It’s a tale as old as time. Home ownership is in rapid decline, while the number of properties available to rent has fallen too. The supply of rental properties is down by a third, pushing rents up even further for tenants who are already struggling. Despite the glaring supply-side issues, politicians decide that the best […]
Yesterday, after heavy consultation, a number of safety reports and trials, and to the jubilation of football fans up and down the country, the Government finally confirmed that Premier League and Championship clubs who wish to introduce licensed safe standing areas will be allowed to do so from the start of the upcoming 2022/2023 season. […]
The Government’s latest idea to help British businesses is to offer tax breaks to companies which buy products or services from British firms. While such flag-waving policies have a superficial appeal, they add up to little more than what we might call ‘murky protectionism’ – they undermine global trade and discriminate against foreign firm without […]
Listening to this year’s Queen’s Speech, it was easy to feel enthusiastic about the opening line: ‘My Government’s priority is to grow and strengthen the economy and help ease the cost of living for families’. Unfortunately, this buoyancy was swiftly deflated as Prince Charles, standing in for his mother, reeled off a number of the […]
With ‘partygate’ fines hogging the headlines, the Government has thrown the British public a piece of red meat with a plan to send asylum seekers to have their claims processed in Rwanda, 4,000 miles away from the UK. Many will see this as a ‘dead cat’ – although the plan has been in the works […]
Sometimes it is not until the consequences of a new Government policy are quite literally staring you in the face, that you realise quite how unpleasant it really is. So it was when I visited one of my favourite restaurants this week to be confronted by calorie counts on the menu; rendering an otherwise pleasant […]
As I write this it is estimated that 2.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine. While the Home Office has now announced that those with passports or ID cards will be able to apply for visas online and give biometric details upon arriving in the UK, this will only apply to those who are eligible under […]
On Monday, the Government suffered four major defeats during the passage of its Nationality and Borders Bill through the House of Lords. Notably the controversial clause 11 – which would allow the immigration authorities to differentiate between ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’ asylum seekers – was voted down by a sizeable majority of 78. It’s hardly surprising […]
