Economist interviewed by Gary Stevenson was trained at the New Economy Organisers Network
Plus: The script that contains Stevenson's wealth tax proposal
In my last piece, I said I would next write about Faiza Shaheen, who appears in the Channel 4 documentary, How to Get Filthy Rich with Gary Stevenson.
Introducing Shaheen, Stevenson says “Dr Faiza Shaheen is the Executive Director of Tax Justice UK, an economist and an advocate for reform of the tax system.” All true, by the way. They warmly embrace and are shown appearing at an event together.
Shaheen, like the NHS doctor in Stevenson’s documentary, is another alumni of The New Economy Organisers Network, a media school that has received funding from the likes of the Open Society Foundations and the European Climate Foundation.
NEON has been keen to show off Shaheen from its “Spokeperson Network”…
.. and she has thanked it for “Some of the best training I’ve ever had, allowing me to hone the craft of media interviews and giving me much more confidence.”
Like I said in my last piece, NEON not only trains activists but has a whole range of messaging guides online, including one on a wealth tax.
I cannot say which activists have read it, but Stevenson and Shaheen have both proposed a two percent tax on wealth over £10 million, a suggestion that’s in the guide.
Stevenson repeats it in his documentary, and Shaheen in an article for The Guardian (more in my piece below):
The proposal initially came from joint research (published in 2023) between Patriotic Millionaires UK and Tax Justice UK, the former of which Stevenson is a founding member of and the latter Shaheen became Executive Director of in 2025.
The research is linked to in NEON’s wealth tax guide, which was co-authored with Paul Hebden, who is now a Communications Adviser at the IPPR.
Previously he was Deputy Director of Communications for Tax Justice UK, which is generally a very big beast in the wealth tax push.
During the documentary, Stevenson says “my proposal is a 2% tax on wealth of above £10 million”.
Is it his proposal, though?
Or the cumulation of lots of activist groups behind the scenes?
To be clear, they’re not doing anything illegal - maybe the Right could even learn from it - but it’s certainly taking a lot of effort to convince people a wealth tax is a good idea!
More:
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