Changing the Narrative

About Changing the Narrative

Conventional thinking might have us believe there is no viable alternative to capitalism, to how wealth is distributed and money created, to how food is produced, or to a legal system that disregards more-than-human life. Changing the Narrative talks to the people already building alternatives – co-operatives, campaigners, lawyers and economists – and looks closely at how their models actually work, what holds them back, and whether they could work elsewhere.

Publisher

Changing the Narrative

Category

society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

19 Jun 2026

Latest episode

8 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

5 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   8 Sept 2026

   Taxing the Banks: £29 billion in profit, and who is paying for it - Hannah Dewhirst, Positive Money

   When the Bank of England raises interest rates, a bank does not have to do anything to make more money. What it charges on mortgages, loans and overdrafts goes up on its own. And separately from that, the Bank of England pays interest to private banks on the reserves they are required to hold with it – a cost that is ultimately carried by the Treasury. That is the argument Hannah Dewhirst makes in this episode: the record profits Britain’s four biggest banks reported this summer were not earned by doing anything differently, and the public is on the other side of the ledger. Positive Money wants a 38% tax on the profits the banks make from the UK public – domestic profits only, not international or investment banking, which takes the competitiveness objection off the table before it is made. Underneath the campaign sits the thing she says matters more: banks create new money every time they make a loan, which means they, not the government, decide where money in the economy goes. When Positive Money put that to MPs in a poll published in 2017, 85% of them did not know it. Become a member and sign up for the Changing the Narrative newsletter: [https://content.changingthenarrative.media/](https://content.changingthenarrative.media/ (https://content.changingthenarrative.media/) In this episode • Why Britain’s four biggest banks made record profits from rising interest rates without changing anything they do • The interest the Bank of England pays on the reserves banks are required to hold, and why the Treasury carries that cost • Margaret Thatcher’s 1981 windfall tax on the banks, and why Positive Money reaches for it as the precedent • What a 38% tax on domestically earned bank profits would cover, and what it deliberately leaves alone • The point underneath the campaign: banks create new money every time they lend, and so decide where money in the economy goes • How mortgage deregulation turned homes into financial assets, and what happened to social housing alongside it • Who gets the meetings at the Treasury, and how working in coalition changes the odds • Cheshire East, where 21 residents were brought together to write cost-of-living policy and the council adopted most of it • The public digital pound: what a Citizens Bank of England card would mean, and where Visa, Mastercard and Trump come into it • Why interest rates are the wrong tool for inflation driven by fossil fuels and climate breakdown About the guest Hannah Dewhirst is Head of Campaigns and Communications at Positive Money, the UK research and campaign group founded in 2010 in response to the global financial crisis. She studied economics as an undergraduate at Oxford, and says it was joining the Post-Crash Economics Society in Manchester, part of the Rethinking Economics movement, that introduced her to the analysis mainstream teaching had left out. She went on to work for Rethinking Economics, first joined Positive Money after moving to London, spent the pandemic at Every Doctor, and returned to Positive Money, where she now oversees its public campaigning: the supporter network, the petitions, and the stunts outside the Bank of England. Links mentioned in this episode Positive Money (London, UK), the research and campaign group Hannah works for: https://positivemoney.org/uk/ (https://positivemoney.org/uk/) The campaign to tax the banks – Positive Money’s call for a 38% windfall tax, which puts the big four’s combined first-half 2026 profits at £29.2bn: https://positivemoney.org/uk/press-release/windfall-tax-on-colossal-bank-profits-could-raise-pound19bn-in-2026/ (https://positivemoney.org/uk/press-release/windfall-tax-on-colossal-bank-profits-could-raise-pound19bn-in-2026/) Banking on Property (2022), the report on how housing was turned into a financial asset: https://positivemoney.org/uk/publications/banking-on-property/ (https://positivemoney.org/uk/publications/banking-on-property/) The Power of Big Finance (2022), on the financial sector’s influence over UK policy: https://positivemoney.org/uk/publications/the-power-of-big-finance/ (https://positivemoney.org/uk/publications/the-power-of-big-finance/) Who gets the meetings at the Treasury: https://positivemoney.org/press-release/finance-sector-scores-two-fifths-of-treasury-meetings/ (https://positivemoney.org/press-release/finance-sector-scores-two-fifths-of-treasury-meetings/) The poll of MPs in which 85% did not know where money comes from: https://positivemoney.org/uk/archive/mp-poll/ (https://positivemoney.org/uk/archive/mp-poll/) The People’s Panel on the Cost of Living, run with Cheshire East Council (England) in 2022: https://positivemoney.org/2023/05/a-peoples-panel-on-the-cost-of-living (https://positivemoney.org/2023/05/a-peoples-panel-on-the-cost-of-living) Greening the Bank of England’s Collateral Framework: https://positivemoney.org/uk/publications/greening-the-bank-of-englands-collateral-framework/ (https://positivemoney.org/uk/publications/greening-the-bank-of-englands-collateral-framework/) Full show notes and the archive: https://content.changingthenarrative.media/taxing-the-banks-29-billion-in-profit-and-who-is-paying-for-it/ (https://content.changingthenarrative.media/taxing-the-banks-29-billion-in-profit-and-who-is-paying-for-it/) Changing the Narrative has no advertiser, no sponsor and no funder. If you’d like it to keep being made, you can become a member at https://changingthenarrative.media/support (https://changingthenarrative.media/support) Chapters 00:00 Cold open: what MPs don’t know about money 00:45 Welcome to Changing the Narrative 01:06 £29 billion in bank profits and the call to tax them 02:31 Hannah’s route into money and economics 04:27 Growing public awareness that the system is broken 05:19 Can the system actually be changed? 06:00 Countering the power of billionaires and vested interests 07:20 Positive Money in the UK, Europe and internationally 08:46 What Positive Money does: the core work areas 10:53 Green central banking and the collateral framework 13:50 Are the institutions receptive? 15:16 Hopes and concerns about the new UK government 16:36 Why decisions about money are never politically neutral 19:11 Policymakers who benefit from the system 21:24 Working in coalition with other organisations 23:42 The Cheshire East citizens’ assembly on the cost of living 26:30 Would the Bank of England ever run a citizens’ assembly? 28:53 Politicians disconnected from the people they represent 30:07 What the assembly achieved, and why it hasn’t been repeated 31:35 Insider and outsider influencing versus the finance lobby 34:10 The press, the status quo, and getting coverage 37:37 Tax the Banks: how the windfall profits came about 41:25 Will the Chancellor act on it? 43:45 What every MP should understand about money 45:48 Why banks make bad lending decisions 47:28 The public digital pound explained 50:13 Trump, Visa/Mastercard and financial sovereignty 53:32 Who Positive Money reaches, and who it doesn’t 56:04 One thing to take away 56:45 Closing

