432 votes to 202. It is the biggest government defeat ever – on the most important piece of legislation of this parliamentary term and many previous ones. Yet the Prime Minister has not resigned. The government is almost certain to win this evening’s no-confidence vote tabled by Jeremy Corbyn. And – yes – the most […]
In Christmas week, CapX is republishing some of its favourite articles of the year. This piece first appeared on February 12. The UK government spent last year urging the EU27 to start discussing their post-Brexit trading relationship. But now that the negotiations are finally due to move on to trade, ministers cannot decide what they […]
Theresa May has finally done it. The bloodied and battered Prime Minister has brought back her hard-won Brexit deal. As she scrambles to secure the approval of her Cabinet and then that of Parliament, the battle lines are already drawn. But these do not involve hardline Brexiteers facing off against unreconciled Remainers, or Conservatives against […]
Britain’s immigration system isn’t fit for purpose. Its political targets are perverse. Its guiding philosophy is reminiscent of Soviet-style central planning. The resulting rules are unworkably complex. Their administration by the Home Office mixes incompetence with malice. The upshot is heavy-handed controls that still leave voters feeling that things are out of control. That’s bad […]
Sometimes it takes a prime minister of Luxembourg to hit the nail on the head. “They [Britain] were in with a load of opt-outs. Now they are out, and want a load of opt-ins,” said Xavier Bettel. The problem for the UK is that the European Union is much less accommodating of its demands for […]
The UK government spent last year urging the EU27 to start discussing their post-Brexit trading relationship. But now that the negotiations are finally due to move on to trade, ministers cannot decide what they want. The latest battle is over whether the UK should remain in a customs union with the EU after the post-Brexit […]
If Britain is to make the best of Brexit, its future trade strategy is of utmost importance. So it is alarming that ministers are relying on the advice of someone who, as Martin Wolf points out in the Financial Times, engages in magical thinking on trade. Shanker Singham has responded to Mr Wolf on CapX, […]
In the history of European thought, the Renaissance was an advance on Medievalism, but still fell far short of the Enlightenment. The same could be said of Theresa May’s thinking about Brexit. The Prime Minister’s speech in Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance, was more reasonable and realistic than her pre-election rhetoric. The tone was […]
The Brexit negotiations are deadlocked, with the divorce bill the biggest sticking-point. Some are suggesting that the Government should call the EU’s bluff and threaten a no-deal Brexit, but as I argued yesterday, to do so would be catastrophically counterproductive. Instead, ministers need to take a deep breath and think strategically. To get out of […]
Michel Barnier and David Davis looked jovial as they left their joint press conference last Thursday. But while the Brexit negotiations haven’t yet broken down in acrimony, they have reached an impasse, notably over money. Hotheads are now suggesting that Britain should “call Barnier’s bluff” and prepare for a no-deal Brexit. But that would be […]
With free trade under threat from protectionists such as Donald Trump, the landmark trade agreement between the European Union and Japan is a huge achievement. While the deal is an outline that leaves some of the thorny details to be worked out, the world’s largest single market and the third-largest national economy have agreed in principle […]
Grave New World – Stephen King’s new blockbuster – conjures up images of Orwellian dystopia and The Walking Dead. But the title doesn’t belong to a new thriller or horror novel. Instead it is a deadly serious warning from a leading economist that globalisation – or at least the liberal, Western-led variety of it – is […]
Britain has a huge problem with immigration – or so many people think. The reality of immigration is generally positive, yet public perceptions are often negative – and that leads to illiberal, deeply flawed government policy. It is telling that while few people think immigration is negative for them personally, many believe it is detrimental […]
It’s official: CapX moves markets! I confess, Twitter trolls: it’s all my fault. The plunging pound. The battered share prices. The property funds that are preventing panicky investors from withdrawing their cash. The deals cancelled in the City. The housing market wobbling. It’s all me. If only I’d known I had so much power over […]
A country that thrives on its political and legal stability is descending into chaos. Honourably, but with his legacy as prime minister in tatters, David Cameron has resigned; the gambler finally lost, big time. His slayer and would-be successor, Boris Johnson, seems taken aback by what his cynically dishonest and dangerously populist campaign has wrought. […]
If membership of the European Union has deprived Britain of its sovereignty and gutted our democracy, how come we, the British people, are having a referendum on whether to leave? The truth is Britain remains free to withdraw from the EU not just on 23 June, but whenever Parliament decides. But Britons should vote to […]
It’s official: Vote Leave has gone all UKIP. Having lost the economic argument, it is now focusing its campaign on immigration. Yesterday, leading Leave campaigners pledged that a post-Brexit Britain would curb EU migration in a specific way: “by the next general election, we will create a genuine Australian-style points based immigration system.” Nigel Farage […]
Vote Leave was planning to run an optimistic campaign, based on economics. But last week’s pasting seems to have put paid to that strategy for now. The Treasury’s study of the hefty economic costs of leaving the EU was widely seen as credible. Vote Leave campaign co-convener Michael Gove’s suggestion that a post-Brexit Britain’s relations […]
You can quibble with the numbers. You always can. But the impact of leaving the European Union is clear: it would make Britain poorer. You don’t need to take the Treasury’s word for it. (And no, they didn’t support joining the euro, so Vote Leave can’t tar them with that brush.) It’s the conclusion of […]
It is normal to feel sympathy for the 15,000 employees of Tata Steel who are set to lose their jobs if the Indian company cannot find a buyer for its heavily lossmaking UK operations. “This disaster isn’t their fault,” as Boris Johnson put it in the Daily Telegraph. But that does not mean the government […]
