Friedrich Hayek has been accused of many things. His fans have eulogised him as the greatest 20th-century philosopher of classical liberalism, as a deep thinker who exposed the innate flaws in planned economies and who provided the intellectual foundation for the reform programmes of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. His detractors have called him an […]
The US has imposed a 10% tariff on Chinese goods and a 25% levy on Mexican and Canadian goods will come into force in a month. Tariffs on the EU are also in the pipeline at a rate still to be determined. The governments of the targeted countries are planning retaliatory tariffs against the US, […]
When compared to any other point in history the world, we are astonishingly rich. Thanks to the interlinked miracles of expanding trade, free markets and improving technology, the world has a GDP per capita of over $13,000, a tenfold increase in real terms over the last 50 years. That said, far too many areas of […]
They say the best things in life are free. In British politics the second-best things are paid for in a way that doesn’t show up on OBR public spending forecasts. Every major party has now released their manifesto. Each has come with a pious declaration that it is ‘fully costed’ i.e. the spending commitments contained […]
In an interview given to BBC’s Nick Robinson Nigel Farage, TV presenter and newly minted leader of Reform UK, argued that the West had ‘provoked’ the invasion of Ukraine. In an interview with ITV that was released on Monday, Farage doubled down on his position saying: Up until a few years ago the West provoked […]
Private schools are, on the whole, a good thing. They give parents greater choice in their children’s education, provide the state sector much needed competition and attract money from abroad by taking on foreign students. I start with this because where you stand on applying VAT to school fees is often treated as a proxy […]
Political traditions often long outlive the context that created them. In Britain, every year the King gives his speech to parliament, in ancient Rome, the Senate solemnly assembled to select emperors picked by the Praetorian Guard, and last week in Russia, there were presidential elections. The result was not a surprise to anyone. According to […]
On Thursday February 15, Alexei Navalny appeared via video link for a court hearing. Despite having spent three years in prison and over 300 days in solitary confinement he seemed in good spirits and elicited smiles from court officials by cracking jokes about the pay of federal judges. But just 24 hours later he was […]