2. 

   25 Aug 2026

   Corporation tax: How you know if a company is good or bad, regardless of its size | Fair Tax Foundation

   The Fair Tax Foundation built the world’s first Fair Tax Mark: a business opens its books to independent scrutiny, and the Mark certifies that it pays the right amount of tax, in the right place, at the right time. I spoke with its Chief Executive and co-founder Paul Monaghan, and its Head of Accreditation Jamie Boswell, about why they celebrate the companies getting it right rather than naming the ones that don’t, why small-business avoidance may be the under-examined half of the story, and what a company’s tax reveals about the kind of organisation, and citizen, it really is. The Foundation is a not-for-profit based in Manchester, UK, structured as a community benefit society with any surplus locked into its mission. Full show notes, transcript and membership: https://content.changingthenarrative.media/corporation-tax-how-you-know-if-a-company-is-good-or-bad-regardless-of-its-size (https://content.changingthenarrative.media/corporation-tax-how-you-know-if-a-company-is-good-or-bad-regardless-of-its-size) Fair Tax Foundation: https://fairtaxmark.net (https://fairtaxmark.net) Chapters 00:00 Introduction: the Fair Tax Mark, and what a company’s tax reveals 02:07 How the Fair Tax Foundation began, and crossing over from “the dark side” 06:26 Inside the work: celebrating the good, not chasing the bad 09:45 How tax went mainstream, and where the US diverges 16:23 What the Fair Tax Mark actually certifies 22:14 The barriers to certification, and reaching the rest of the world 27:04 Wealth, billionaires and the case for corporation tax 31:01 Profit-shifting at the top: Starbucks, Apple and the Ireland case 33:05 The other half of the story: small-business evasion and the UK “tax gap” 40:50 What needs to change, and why Paul says we’re already winning 44:42 Sanctions, personal liability and organised crime 51:32 Reaching beyond Europe: the first Fair Tax Mark, in Thailand 55:58 Doing right by the community, and the leaders who choose to 58:26 How the Foundation is built: a “commercial not-for-profit” 1:00:29 One thing to take away NOTE: On the Starbucks discussion (around 29:00): Starbucks’ UK retail arm paid no UK corporation tax for the year to September 2024, reporting a loss after around £40m in royalty payments to its parent company. Starbucks says it complies fully with tax law, citing an effective global tax rate above 24% in 2024. Source: The Guardian, 16/04/2025 - https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/15/starbuckss-uk-retail-business-paid-no-corporation-tax-last-year (https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/15/starbuckss-uk-retail-business-paid-no-corporation-tax-last-year)

