The great train debate is not just a minor contretemps between the small-state supporters and scorners. It is one that has implications for millions of people everyday. You may have read other authors on this site extol the virtues of privatisation of long-distance rail and evidence this by demonstrating how it has improved the train […]
With just three weeks left until March 29, the countdown to Brexit Day has never looked more uncertain. As the clock ticks on, confusion continues over what options remain on the table, what’s firmly off the table, and even how much longer the table will exist. Crucially, an extension to Article 50 does not mean […]
There’s nothing so dangerous to the public interest as the entire political class agreeing on a single idea. Yet this is what is happening in Washington, DC, about the issue of share buybacks and dividends. That Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren don’t understand how the capitalism works is hardly a surprise. But, as The Telegraph reports, […]
Despite giddy excitement in Westminster regarding the formation of The Independent Group, the most sobering news of the week was the announcement that Honda would be closing its Swindon factory in 2021, taking 7000 jobs with it. The news leaked out before Honda had announced the reasons for the closure. Inevitably, many jumped to conclusions […]
We are said to be living in an age of rapid technological transformation, with another game-changing new gadget just around the corner and innovations overhauling everything from how we communicate to what jobs we do. But is our economic system really as innovative as we think? Not according to this week’s guest on Free Exchange. […]
When Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar came to office in June of 2017, he styled himself as the ‘Irish Macron’. A month earlier the French President had entered the Elysée Palace and was riding a wave of purpose and popularity. Nearly two years on, following a bruising encounter with the gilets jaunes protesting about French fuel […]
The question is when, not if, “Big Tech” will “get regulated”. I can’t remember the last time I flicked through a newspaper and didn’t stumble on a columnist condemning the “arrogant” FAANGs (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) and demanding that regulators bring them to heel. (As an aside, I can’t think of logical reason to […]
Philip Hammond’s decision in this week’s budget to abandon the Private Finance Initiative has been regarded by some commentators as the adoption of a “Corbyn-lite” policy by the Conservatives. Such a claim misses the point. After all, PFI has been used to fund a huge expansion in government spending whilst pushing the costs, in an […]
Few areas of policy surrender better exemplify the failure of the Government’s Chequers proposal than its plan to keep the UK tied to EU energy rules after Brexit. Though it has received little attention amongst the sound and fury of the wider debate, the Chequers plan to maintain “continued and broad co-operation on energy” with […]
Cash transfers transformed the life of a 63-year-old widow from eastern Rwanda according to a recent New York Times article. These transfers were part of a study funded by Google.org and USAID that analysed the different outcomes from three types if aid: in-kind aid — providing actual goods and/or services; the monetary equivalent of the […]
I’ve never really understood the point of a think tank launching a commission full of high profile entrepreneurs, politicians, and trade unionists. To start with they tend to be rather dull. High-profile and time-poor individuals don’t back new ideas. Worse, these commissions tend to get dominated by the most politically active members with hobby horses. […]
Pledges to “fix capitalism”, “save capitalism” and “reform capitalism” are usually a good sign that a politician wants to make more than a few tweaks to the rules of the economic game. That’s not always a bad thing. But such proposals deserve close scrutiny. When they come from a politician with a track record of […]
My dad once told me about a cruel trick school boys would play on each other. One would ask “do you want to see a match burn twice?”. He would then strike the match, blow it out and stab it on another boy’s arm, burning him. This is the unfortunate situation in which the Department […]
It’s no secret that ambitious public infrastructure projects often end up running monumentally over budget. Recent transport history is littered with such examples, like the Jubilee Line Extension in the late 90s, which exceeded initial forecasts by over £1 billion. Or the Channel Tunnel, which ended up costing more than twice as much as originally […]
Over the last 20 years, has the world’s extreme poverty rate a) almost doubled b) stayed the same or c) almost halved? CapX readers will, of course, know that the right answer is c. But when asked that question recently, just 9 per cent of Brits answered correctly. Yet defending the market is not just […]
What is behind the recent surge in councils buying up retail property? From shopping centres to offices, retail warehouses, industrial parks, solar farms, garages and even country clubs, local authorities across England are splashing the cash. The sums of money involved are staggering, Surrey Heath council, for example, spent £86m on a shopping centre in […]
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