For those of us old enough to remember Andy Burnham as a not-especially-effective member of Gordon Brown’s Cabinet in the late 2000s, it is sometimes difficult to see what qualities have made some sections of the Parliamentary Labour Party speak of him as if he were a Merseyside Aragorn. To them, after a self-imposed exile, […]
The Liberal Democrats have announced that they want to abolish the Treasury and replace it with a new ‘Department for Growth’, supported by a separate department for public spending. On the face of it, this sounds radical, even refreshing. Britain’s economy has stagnated for over a decade, productivity has broadly flatlined (especially in the public […]
Exactly 42 years ago this week, Ronald Reagan stood in a grand hall at the University of South Carolina, confidently telling new graduates that ‘[there] are no such things as limits to growth, because there are no limits on the human capacity for intelligence, imagination and wonder’. Since that moment, the world’s GDP has increased […]
At the annual Jackson Hole symposium in Wyoming this week, central bank leaders from Japan, the Eurozone and the UK warned that their economies need further immigration in order to fuel growth. According to their warning, ageing populations and declining birth rates threaten long-term economic growth and price stability across advanced economies, and without a […]
Could the promise of taking a chainsaw to Britain’s overgrown state help cut a path back to power for the Conservatives? Just last month, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch expressed her admiration for Javier Milei, who as President of Argentina is pioneering a flamboyant – and radically effective – free-market approach to his country’s economic decline. […]
If someone had given me a crystal ball six months ago and said that Donald Trump was going to unleash ‘Liberation Day’ on the world, I would have predicted catastrophe. A return to the protectionism of the 1930s would be disastrous for the global economy. But in a rather unexpected twist, that has not materialised: […]
1. Growth is the child of capital 2. Ownership and nationhood: the fight for economic belonging 3. The friendly giants: breaking free from our new masters 4. The unchecked and the unaccountable: seizing the economic levers 6. Trust is the precondition for economic growth 7. Out of the shadows: a Conservative tax revolution . A […]
In what has been a week marred by tragedy in Southport and military escalation abroad, we’ve had little cause for optimism. But one story which could have lifted spirits ended up being quite the mixed bag. On Tuesday, the Government released the revised edition of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) – the document which […]
Forty years after the miners’ strike, the politics of Britain’s coalfields have changed dramatically. Once Labour strongholds which repeatedly elected socialist stalwarts like Dennis Skinner, many switched allegiances to help deliver the Conservatives’ thumping majority four years ago. But one thing has yet to change: the scars of deindustrialisation still run deep in ex-mining communities, […]
No matter who is marking the homework of our education system, there’s one consistent area that shows room for improvement: preparing people for jobs. From schools, to universities and further education, if Labour and the Conservatives agree on one thing it’s that the main purpose of education is to lead people into fulfilling careers. But […]
The latest international tax competitiveness rankings, published annually by the US-based Tax Foundation, came out this week. As usual, they did not make for pretty reading in Britain. In 2023, the UK has slipped three places to 30th on the overall ranking – out of 38 OECD countries. That puts us comfortably behind our G7 […]
A week ago today, the furore over a low value terror suspect slipping out of HMP Wandsworth obscured an important announcement by the Home Secretary on improvements to how we stop people becoming violent extremists in the first place. Suella Braverman made a statement in the House of Commons on progress to implement the recommendations […]
What is the point of university? The Victorians saw it either as a way of transmitting the knowledge of the best that mankind had written or done down the generations, or as a way of keeping up with the scientific powerhouse of a newly united Germany. The idealists and meritocrats of the post-war era saw […]
Motorists have been hit hard by the energy crunch. They’re feeling the squeeze from soaring household bills and petrol prices rising to near £2 a litre. It’s a punishing set of problems which is costing families a fortune. If we are going to tackle the cost of living crisis, drivers must not be left behind. […]
Yesterday’s Queen’s Speech aimed to finally put some meat on the bones of the Government’s flagship ‘Levelling Up’ agenda by handing more power to local communities. This is to be achieved through new ‘County Deals’ – essentially, a new form of combined authority. Other measures include giving greater powers to bring vacant properties back into […]
With Covid restrictions finally lifted, the country’s attention is turning from public health back to the economy. Cost of living pressures, the balance between tax, spending and debt, and the pressing need to raise Britain’s mediocre long-term growth rates are once more at the forefront of the policy debate – and rightly so. Britain faces […]
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