Growth

Ideas

Without outsiders, our politics are doomed to stagnation

Around a year ago, I became a father. At the first midwifery appointment during my wife’s pregnancy, in one of the fluorescently-lit rooms of our local GP surgery, a midwife told us – very cheerfully – that she wouldn’t see us through to the birth. She was moving, along with ten of her colleagues, to […]

Economics

To rescue British dynamism, we must set capital free

This is the first of a series of essays from the Rt Hon Kit Malthouse MP on how to fix the British economy. You can read the other instalments in the series here: 2. Ownership & nationhood: the fight for economic belonging 3. The friendly giants: breaking free from our new masters 4. The unchecked […]

Economics

Only blind luck can save Rachel Reeves now

The most important month for the public finances each year is January, because that is when self-assessment receipts come in. So economists’ eyes were peeled this morning, as the January 2025 data was released, particularly as that starts to give us the real picture about how much trouble Rachel Reeves’ Budget plans are in. The […]

Ideas

The Capitalist 🔊: Reform on the ropes?

In the latest episode of our weekly podcast, The Capitalist: Has Reform UK’s energy plan exposed the party’s economic failings? And will Kemi Badenoch capitalise on this misstep? Marc Sidwell is joined by Dr Lawrence Newport and Albie Amankona to break down a week of political turbulence. Plus: Emmanuel Macron warns of the ‘electroshock’ of a […]

Policy

Labour’s growth plan is still self-deception

It’s barely a week since Rachel Reeves made her agenda-setting speech on how the Government intends to ‘kickstart economic growth’. Yet while her commendable rhetoric may have enabled the Chancellor to bask in 24 hours of optimistic headlines about future prosperity, economic reality is biting once again in the cold light of day. Monday saw […]

Policy

Anglofuturism is the key to reversing our decline

A third runway for Heathrow; the construction of several reservoirs; a ‘growth corridor’ between Oxford and Cambridge. These are some of the projects that, as of last week, have the public backing of the Chancellor. Is it thin gruel that Rachel Reeves is serving us? It is certainly overdue gruel. Those projects have been in […]

Technology

Imagine a Britain where ‘you can just do things’

Last week, Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 jet became the first civilian aircraft to break the sound barrier since Concorde when the US company’s demonstrator aircraft achieved supersonic flight over a Californian desert. The aircraft, which accelerated to 10% faster than the speed of sound, is the company’s trailblazer product, leading the way to the development of […]

Ideas

Despatch 🔊: Can Rachel Reeves get growth back on track?

. Listen on Apple Podcasts.

Economics

Our economy is tied down by pointless regulation

On Wednesday, the Chancellor of the Exchequer addressed the nation to ‘kickstart growth’. As ever with these big political speeches, she spent much of it pointing to things that this Government has already announced and going ‘ooh, isn’t this brilliant,’ while the remainder had already been leaked heavily to the press. Nonetheless, there were some […]

Politics

Mass immigration won’t solve Britain’s growth crisis

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has released its latest national population projections. It estimates that, between mid-2022 and mid-2032, the population will rise by 4.9 million to a high of 72.5m, overtaking France. These projections presume both that a decline in fertility and medical improvements to life expectancy through medicine will continue. The increase […]

Economics

Starmer talks up growth, but his actions tell a different story

Yesterday our Prime Minister wrote in the newspaper of record that he will ‘kick down the barriers to building, clear out the regulatory weeds and allow a new era of British growth to bloom’. The Chancellor of the Exchequer later stood in front of a TV camera and promised ‘to grow the supply-side of our […]

Economics

Can Rachel Reeves get growth back on track?

The Chancellor’s big growth speech on Wednesday morning was so widely trailed that it contained few surprises. But it was still the clearest and most coherent statement of her economic philosophy and plans so far. Before diving into the detail, it is only fair to welcome the change of tone. It has been refreshing to […]

Ideas

The Capitalist 🔊: Britain’s bottleneck

With a healthy majority in Parliament, what’s stopping Britain’s Government from enacting the kind of sweeping policy changes we’re seeing in the United States? Michael Binyon from The Times and the National Review Institute’s Dominic Pino share their insights, plus: will tariffs force Putin’s hand in Ukraine? And how can we restore consumer optimism in […]

Policy

‘Mirror towns’ can help solve Britain’s housing crisis

Winslow, a market town in Buckinghamshire, will be connected to the national rail network for the first time in 57 years when the western stage of East West Rail opens later this year. With easy connections to well-paying jobs in Oxford and Milton Keynes, the new railway will improve the lives of the town’s residents.  […]

Politics

Nimby Watch: Londoners against opportunity

‘Nimby Watch’ is back with a new author, and in this week’s edition we’re off to Camberwell in south-east London, where Sadiq Khan is trying to extend the Bakerloo line… Where are we this time, then? Burgess Park, Deptford, and a few other areas of south-east London not currently served by the underground. So, we’re […]

Ideas

Despatch: Heathrow airport – an allegory of our decline

Heathrow shows why Britain can’t build… . . Listen on Apple Podcasts.

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