It was a weak joke, delivered to (supposed) friends, instantly regretted and best forgotten. But Boris Johnson’s equation of capitalism with greed is a common mistake on both sides. The caricature Wall Street financier Gordon Gekko proclaims that “Greed is good!” while Marx rejects the “werewolf greed” of capitalists. Indeed, people often define capitalism in terms of greed, concluding […]
There is an old saying that some people use statistics in the same way as a drunk uses a lamppost – for support rather than illumination. I sometimes think that applies to economic projections too. A good example is how critics of the Government have deployed the work of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) […]
Slick, forensic, a voice of sensible moderation – that was the brand being cultivated by Sir Keir Starmer. Already, though, the Labour leader seems to cut a slightly beleaguered figure, running out of steam less than a year into the job. Being a pro-Brexit trade union member who voted for the Labour Party in the […]
Brexit pessimists are having a field day following official confirmation that UK exports to the EU slumped in January – and they have a point. Anything that increases the cost of doing business across borders was always likely to reduce trade. Nonetheless, the first month’s trade figures after the end of the transition period are […]
“The US needs a strategy for post-Brexit Britain…We need a supportive embrace that also allows the UK the flexibility to develop roles within regional and global systems. ..If we don’t engage Britain in a serious and modern trade agreement…we’ll miss a historic opportunity to help Britain become an allied partner for the next 30 years.” […]
Last week, I wrote about what Lord Frost might be trying to do when he unilaterally extended the ‘grace periods’ on trade from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. In short, I argued that he represents a school of thought in Government which holds that the Protocol as it stands is unsustainable. As a ‘living document’ […]
Assuming one can look beyond Covid, the critical issue which the British economy faces is lack of business investment. This is the forgotten fourth leg of GDP and has been limping along at the worst rate in the G7. In that regard, the only real long-term thinking in the Budget was the review by Lord […]
The term ‘Global Britain’ has the remarkable distinction of being the only political slogan that carried through from the May era to the Johnson Government. Four years on, however, we are still awaiting the arrival of the Government’s Integrated Review of the UK’s Foreign, Defence and Development Policy, which should finally reveal what it means […]
Like it, or loathe it, Brexit is an opportunity for Britain to reassert herself as a sovereign nation. For those of us who are optimistic about our post-EU future, we have only to point to the recent fiasco around the EU vaccination rollout as one example of how “taking back control” has already been beneficial. […]
And so Joseph R. Biden becomes the 46th President of the United States, sound-tracked by a global exhalation, Lady Gaga and the furious scribbling of British foreign policy commentators fretting about ‘the special relationship’. The collective neurosis seems to be that Biden may be ill-disposed towards Britain due to his dim view of three B’s: […]
Disagreements over fishing almost sank the new EU trade deal, but for many of Brexit Britain’s hard pressed coastal communities, it’s a red herring. The danger is that in a fit of angst-ridden guilt, the government now throws cash at the fishing industry as a proxy for levelling up our seaside towns and villages. That […]
Boris Johnson won the contest to succeed Theresa May in part through his unrelenting attacks on her proposals for Northern Ireland. No self-respecting Prime Minister, he said, could possibly tolerate introducing an internal border between the Province and the rest of the United Kingdom. Upon getting into office, however, the Prime Minister acquiesced to exactly […]
Politics this year will be defined, according to The Times‘s Rachel Sylvester, by an internal battle between Tories “who want to remove the dead hand of the state, and the Levelling Up brigade, who want to extend the power of government”. To test that claim it’s worth looking back at how the party’s ideology has […]
While many people now are concentrating on how the new UK customs borders will impact trade and travelling in the short term, there is another question that needs to be highlighted now, what will UK do with its new-found freedom in relation to trade and customs? Customs and border formalities have been at the epicentre […]
If you were looking for an immediate, tangible benefit of Brexit, the rollout of Covid vaccines is an obvious candidate. The UK’s programme may not have been perfect, but nor has it been as conspicuously cack-handed as the EU’s attempts so far. ‘Sovereignty’ might seem abstract at times, but what clearer an example of its […]
The economy is an ecosystem. There are predators, there are lone wolves, there are sharks and cash cows. But in Britain today we have something more like a monoculture, with regulations, targets and uncompetitive practices mimicking the straight lines of crops and dead wood fences you see on industrial farms. What it needs is rewilding. […]
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