Britain now pays more to borrow than Greece: at the start of October, 10-year gilts yielded around 5.4% against roughly 4.5% for Greek bonds. Little more than a decade ago, Greece was a basket case – at the centre of the Eurozone debt crisis. Yet markets are now demanding higher yields from Britain, prompting many […]
This week, Nimby Watch is golfing in Sevenoaks, a leafy town firmly within London’s commuter belt. Hang on, we’re golfing now? Since when did either of us play golf? Hey, I’ll have you know I placed third in a golfing competition just last month. I take my time at the tee deeply seriously. That was […]
Under Westminster City Council’s planning policies you couldn’t build Parliament today. In the eyes of modern planners, the gothic revival Palace of Westminster would be considered ‘pastiche’ – and Westminster City Council writes on pastiche that: …pastiche designs, which are pale imitations of historic buildings, [are not] appropriate or desirable. There are lines like this […]
As the dust of party conferences settles and journalists try to read the runes of what they mean for the coming political year, two things are already clear. The first is that Andy Burnham’s conference speech was a masterclass in tickling the tummies of his party faithful, with a heady mix of teary emotion and […]
Just as there is a battle on the Right in Britain, so too is there a battle inside the Conservative Party for what the party should focus on. There are those who are concerned about the threat of political Islam, the damage to the social fabric of the Boriswave and other elements of mass immigration, […]
I particularly enjoy a phrase that appears in Christopher Bullock’s ‘The Cobbler of Preston’: ‘Tis impossible to be sure of any thing but Death and Taxes.’ The sentiment was later popularised by Benjamin Franklin in his correspondence. In the world of government budgets, there’s another thing that is, sooner or later, unavoidable: fiscal consolidation. That […]
When William Buckley went on the front page of Time magazine, the title was simple: ‘Conservatism Can Be Fun’. That is what Kemi Badenoch has done at this conference. Conservatism can be fun, can be serious and can learn from its old mistakes. But most importantly, what makes it the world’s oldest party is its […]
This is a highlight from the event programme of the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) – CapX’s parent organisation – at this year’s Conservative Party Conference. You can watch all the panels and interviews on the CPS YouTube channel. The housing market has ground to a halt in London – in large part because of political decisions […]
It has been reported that the UK looks set to follow the example of the EU in imposing tariffs on electric vehicles from China. This would be a mistake, for five main reasons. First, we have to look at the main reason why the UK is considering doing it. The EU is using its proposed […]
This is a highlight from the event programme of the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) – CapX’s parent organisation – at this year’s Conservative Party Conference. You can watch all the panels and interviews on the CPS YouTube channel. The £23 billion [in welfare savings] is just the start. The number will be higher by […]
In the mid-90s, you could save up a deposit for a house in a year; now it takes about a decade. That’s a really meaningful change. That’s a whole stage of your life where 30 years ago you might reasonably have expected to become a homeowner and now that is highly unlikely In a room […]
Andrew Griffith says Britain has already gone over the fiscal cliff. The question now is whether it can pull itself back. In a conversation with Centre for Policy Studies director Liam Halligan, the Shadow Chancellor delivers a clear diagnosis of Britain’s economy: a state consuming 45% of national income, punitive energy costs, rising taxes, excessive […]
Can the Tories’ tough-love welfare plans get more people back into work? Helen Whately, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, joins Marc Sidwell to set out the Conservatives’ plans for reforming Britain’s welfare system – including tougher rules for young people and the long-term unemployed. Whately explains the party’s new ‘Get to Work’ plan, which would […]
Was life really better before industrialisation? Strip away the nostalgia and the past begins to look considerably less idyllic: famine, child mortality, casual violence, environmental destruction and entertainments of almost unimaginable cruelty. In The Grim Old Days, author Chelsea Follett challenges our romantic vision of the pre-industrial world. Here, she tells Marc Sidwell how the […]
Is Britain one geopolitical shock away from a financial crisis? Liam Halligan thinks the warning lights are flashing. The economist, journalist and new Director of the Centre for Policy Studies joins Marc Sidwell to argue that Britain’s growing debt burden, stubbornly weak growth and soaring interest bill have left the country dangerously exposed. So what […]
Britain owes £3 trillion. Daniel Hannan says its rivals have noticed. For centuries, Britain’s military strength rested not only on its armed forces but on its ability to mobilise capital, develop technology and outspend its adversaries. Now, Hannan argues, that advantage is slipping away. With government debt mounting and growth faltering, he warns that Britain’s […]
Will the man who paints himself as the antidote to Thatcherism lead us back to the worst of the 1970s? As Britain’s borrowing costs spiked and Andy Burnham faced MPs as Prime Minister, Marc Sidwell spoke to the economist Julian Jessop about Burnham’s plans – and whether they can really get Britain back to growth. […]
Watch or listen to CapX’s weekly podcast ‘The Capitalist’ wherever you get your podcasts.