3. 

   21 Jul 2026

   Giving Nature a Voice: From the Boardroom to the Courtroom - Brontie Ansell, Lawyers for Nature

   A company can go to court. A river can’t. Brontie Ansell of Lawyers for Nature is working to change that — giving the natural world a voice in law, in policy, and even inside the company boardroom. Brontie is a corporate solicitor and the Managing Director of Lawyers for Nature, a UK-based group of solicitors, barristers and academics who take on no human clients, because they treat nature itself as their client. It began, she says, with a coffee at a 2019 conference and a single thought: nobody speaks for the trees. In this conversation we get into what a nature director actually does on a company board (she sat on the boards of Faith in Nature and House of Hackney), why company law holds so much unused “white space”, the River Standing Bill that could let a river be heard in court, Maidstone Borough Council’s new rights of nature framework, and Ecological Attribution Rights (EARs) — Brontie’s idea for giving a river a stake in the value it helps create. This episode also opens with the more personal, foundational part of the conversation that’s normally reserved for Changing the Narrative members. It was too central to hold back, so this week it’s here for everyone. As Brontie puts it: there’s never one answer, but there is always an answer. Listen and read the full show notes at: https://content.changingthenarrative.media/giving-nature-a-voice-from-the-boardroom-to-the-courtroom (https://content.changingthenarrative.media/giving-nature-a-voice-from-the-boardroom-to-the-courtroom) Become a member and support the podcast at: https://content.changingthenarrative.media/#/portal/signup (https://content.changingthenarrative.media/#/portal/signup) More on Lawyers for Nature: https://www.lawyersfornature.com/ (https://www.lawyersfornature.com/) Chapters: 00:00 Cold open 00:32 Introduction 03:08 Meet Brontie Ansell 03:28 Why company law? The white space nobody’s using 06:48 Do corporations have more rights than nature? 10:44 Why nature needs a voice in court: the guardian model 12:56 How Lawyers for Nature began 16:57 Are we waking up to being part of nature? 21:31 When a movement goes mainstream: the risk of greenwashing 23:42 Rewriting the dictionary: the We Are Nature campaign 24:13 Bottom-up or top-down? Nature on the board 27:42 When legislation works: the River Standing Bill 29:25 Maidstone: a council adopts a rights of nature framework 30:39 Open-sourcing the work, and refusing to gatekeep 34:09 Inside the boardroom: what a Nature Director actually does 38:06 From less harm to nature positivity 40:07 What they’re experimenting with next: Risks Beyond Human Eyes 45:21 The rabbit in the garden: Ecological Attribution Rights 50:00 One thing to take away: there’s always an answer 51:55 Outro

4. 

