Which safe and legal routes have been opened?

Yes (and higher earners above the NI ceiling).

But also pensioners with a modest occupational pension too.

It wasn't without downsides, but probably better than alternatives

Also there is nothing remotely honest about pledging not to raise income tax, and then freezing the threshold so that people pay more income tax.

Stealth tax rises are probably more damaging than openly and honest arguing for clear rises.

Part 2 is now live here: open.spotify.com/episode/3Ntz...

Yes, although unemployment had been rising for a long while before then to be fair.

Arguably hiking corporation tax rather than employer NI made more sense (tax profits not employment)

I don't think it is particularly, but left is far from power at this point and is understandably campaigning for policies that don't otherwise get a hearing, i.e. wealth taxes, rent controls, public ownership, etc.

Sneery tone aside, it's not either/or. The UK does have high levels of inequality by European standards, massive wealth disparities and a squeezed working class.

And some of us have been thinking of ways of raising substantial taxes while ameliorating cost of living e.g inews.co.uk/opinion/lowe...