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Stijn Smismans

@europollaw.bsky.social
312 followers 420 following 128 posts

Prof. of EU law and Governance, Cardiff University. All things EU, democracy, Governance, risk regulation, advocacy, industrial relations, public health, with a little flavour of UK, Italy and Belgium.

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Reposted by Stijn Smismans
Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
New working paper: the Norwegian wealth tax was a huge success. The "exodus" of wealthy people never happened (less than 100 individuals left). Tax revenue increased by 71.5%. No changes in business activity or investment. www.nber.org/papers/w35854
Taxing Entrepreneurial Wealth: Evidence from
Norway, 2021-2025
Marius A. K. Ring
WORKING PAPER 35854|
DOl 10.3386/w35854
ISSUE DATE October 2026
Whether imposing higher taxes on business owners adversely affects business activity by constraining investment and inducing capitalist flight is a central question in the ongoing debate on how to tax the ultra wealthy. To shed new light, I exploit a series of related Norwegian reforms during 2021-2024 that increased dividend tax rates, removed migration-related capital gains tax loopholes, and nearly doubled the effective marginal tax rate on business wealth. These reforms spurred international debate and, allegedly, an "exodus" of Norwegian billionaires (Financial Times,
2023). While I document clear effects on migration, these responses are concentrated among the top 0.1% of the wealth distribution and mostly confined to 2022 and 2023. My results indicate that at most 100 individuals left due to the reforms. I find no evidence of significant outmigration or reduced inflows of startup founders or inventors. I estimate that absent any outmigration, wealth tax revenues would have increased by 75% from 2021 to 2024. Reform-driven outmigration lowers the revenue gain to 71.5%. My findings further show that outmigrating owners' firms remain economically active and do not reduce investment. In a broader set of analyses, I examine whether business outcomes are affected, regardless of whether owners outmigrate, since firms may reduce investment both due to liquidity constraints or distortions to owners' savings decisions. I compare firms owned by Norwegian individuals subject to the wealth tax with firms owned by foreigners and other tax-exempt entities. By merging historical ownership data from Orbis with the Norwegian shareholder register, I perform these analyses on both Norwegian and foreign-domiciled firms.
Across settings, I find no evidence that Norwegian-owned firms pay out more dividends or invest less after the reforms,…
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Adam Kinzinger @adamkinzinger.substack.com · 29/07/2026
A mother gave the government her fingerprints, tax records, and DNA to get her 6-year-old daughter back. She did everything officials asked. ICE used that information to find and arrest her. A child welfare system became a deportation tool. open.substack.com/pub/adamkinz...
open.substack.com
ICE Turned Family Reunification Into A Deportation List
A program created to place migrant children with relatives has become a pipeline for deportation arrests.
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Esther @elhopkins.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
And what does long Covid look like? Well it could be your neighbour with heart problems or a child with a persistent chronic lung problem. Or a friend with mental health problems. And there is a huge failure to inform on Post infection risks. www.wbur.org/news/2026/06...
wbur.org
The scope of long COVID is bigger than we think, Mass. researchers say
The disease has always been tricky to define. A study from Mass General Brigham suggests the healthcare system is missing millions of long COVID cases.
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Dr Elisa Perego @elisaperego78.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Six years ago today the term #LongCovid was first used as a Twitter hashtag. A single tweet by a patient linked together a growing grassroots movement of people, who weren't recovering from covid. Across the world, we're still fighting for research and treatment of our disease
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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
🔴 Keir Starmer promised to crackdown on "Slapps" - abusive libel cases to silence journalists and critics Then Labour quietly dropped it We can reveal why: a three-year lobbying blitz by libel lawyers who've acted for Russian oligarchs, Epstein + more democracyforsale.substack.com/p/how-lawyer...
democracyforsale.substack.com
How lawyers to the super-rich strangled Labour's Slapp bill
Exclusive: A discreet lobbying campaign by lawyers who have acted for oligarchs and the super-rich told government that reforming England's libel laws was too difficult.
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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 29/01/2026
baffling that the media isn’t making more of an issue out of how carney is gutting key federal agencies/depts and what that’s going to mean for gov capacity when we’re supposed to be more independent and capable. food inspection, health canada, statscan, global affairs — all being cut, and more
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Congresswoman Delia C. Ramirez @ramirez.house.gov · 26/01/2026
The officer who shot Alex worked for DHS for 8 years. The officer who shot Renee worked for DHS for over 10 years. Both are considered “highly trained.” The problem isn’t "training." DHS was built to violate our rights and has been empowered to act with impunity. We must MELT ICE and dismantle DHS.
