and tax rises needed to cut government borrowing — whichever party wins power — the notion of the rich recovering so quickly from the near meltdown could become a potent political issue in the final days of the campaign.

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· May 15

Unintentionally funny bit of the Jamie Vardy documentary where they’re talking about the Nigel Pearson sacking as mysterious and out of the blue and no one gives any context and it’s very

Simpsons screenshot: note: poochie died on the way back to his home planet.

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· May 15

A chart from The Sunday Times showing the total wealth of the top 250 entries on its rich list since 2000. After the financial crisis, the average person saw the worst real pay crisis in over two centuries and the worst era of living standards on record. The wealth of billionaires rocketed.

Sunday times chart showing the total wealth of the top 250 of its rich list since 2000. From 2008 to 2026, it’s gone from just under £200bn to around £740bn

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· May 5

Dusted off and updated an old chart from the days of twitter to add a different angle to this. The numbers of pints you can buy with the average weekly wage has been in long term decline, taking a real hit during the post-2008 pay crisis, with some slight recent improvement.

Chart showing pints per average weekly earnings starting in 1987. It drops from around 170 in the late 80s to 145 in 2024.

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· May 4

duck at the counter, absolutely kicking off

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· Apr 28

I think the IFS report is fairly interesting and nuanced, even if I don't agree with all of it. Its not supportive of an annual wealth tax, but clear support for reforming and raising capital gains and inheritance taxes (mentioned in article), as well as some support for a one-off wealth tax.

Miller said politicians concerned about wealth inequality should tax the income streams by which wealth was generated, including capital gains and inheritance. They should also look at underlying, interrelated inequalities in education, health, work and regional prosperity.

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· Apr 15

Not even real butter?

In perhaps the most shocking case before the kebab incident, a woman from Argentina ended up paying 20,000 reais (nearly £3,000) for a margarine-coated corn on the cob which should have cost 20 reais (about £3).

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· Apr 15

Don't worry guys, the banks and the oil companies are still doing okay.

FT headline: Wall Street banks set to report $40bn trading haul as Iran war rekindles volatility

Guardian headline:
$30m an hour: big oil reaping huge war windfall from consumers, analysis finds

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· Mar 24

Seems very generous to the banks to say they're raising mortgage interest rates due to "expectations" rather than, and call my cynical here if you must, due to the chance to make more money.

Expectations that the Bank will raise rates several times this year has driven up the cost of fixed-rate mortgages and is having a “catastrophic impact” on the home loans market, the comparison site Moneyfacts said.

The average two-year fixed residential mortgage rate on Monday was 5.43%, up from 5.35% on Friday – the highest level since February 2025, and up from 4.83% at the start of March.

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· Mar 11

Imagine finally winning best mum in the world only to find out you’re now up against mums in galaxies you’ve never even heard of.

Two Mother’s Day cards: best mum on the planet, best mum in the universe.

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· Dec 27

Big fan of the large but helpful human-like toilet roll that helps you find nearby toilets in Lewisham.

Cartoon of a large toilet roll helping someone find a toilet.

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· Dec 3

People complaining about having an old listening age, but this is somehow more embarrassing.

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· Dec 2

I know it came out a couple of weeks back, but still find the section of the latest report from the covid inquiry depressing but unsurprising. Despite clear advice on the need for better financial support for people to self-isolate, the treasury and the chancellor just ignored it.

Despite clear scientific advice, and despite many considering that the provision of
financial support to encourage adherence to testing and self-isolation policies was
necessary, the Inquiry heard that such provisions were “heatedly debated in
government”.144 Professor Whitty summarised:
“Treasury were generally not convinced by these arguments in favour of
payments for working people who were self-isolating and who were not
otherwise paid for that time.” Rishi Sunak MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer from February 2020 to July 2022,
confirmed to the Inquiry that he was: “sceptical that [financial provision] would make a significant difference to the
levels of people self-isolating”.

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· Nov 27

My eyes called?

Screenshot of promo message from specsavers that starts with “hey Alex, your eyes called”

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· Nov 5

very funny but bizarre to complain about social media and technology making people more disconnected while also secretly filming strangers and putting the videos online in an attempt to get followers.