   7 Jul 2026

   Written into the constitution: How Italy nurtures and protects its co-ops

   This week, Chris talks to Vera Zamagni, Professor of Economic History at the University of Bologna, Senior Associate Fellow at Johns Hopkins University’s SAIS Europe, and a former Vice President of the Emilia-Romagna regional government. Since 1948, Article 45 of Italy’s constitution has recognised the social function of cooperation, and no government since has legislated against it. In Emilia-Romagna, that helped build an economy where more than 3,600 cooperatives sit alongside a dense network of small, export-focused private firms - Vera says cooperatives now account for up to a fifth of the regional economy once you include the firms they control. In this conversation: the historical roots of the Emilian model, whether cooperatives and small private business can coexist with capitalism, whether any of this can travel beyond Italy, and why Vera believes the greatest threat to the cooperative model today isn’t politics - it’s artificial intelligence. Become a Subscriber+ member to hear how Vera actually found her way into this work, and her years running part of the regional government: https://content.changingthenarrative.media (https://content.changingthenarrative.media) CHAPTERS 00:00 Opening 00:58 The Cooperative Economy of Emilia-Romagna 02:15 The Historical Context of Italian Cooperatives 05:55 The Roots of the Emilian Model 11:21 The Scale of Cooperative Italy Today 16:32 Can Cooperatives Keep Growing? 22:00 Cooperatives and Capitalism: Is Coexistence Possible? 26:08 Can the Model Travel Beyond Italy? 31:45 Resisting the AI Tsunami 33:54 Britain’s Identity Crisis and the Anglo-Saxon Trap 38:44 Culture Before Everything: Growing Co-ops Without the Italian Foundations 47:08 Italy’s Constitutional Shield 50:32 Building from Below: The New York Childcare Experiment 56:41 Cooperation Among Cooperatives: Italy’s Networked Model Full show notes, chapters and further reading: https://content.changingthenarrative.media/written-into-the-constitution-how-italy-nurtures-and-protects-its-co-ops (https://content.changingthenarrative.media/written-into-the-constitution-how-italy-nurtures-and-protects-its-co-ops)

5. 

   19 Jun 2026

   Neil McInroy on community wealth building and Scotland's world-first law

   Scotland has become the first country in the world to write community wealth building into law. Neil McInroy — Global Lead for Community Wealth Building at The Democracy Collaborative, and previously chief executive of CLES — explains what that actually means: who holds wealth in a place, how to make more of it stay, and the five pillars the approach works through, from fair work and public procurement to community finance, land, and inclusive ownership. He traces the idea from Cleveland’s Evergreen Cooperatives to the Preston model and on to the Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Act 2026 — and is candid about the limits: what a framework can and can’t do against data centres and footloose capital, why the legislation caused a pause as much as a surge, and why, on his account, none of it works without an organised movement underneath it. About Neil McInroy Neil McInroy is Global Lead for Community Wealth Building at The Democracy Collaborative, the US-based research organisation that originated the term, where he supports inclusive-ownership strategies and systemic economic reform in the US and internationally. He spent around two decades as Chief Executive of the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) in Manchester, where he helped pioneer community wealth building in Britain, including the Preston model. He has advised the Scottish Government on community wealth building and chairs the Economic Development Association Scotland (EDAS). Further reading The Democracy Collaborative — community wealth building (https://www.democracycollaborative.org/) The Democracy Collaborative on the Scottish law — “A World First“ (https://www.democracycollaborative.org/blogs/a-world-first-community-wealth-building-legislation-in-scotland) Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Act 2026 — full text, legislation.gov.uk (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2026/7/enacted) Scottish Government — community wealth building policy (https://www.gov.scot/policies/cities-regions/community-wealth-building/) Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) — cles.org.uk (https://cles.org.uk/) Chapters 00:00 Understanding Community Wealth Building 04:00 Five Pillars of Community Wealth Building 07:20 Global Expansion of Community Wealth Building 10:44 The Preston Model and Its Success 13:05 Catalysts for Uptake of Community Wealth Building 16:35 Addressing Modern Economic Challenges 18:24 The Evolution of Community Wealth Building 21:33 Community Wealth Building in the face of AI and Data Centres 25:35 Understanding Community Wealth Building and Lessons Learnt 31:12 Building community and becoming activist citizens 32:46 The Need for Real System Change 36:40 Comparison with other alternative economic frameworks 37:32 Engaging with the Marginalised 40:59 Future Prospects for Community Wealth Building 44:50 Being conscious of the needs of the people within a community 47:28 The future of Community Wealth Building 51:09 Is the Scottish CWB Act getting the attention it deserves 53:43 Can the embracing of CWB be expedited Listen & watch 🎧 Audio: https://podcasts.changingthenarrative.media/@ChangingTheNarrative/episodes/neil-mcinroy-on-community-wealth-building-and-scotlands-world-first-law (https://podcasts.changingthenarrative.media/@ChangingTheNarrative/episodes/neil-mcinroy-on-community-wealth-building-and-scotlands-world-first-law) ▶️ Video: https://youtu.be/ofpnimWFoEc (https://youtu.be/ofpnimWFoEc)

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