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Jacqueline Sweet @jsweetli.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
Alex Pretti, the man killed by federal agents today in Minneapolis, appears to have been a registered nurse, an athlete, a son and a brother, with ties to Colorado and Wisconsin. Here is a photo he used for several accounts.
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Julia Partheymüller @schnizzl.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
Latest ChatGPT model uses Elon Musk’s Grokipedia as source, tests reveal Guardian found OpenAI’s platform cited Grokipedia on topics including Iran and Holocaust deniers www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
Latest ChatGPT model uses Elon Musk’s Grokipedia as source, tests reveal
Guardian found OpenAI’s platform cited Grokipedia on topics including Iran and Holocaust deniers
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molly conger @socialistdogmom.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
they're executing moms and nurses in the street. they're using preschoolers as bait. they're stealing people's dads and grandmas and children. they're tear gassing babies. they're staking out schools. there is no remedy but abolition. any proposal that doesn't start there is an act of violence.
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Max Berger @maxberger.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
I hope that Democrats realize what’s happening in Minnesota is also a dry run for what the regime has planned for the midterms.
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Nicolai von Ondarza @nvondarza.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
Here is only at first paradoxical reaction I believe we will see more of - AfD member of the Bundestag Kay Gottschalk argues the US tariffs over Greendland call for more European sovereignty, a European military alliance, a German nuke and ends his video with the slogan "Long live Europe".
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404 Media @404media.co · 15/01/2026
SCOOP: Internal ICE material and testimony from an official obtained by 404 Media provides the clearest link yet between the technological infrastructure Palantir is building for ICE and the agency’s activities on the ground. Inside the app called ELITE—what ICE uses to find neighborhoods to raid.
404media.co
‘ELITE’: The Palantir App ICE Uses to Find Neighborhoods to Raid
Internal ICE material and testimony from an official obtained by 404 Media provides the clearest link yet between the technological infrastructure Palantir is building for ICE and the agency’s activit...
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Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Breaking NYT: The Pentagon used a secret aircraft painted to look like a civilian plane in its first boat attack, according to officials briefed on the matter. The laws of armed conflict forbid combatants from feigning civilian status. That is a war crime called "perfidy."
nytimes.com
U.S. Attacked Boat With Aircraft That Looked Like a Civilian Plane
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Stijn Smismans @europollaw.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
We underestimate how dangerous Starmer 's 'pragmatism' is for the country
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Ben Crum @bencrum.nl · 19/12/2025
. @vkreilinger.bsky.social: "Is the #EU24 the new EU?" I have mixed feelings about the "solution" used yesterday to provide the 90 bn loan to Ukraine On the one hand, this is the way that the European Council should have handled the Hungary-problem for long; much better than "bribing" them ...
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David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
Good piece on Miliband’s achievements here. The only point I would make is that decarbonising the grid is the easy part of achieving net zero. We’ll have to see what happens when people have to change their behaviour app.prospectmagazine.co.uk/story/71896/...
app.prospectmagazine.co.uk
What is Labour actually good at?
In a government of few policy successes, one portfolio stands out
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Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
YouTube channels spreading fake, anti-Labour videos have amassed more than a billion views this year, as opportunists attempt to use AI-generated content to profit from political division in the UK www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
YouTube channels spreading fake, anti-Labour videos viewed 1.2bn times in 2025
Exclusive: More than 150 anonymous channels using cheap AI tools to spread false stories about Keir Starmer, study finds
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Gabriel Zucman @gabrielzucman.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
Now with the same productivity as the US, “core EU” also has more leisure time, higher life expectancy, less inequality No matter how you look at it, it is a clearly superior economic performance
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lucynoakes1.bsky.social @lucynoakes1.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252: Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email. Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk
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Long Covid Advocacy @longcovidadvoc.com · 11/12/2025
❌ Punitive Attendance Policies are unlawful discrimination. 👉 They breach the Equality Act ignore DfE guidance, and are a safeguarding & public health issue. Schools should not punish children for illness especially during a flu surge. What we received today 😓👇
A screenshot of a school announcement titled "Detentions" and dated "Dec 11 2025". The text reads: "Please make sure detentions are attended on the day they are set or they will be escalated. The criteria for attending Prom will be announced after Christmas but will include: attending detentions on the day set, attendance being over 95% and positive behaviour." The last part of the sentence, "attendance being over 95% and positive behaviour," is highlighted with a transparent red underline.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
This is what you don't hear every time this junktank appears on the BBC. *Why not?* Great exposure by Sam and @desmog.com
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Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
Covid fraud under the Tories cost the taxpayer £10.9 billion The counter-fraud and error measures during the pandemic under the Conservative Government were accused of being 'so lax they may as well have left the door wide open' www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...
