Amongst developed countries, there is a trend that as a city’s population grows, so does its productivity, as residents gain greater access to education, employment and leisure, not just in scale but also in variety. Employers too have more people to choose from, meaning they can hire staff best suited to a role. These ‘agglomeration’ […]
Every time you fill up your car at the pump, you are paying for the UK’s biofuels mandate – a green levy with pretty questionable ‘green’ credentials. Although almost nobody seems aware of it, the E10 and B7 grades at the forecourt require a certain percentage of biofuels to be blended into petrol and diesel […]
My first driving instructor was terrible. Not in the sense of outright incompetence or active malice, but because he appeared to lack any belief in my ability to drive. Session after session, he would drive me to his favoured residential estate in the neighbouring town and then we would drive slowly round it. Next week, […]
Exactly 60 years ago today, Dr Richard Beeching published his Reshaping British Railways report. Beeching, a non-railway middle-ranking executive plucked from the chemicals company ICI, is remembered for proposing the closure of 5,000 miles of railway lines and a third of the country’s stations. Most of his recommendations were carried out within the next few years. Unlike many […]
As we face another week of train strikes, it’s difficult to get one’s head round a longer view about the future of the railways. It is, however, worth trying. Last year’s Shapps-Williams report was meant to provide just such a long view. Unfortunately it was largely drafted pre-Covid, since when demand for rail services has […]
‘The only reliable way to catch a train is to miss the one before…’ I have worked in finance for nearly 40 years. I have withstood psychotic managers, overcome multiple business hurdles, survived a major health scare and triumphed as a small firm guy against big vested interests. But despite all those trials and tribulations, […]
The suggestion that HS2 may not even reach central London is an absurdity perfectly designed to irritate both the project’s supporters and opponents. If an inter-city line between the North and London Euston doesn’t even get to Euston then why waste billions more despoiling the countryside to build it? Jeremy Hunt has already poured cold […]
The UK has the technological and industrial ability to build the world’s leading sustainable aviation industry. But, unless we find our answer to the USA’s enormous tax cuts, which threaten to take investment away from our net zero industries, we are at risk of falling behind. As the UK’s Aviation Minister, I helped deliver the […]
This Saturday train drivers’ union ASLEF is striking again, and the RMT has just announced that it is planning two strikes before Christmas and two more in early January. The RMT strikes are nominally for two days each, but their effect will spread over several more days as rolling stock gets stuck in the wrong […]
Cry not for Britishvolt, for it is already dead. Although the battery start-up has secured a dripline of new funding for the next five weeks of operations, it cannot compete with established gigafactories from industrial rivals well ahead in the development of this global industry – most notably rivals in China, who provide batteries for Britain’s […]
Perhaps the only good thing to come out of lockdowns was the pedestrianisation of parts of our major cities. In Soho, for example, the council banned cars at certain times, allowing bars and restaurants to serve people outside. In Oxford, one of the roads which runs through the centre of the city was transformed into Broad […]
Britain’s summer of rail misery continues this week with no obvious sign of an early end. It is a complicated mish-mash with strikes by each of three main unions, currently in dispute with 15 different Train Operating Companies (TOCs) and Network Rail, which maintains the infrastructure. One-day strikes spill over into days when employees are […]
Keir Starmer is facing what appears to be a no-win situation, a Kobayashi Maru, for Star Trek fans out there. Unlike his immediate predecessor as Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, Starmer understands that general elections are won in the political centre ground, by making an appeal to those who voted for the Tories last time. This […]
You think things are bad on the railways? Well, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Two more rail unions, Aslef and TSSA, are planning to join forces with the RMT to jump the tracks. And nor can you expect much solace on the roads. If you are not stymied by eco-warriors gluing themselves to the M25, […]
Three-hour queues at security in Stockholm, long delays at Heathrow, cancelled flights at Amsterdam, and an entire day’s worth of departures scrapped at Brussels – Europe’s aviation sector is in chaos. Most strikingly, in each different country passengers have a different scapegoat, be it Brexit, labour unions, or simply too many other travellers. The reality, […]
You’ve got to credit the effort. As a journalist reports that pupils are sleeping on mates’ floors in order to beat the rail strike and get to their exams, Conservative MP Mark Jenkinson tweeted: ‘A vision of @UKLabour’s Britain…’ Briefly, in my pre-caffeine morning haze, I had the Life on Mars thought – ‘Am I […]
Watch or listen to CapX’s weekly podcast ‘The Capitalist’ wherever you get your podcasts.