This week, Nimby Watch is golfing in Sevenoaks, a leafy town firmly within London’s commuter belt. Hang on, we’re golfing now? Since when did either of us play golf? Hey, I’ll have you know I placed third in a golfing competition just last month. I take my time at the tee deeply seriously. That was […]
Under Westminster City Council’s planning policies you couldn’t build Parliament today. In the eyes of modern planners, the gothic revival Palace of Westminster would be considered ‘pastiche’ – and Westminster City Council writes on pastiche that: …pastiche designs, which are pale imitations of historic buildings, [are not] appropriate or desirable. There are lines like this […]
As the dust of party conferences settles and journalists try to read the runes of what they mean for the coming political year, two things are already clear. The first is that Andy Burnham’s conference speech was a masterclass in tickling the tummies of his party faithful, with a heady mix of teary emotion and […]
Britain now pays more to borrow than Greece: at the start of October, 10-year gilts yielded around 5.4% against roughly 4.5% for Greek bonds. Little more than a decade ago, Greece was a basket case – at the centre of the Eurozone debt crisis. Yet markets are now demanding higher yields from Britain, prompting many […]
Just as there is a battle on the Right in Britain, so too is there a battle inside the Conservative Party for what the party should focus on. There are those who are concerned about the threat of political Islam, the damage to the social fabric of the Boriswave and other elements of mass immigration, […]
I particularly enjoy a phrase that appears in Christopher Bullock’s ‘The Cobbler of Preston’: ‘Tis impossible to be sure of any thing but Death and Taxes.’ The sentiment was later popularised by Benjamin Franklin in his correspondence. In the world of government budgets, there’s another thing that is, sooner or later, unavoidable: fiscal consolidation. That […]
When William Buckley went on the front page of Time magazine, the title was simple: ‘Conservatism Can Be Fun’. That is what Kemi Badenoch has done at this conference. Conservatism can be fun, can be serious and can learn from its old mistakes. But most importantly, what makes it the world’s oldest party is its […]
Even before he became Prime Minister in July, Andy Burnham had talked about the country in institutional, positively mechanical ways. He promised to ‘give Britain the circuit-breaker it needs’, and said that his Number 10 North, part of the Office for the Prime Minister and Cabinet based – where else? – in Manchester, would be […]
On September 29, 1976, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Denis Healey, announced his intention to apply to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $3.9 billion loan, the largest ever requested. Britain, The Economist announced, was ‘bust’. This was a national humiliation, the crux of a decade of economic turmoil. Britain before 1979 was not […]
Britain is looking for the effects of artificial intelligence in all the obvious places: redundancies, vacancies and unemployment numbers. So far, there is little evidence of dramatic change in overall headcount. The Office for National Statistics reports that most British businesses using AI have not changed the size of their workforce, even as AI adoption […]
In the graphic novel ‘Ministry of Space’, an alternate history is imagined whereby Great Britain nabs the Nazi rocket scientists before the US or USSR. Churchill becomes, in addition to his other (real) accolades and achievements, the father of the British space programme that sees us win the space race. There is a particularly poignant […]
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, have called for increased regulation of AI to slow down the pace of development. They warn in apocalyptic terms of the dangers their own technology poses. After Jacob Coxon, a researcher, resigned from Anthropic, stating that he could no longer justify working on AI […]
In the year we celebrate the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith, we must also celebrate the idea that the wealth of nations and the free, fair exchange of goods and services are intricately connected. This idea is what made Britain one of the wealthiest countries in the world and – with one in three pounds […]
It’s only on the basis of truth that power should be won – or indeed can be worth winning. Margaret Thatcher, 1996 It is a hundred years since Margaret Thatcher was born in Grantham. Fifty years since she took over the Conservative Party. Almost 35 years since she was forced from office. Today’s voters are […]
If you’re under the age of 53, no human being has ever left low Earth orbit in your lifetime. Just nine spaceflights, all under the Apollo Program, took human beings beyond Earth orbit at all. And they all took place in a four-year burst between December 1968 and December 1972. Tonight, NASA attempts to change […]
There is much discussion right now about the dysfunctionality of UK politics. This goes beyond complaints about the policy incoherence or ineffectuality of any particular government, whether that be the current one or its Tory and Coalition predecessors. Rather, there is a growing feeling that the political system itself, the whole process of politics, no […]
Ten years ago, the EU referendum created two new political tribes: Leavers and Remainers. As Sara Hobolt and I show in our new book ‘Tribal Politics: How Brexit divided Britain’, both tribes are very much still with us. Even today, about 60% of people in Britain identify as a Remainer or a Leaver, and people’s […]
‘Isn’t it time we stopped talking about her?’ Fifty years since Margaret Thatcher became leader of the Conservative Party, her face, and even some of her iconic outfits, were all over this year’s party conference. Not everyone was happy about that. Hot takes and tweets grumbled about it being time to move on, to pack […]