Given Roh’s reservations about smartphones, the irony that his entire body of work is filmed and parsed through a screen is not lost on him. “The world is so disconnected,” he says. “We’re just consumed by our phones and our AirPods. You think it’s just gen Z and gen Alpha, but it’s everyone now. Age is not even a defining factor. But doing what I do, it’s a way of getting out, an activity, so I’m walking with purpose.”

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· Oct 23

New Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) out this morning. Pay growth over the past year highest among lowest earners (likely due to min wage rises) and highest earners (some big pay growth in finance industry this year). Median real pay growth at 1.3%.

Chart showing percentage change in real earnings on year, by deciles and quartiles. Real pay growth is highest in 90th decile (3%) and 10th decile (2.6%). At the median it's around 1.3%.

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· Oct 14

Cafe near the office has celebrity quotes along the window and I feel like there’s a real vibe shift by the time you get to the third one.

Live for today, plan for tomorrow, party tonight. - Drake

Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. - John Lennon

Best place for the ultimate fry up - Gordon Ramsay.

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· Oct 9

A reminder that we're only just out of a 16-year real pay crisis. Real average weekly pay (pay once you take inflation into account) only returned to it's 2008 level last year. Even now, we're only £9p/w above it. Real weekly pay would be £298 higher if it had grown at pre-crisis rates since 2008.

Chart showing real average weekly wages since Jan 2000. Described in post.

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· Oct 6

Reading Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin

Viral tweet “dudes can literally just sit around and name old football players and just have the best time” but “dudes” is replaced with food writers and “old football players” is replaced with “meals they’ve eaten”

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· Sep 24

Does it?

Screenshot from guardian review:
It sounds like the setup to a joke: a viral author and a global virus walk into a novel.

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· Sep 23

A bit intense for the side of a takeaway coffee cup.

Coffee cup that says “you deserve absolutely everything you’ve ever dreamt of”

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· Jul 8

Unsurprising to see City AM being against a wealth tax, but a bit surprising to see the editor using income tax stats to make a point about a wealth tax.

screenshot from city am editorial: "Why wouldn’t Downing Street rule out a wealth tax? It isn’t difficult, you just say “we will not introduce a wealth tax” and the show moves on.

Instead, when asked about the growing clamour in Labour circles for new tax aimed squarely at the well-off, Downing Street’s spokesperson simply talked about the need for “the wealthiest in our society to pay their fair share of tax.”

I suspect the government and I are at odds over what constitutes a fair share. The top five per cent of earners (£100,000 plus) currently account for 48 per cent of revenue generated by income tax. The top one per cent (those on more than £213,000) account for 28 per cent. The idea that this group represents an under-tapped resource is laughable."

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· Jul 7

Thought this was a good, interesting article on the wealth ‘exodus’ and some of the dodgy data and reports around it. But odd to see this line on supporters of wealth taxes. Polling showing widespread support for wealth taxes across the political spectrum. www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ju...

Such is the concern that Rachel Reeves is reportedly considering softening changes to the inheritance tax aspect of the non-doms clampdown. But that comes amid speculation about more tax rises in the autumn budget, after Labour’s U-turn on its welfare bill left a £5bn hole in the chancellor’s fiscal plan- with wealth taxes increasingly popular among some campaigners and the left of the party.

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· Jul 4

Inequality in healthy life expectancy even starker. Women and men living in the least deprived areas can expect to live almost two decades longer in “good” health than those living in the most deprived areas.

Chart showing healthy life expectancy at birth by Index of Multiple Deprivation decile in England, 2020 to 2022. Source is ONS. For men and women living in most deprived areas, health life expectancy is around 50 years. For men and women in least deprived areas, it's around 70.

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· May 14

a bit harsh from the Dice app.

New from your recommendations: being dead. Check it out

Alex Collinson@alexcollinson· May 14

Two things: 1. Over half of employees get full pay as usual when off sick. Is the assumption that they are all constantly skiving? 2. Is it "skiving" or is it a small improvement to statutory sick pay that will allow employees on SSP to take time off and recover (& not spread illness) when ill?