mirror.co.uk
Covid fraud under the Tories cost the taxpayer £10.9 billion
The counter-fraud and error measures during the pandemic under the Conservative Government were accused of being 'so lax they may as well have left the door wide open'
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Luke Piper @lukepiper.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
I'm not sure how much it is appreciated that there will be significant emigration coming. Those here on graduate visas coming to an end, the toughening up of skilled worker rules re. salaries/sponsorable roles and the 'earned settlement' changes to come. Lots of people are going to leave.
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Leana Hosea @leanahosea.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Israel attacked Palestinian water sources over 250 times in 5 years, data reveals. Armed forces & settlers used bombs, dogs, poison & machinery to attack people & infrastructure. It's "an important part of a genocidal strategy" says Pedro Arrojo-Agudo www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
theguardian.com
Israel attacked Palestinian water sources over 250 times in five years, data reveals
Armed forces and settlers used bombs, dogs, poison and machinery to attack people and infrastructure at key sites
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Jannik Jansen @jannikjansen.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Today’s Omnibus vote has rolled over an already perforated cordon sanitaire in the European Parliament. For the first time, the EPP sided with far-right groups on a file key to the Commission’s agenda. Make no mistake: this was no accident and it’s unclear whether the centrist coalition can recover🧵
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Dr Rachel Broady @drrachelbroady.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
It's not a grassroots working class movement. "Wherever we looked for prominent flaggers and leaders of this movement, we found people smugglers and sex doll salesmen, people with dubious criminal pasts and people willing to put in a good word for Adolf Hitler." manchestermill.co.uk/the-men-who-...
manchestermill.co.uk
The men who raised the flags
Nigel Farage says this summer’s movement was led by ‘ordinary people’ expressing their patriotism. That’s not what we found
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
It’s not going to be 🇪🇺. And it’s certainly not going to be 🇨🇳. Or 🇨🇦 or 🇬🇧 or 🇯🇵 or anyone else. It’s just going to be lots of needless destruction, on both the scientific and human levels.
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Javi Ibarrondo @jibarrondo.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Exclusive: Future of chronic disease journal in limbo after cuts at CDC | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪
science.org
Exclusive: Future of chronic disease journal in limbo after cuts at CDC
Researchers dismayed by the targeting of Preventing Chronic Disease’s editorial staff
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Jonathan Hopkin @jonathanhopkin.eurosky.social · 27/10/2025
Amazing how a few TikToks of e-bike thieves can create a completely false impression observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
observer.co.uk
‘Lawless London’ is safer than it’s been in decades
Official data suggests the capital may be safer than at any time in the past half century, comfortably beating other major cities
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Marc With A C @wilch2710.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
No one, especially the bbc this morning, has mentioned how these contracts were set up by the tories.
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
Michael Gove personally intervened to ensure that a Conservative donor's firm was awarded a multimillion pound covid contract. Private correspondence reveals that Ciga Healthcare’s Brexit-supporting owner had pushed Gove to “take control” of the process. The contract was awarded just days later
bylinetimes.com
Michael Gove Lobbied Government Officials to Hand Conservative Donor Multimillion Pound Covid Contract
Private correspondence seen by Byline Times reveals that Ciga Healthcare's Brexit-supporting owner had pushed Gove to "take control" of the process
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
Sunday Times interview Tory "rising star" Katie Lam She is clear she wants lots of legal migrants to be told to "go home" so as "to leave a mostly but not entirely culturally coherent group of people" (The interviewer suggests she is scrapping ILR or stripping people of it)
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EuropeanPowell @europeanpowell.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
Given this EXTENSIVE presence across UK institutions, Palantir involvement in Brit Card is not just possible - it’s PROBABLE. MY FOI DEMANDS ANSWERS ON: ✅ Is Palantir contracted for Brit Card technology? ✅ What’s the contract value & scope? ✅ How will our biometric/personal data be used?
