Should universities have a say before speakers are excluded from the UK? The Government has cancelled the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) of a controversial left-wing US political commentator, in a move that prevents him from appearing at one of the UK’s oldest debating societies and raises renewed questions about broad and discretionary powers used to […]
Andy Burnham has one prescription, and he means to fill it, whatever the patient walks in with. The man with the broken arm, the woman with chest pains, the child with a fever: each leaves the surgery with the same pad of repeat scripts, which call for higher taxes on the rich, more generous benefits […]
According to reports over the weekend, Rachel Reeves is considering whether a new generation of public-private partnerships (PPPs), the modern successor to the old Private Finance Initiative (PFI), could help Labour’s ambitious plans for a new generation of towns. With borrowing constrained by Labour’s own fiscal rules, debt interest costs elevated and public finances under […]
On June 12, SpaceX is expected to launch what could become the largest IPO in history. In its prospectus, the company states: ‘We believe that our current space efforts will catalyse transformative breakthroughs that could reshape terrestrial industries and lead to the emergence of new trillion-dollar markets on the Moon, Mars, and beyond.’ This vision […]
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 […]
The British are coming! The British are coming! As the United States celebrates 250 years of independence from the British, millions of Californians wish to put themselves under British rule. The primary is taking place tomorrow, and Steve Hilton, a British-born former adviser to David Cameron, is not only expected to make it through to […]
What have Rachel Reeeves, Yvette Cooper and Ed Miliband got in common? Yes, they are experienced politicians, with a combined total of 66 unbroken years in the House of Commons. Yes, they occupy some of the key posts in Keir Starmer’s Government and will probably still be Cabinet members after a change of leadership. I […]
Modern monetary theory (MMT) is an economic theory that has become popular in the blogosphere and heterodox academic circles. It’s also caught the eye of some politicians. Notably, Zack Polanski has been learning about MMT and using it to answer questions about government debt. According to MMT, the Treasury should use higher deficits – funded […]
As Britain debates Net Zero, energy security and the future of North Sea drilling, an older argument has returned with renewed force: that the UK squandered its oil wealth while Norway built a sovereign wealth fund worth more than a trillion dollars. It is an appealing story. If only Britain had saved its North Sea […]
Recent rhetoric suggests a slight but notable shift in Russia‘s attitude toward ending the war in Ukraine. In remarks following Russia’s Victory Day parade, Vladimir Putin stated that ‘the matter is coming to an end’. Even in its opacity, the comment signals a potential recalibration in Moscow’s approach and an implicit recognition that the time […]
Rachel Reeves probably did not expect regulatory reform of ring-fencing rules to become one of her more significant achievements as Chancellor. But credit where it’s due, the Government is right to pursue serious, common-sense reform of ring-fenced banks (RFBs) in order to free up capital for investment in British businesses. Since the 2008 Global Financial […]
This week I was fortunate enough to sit down with the Rt Hon Liz Truss. We discussed the usual things you expect. The state of the UK economy, the Bank of England, the Civil Service, and to quote Truss, how ‘Power was taken from the elected and given to progressive bureaucrats and judges’. I must […]
Admired for his reformist approach to the NHS, Wes Streeting is generally seen as the most market-friendly figure on the British Left. Yet his call for social media companies to be treated like tobacco businesses reminds us that even the best of a bad bunch can still be pretty awful. After resigning as Health Secretary, […]
How big is the state? It might seem like a bit of an odd question to ask and there are a number of ways you can answer it. We can look at how much it spends as a share of national income (expected to have been 44.8% in 2025/26), or how many people work for […]
It’s no secret that the strong commitments to free markets that, at least rhetorically, marked many conservative parties from the 1980s until 2015, are no longer so robust. Full-throated support for free trade, for example, is hard to find in Donald Trump’s Republican Party. Other Western centre-right parties have proved more resistant to protectionist sentiment. […]
When the Labour Government gained power in 2024, Matthew Syed proposed in his Times column the creation of a ‘Department for Long-Term Thinking’: a department that would take government out of the fog of the 24/7 news cycle and encourage policymakers to focus on the bigger picture. Although translating that idea into practice would probably […]
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