Everybody hates neoliberalism. The term has become a term of abuse, mostly by those who consider themselves anti-neoliberals. Critics also allege that the world is currently run under neoliberalism. In George Monbiot’s words, it is “the ideology at the root of all our problems“. But the world is in a pretty good state, and since the introduction […]
UK politicians may have spent the last three months debating the finer points of what post-Brexit Britain will look like: Hard Brexit or soft Brexit? Norway-extra or Switzerland-light? Yet little attention has been spent looking at the other side of the equation. What will be the impact of Brexit not in Britain, but in Brussels? Many […]
In 2014, I opposed the UK opting back into the European Arrest Warrant (EAW), along with 36 of my fellow Conservative MPs. My colleagues and I felt strongly that we ought to be returning powers back to the UK, not ceding them to European institutions. Two years on, the fatally flawed EAW system has continued […]
Recent coverage of the NHS has focused largely on the battle between the Government and the junior doctors over their new contract – a struggle that inflamed opinion on both sides of the argument. But if we’re going to fix the NHS, we need to focus on a different issue. Not the terms of the […]
Last night saw a “flash crash” in the value of the pound: sterling’s value fell, suddenly, by around 6 per cent, within a few minutes, rising back again. Such sudden crashes are often attributed to a “fat finger” effect, basically a transcription error. That might mean the order was supposed to be for the sale […]
Donald Trump claims he should be president in part because he has succeeded at creating jobs and businesses. While the foundation of his business empire was in New York real estate and construction – thanks to “a million-dollar loan” from his father – he spent about 25 years owning and/or managing casinos in Atlantic City, […]
I was at the UN general assembly in New York the other day and talking to the foreign minister of another country. I won’t say which one, since I must preserve my reputation for diplomacy. But let’s just say they have an economy about the size of Australia (though getting smaller, alas), plenty of snow, […]
Somebody had to dilute the intoxicating cocktail of Brexit triumphalism being served up at the Conservative Party conference, and the new chancellor Philip Hammond was the man. Never the most dazzling of orators, he nonetheless managed to fill the hall of the International Conference Centre in Birmingham, so the audience had to spill over to […]
“Inclusive growth” is a frequently heard term as countries grapple with the recent rise in inequality – even as poverty has fallen sharply over the past two and a half decades worldwide. To give the term meaning requires fashioning growth policies that reduce inequality without resorting to harmful protectionism. Of course, there is much more […]
Presidential debates are not as significant as the hype would have you believe. From Richard Nixon’s sweating in the first televised debate exactly 56 years ago, to Al Gore’s patronising sighs in 2000, the popular narrative suggests that these moments decide elections. Yet the evidence suggests that even those infamous examples failed to shift opinion […]
‘Crash Bang Wallop: The Inside Story of London’s Big Bang and a Financial Revolution that Changed the World’ by Iain Martin (Sceptre) In 1986, at the height of the greatest deal-making frenzy the City of London had ever seen, the US brokerage giant Salomon Brothers was in advance negotiations to buy the venerable British firm […]
Angela Merkel’s CDU is having a tough time of late. The latest blow came via the Berlin state parliament election, where the party managed to cling on to second place but was dumped out of the city’s government. This was the CDU’s worst ever performance in an election in the German capital. It took a […]
This is the weekly newsletter from CapX. To receive it by email every Friday, along with a short daily email of our top five stories, please subscribe here. David Cameron was sorry. He had won an election, saved the Union, cut the deficit. But, he confessed to his assembled constituency activists, he’d been unable to […]
When Barack Obama took the stage at a Hillary Clinton rally last week, the Philadelphia crowd erupted into a chorus of “Thank you”, lauding a leader who is as popular as ever among the Democratic faithful. “Save the thanks,” replied the President. “I’m not finished yet.” With the 2016 election approaching its final stages, you […]
Theresa May appears to have given the green light to a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point. The problem is that all the evidence suggests that this project will be terrible value for money for consumers. First, there is the cost of constructing Hinkley – which is, in a word, enormous. The power station […]
Brexit campaigners owe a debt of gratitude to their Continental counterparts. First of all, there were the volunteers who came over during the referendum campaign, both as individuals and as delegates from various organisations. Their presence reinforced morale on the ground, disproved the claims that we were a bunch of Little Englanders, and provided some added media pull for local […]
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