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Sam “The Great Pumpkin” Thielman @samthielman.com · 26/09/2025
When there’s a lot of hand-wringing over how Farage got elected in a little while, this will be the answer. When you ask people if they want fascism or diet fascism they’re never going to pick the low-calorie version
The Celegraphy
Log in
News Sport Business Money Opinion
Keir Starmer
The Left ignored immigration fears for too long. It's time to give communities back control
Only a plan for patriotic national renewal led by Labour will counter the rise of the populist Right
Keir Starmer
66 25 Sep 2025, 10:30pm
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Dorian Lynskey @dorianlynskey.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
What a way to live your life. I only personally know (or knew) one person who’s self-radicalised and it’s a sad and horrible thing to watch every redeeming feature burned on the altar of right-wing fuckery. What’s left isn’t pretty
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
The true question right now is whether you believe in the moral character of the British public. If you do, you'll want to have the fight with Reform. You'll believe that the public will hate the idea of breaking up families, spying on & deporting people who've worked here for years.
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Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
Re the new Reform pledge, a sports writer has already got to the heart of the matter better than the politics commentators www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
What is the endgame in this toxic immigration debate: is it friends and neighbours thrown out of the country? | Jonthan Liew
The notion of remigration was abstract, but the right is dragging it towards respectability. If the goal is homogeneous whiteness, they should say it, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Liew
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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
This is why they had to invent ‘Antifa’, as an organisation.
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Oliver @oliver48.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
Not only the BBC is sucking up to hate spewing fascists
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Laurent Pech 🇺🇦 @profpech.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
"The law firms that capitulated to Trump are finally having to make good on their deal with the devil ... By entering into these deals, these law firms have helped Trump to chip away at [the rule of law] and become complicit in his attack on our legal system." www.publicnotice.co/p/law-firms-...
publicnotice.co
The lawyers who caved
Big Law firms finally have to hold up their end of a Trumpian bargain.
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Cas Mudde @casmudde.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
The far-right majority in the Dutch parliament (BBB-FvD-JA21-PVV-SGP-VVD) has just designated “Antifa” a terrorist organization. This is a dark day for Dutch democracy and the final nail in the coffin of the VVD as a serious liberal democratic party.
rd.nl
Kamermeerderheid vindt Antifa terroristische organisatie
Een meerderheid in de Tweede Kamer wil dat Nederland, in navolging van de Verenigde Staten, de extreemlinkse beweging Antifa aanmerkt als terroristische organisatie. Een motie daartoe van Lidewij de V...
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Declan Gaffney @greyskiesthinking.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
Most people working in this area have known for years that DWP's figures on trends in out-of-work benefit caseloads are complete junk but have struggled to find more accurate figures. Ben has now produced an estimated time series and the discrepancy is huge. Nobody should be using these stats!
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Mujtaba Rahman @mijrahman.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
‼️🇪🇺🇺🇦 All eyes are on Trump's second state visit to the UK, yet a far more important development is unfolding in Brussels, where senior EU officials are closing in on a plan to use the roughly €200 billion in frozen Russian assets in Euroclear to support Ukraine
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Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Hallo Trump! Windsor Castle
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Stop Trump Coalition @ukstoptrump.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
FOR WEDNESDAY: Here is the route of the march against Trump & the far right GATHER: 2pm Portland Place (BBC) MARCH: at 3pm RALLY: 5pm at Parliament Square!!
Route map for Trump not welcome demonstration
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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
This is thinly disguised homophobia by Farage. The same far-right figures who have spent years coming for my trans friends & colleagues are emboldened again against anything different from their "normal." Today and everyday I stand with the whole LGBTQIA+ community. Your struggle is my struggle.
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
There is a serious failure in UK govt, politics & media to take sufficiently seriously what Musk said & meant with "fight back or die" = Violence (interethnic civil war) is inevitable so pre-emptive violence - vs migrants, minorities & political opponents - is necessary to avoid existential erasure
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Duncan Robinson @duncanrobinson.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
Shot, chaser Young men more likely to vote Green than Reform. Young men second most progressive group of any demographic. Combined right-wing vote barely bigger than Green vote alone for young men
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