In a January 4 article in The Telegraph, Anne Hanley reminisced about her recent trip to Venice. “Venice’s inhabitants were outnumbered by visitors,” she observed. “Around 54,000 under-pressure locals shared their city with just over 62,000 incomers … [and] that, for La Serenissima, is a ‘quiet’ day,” she continued. The city, she concluded, is being […]
In the week of the annual rail fare rise, this year at the higher rate of measured inflation, writing in defence of Britain’s railways is a brave — or perhaps even foolhardy — endeavour. It’s certainly true that recent news hasn’t been good: acute delays on some lines, bankrupted and bailed-out franchises, the re-timetabling was […]
As has long been predicted, HS2 is blasting through its budget limits. The latest difficulty is buying the land needed to build the train line over. As is normal in such things there’s more than a little vituperation about the prices paid and routes taken. The exercise of compulsory purchase powers tends to cause that. […]
Recently, I asked for the public’s thoughts on the sharing economy. I also met SharingEconomyUK, an industry body representing companies such as Uber, Airbnb, Zipcar, TaskRabbit, Liftshare, Deliveroo, Gumtree and many more. What I heard was a combination of excitement and concerns. There was plenty of optimism about the convenience of new services such as […]
Today marks 25 years since the privatisation of the railways. To mark this auspicious anniversary, various Labour politicians have been doing the rounds, calling for the railways to be renationalised. It’s a popular policy, with over 60 per cent of the British public in favour of it, while only 20 per cent oppose it. Who […]
CapX readers may know that the Centre for Policy Studies is running a competition challenging politicians to come up with policy ideas to save money rather than just spending it. It came on the heels of the Prime Minister’s announcement that the NHS would be handed a further £20 billion by 2023/24. Despite couching it […]
And so the public bidding for budget giveaways begins. The first stories of this year’s “winter crisis” in the NHS have now emerged. Cue demands for more spending, waste and corporatism. But what about movement in the other direction? What about a targeted, popular tax cut to coincide with our departure from the EU? Cutting […]
Slowly, relentlessly, the left is mobilising against the gig economy. This month, John McDonnell promised to give flexible workers the same rights as employees — thereby undermining the entire model. Meanwhile, Sadiq Khan is loudly demanding the right to clip Uber’s wings by limiting the number of its drivers in London. On Monday, Khan’s campaign got […]
Britain is pretty good at quite a few things. Royal weddings. Country pubs. Red uniforms. Queuing. But one thing we used to be very good at – and known around the world for – was big infrastructure. Bridges, boats, tunnels, road and rail. You name it, we engineered and built it. But British infrastructure seems […]
Watch or listen to CapX’s weekly podcast ‘The Capitalist’ wherever you get your podcasts.
