Can you imagine anything worse than a foreign company whose software saved lives, cut NHS waiting lists, put more police on the beat and reduced crime? It’s appalling, isn’t it? No British government or public sector body should have any dealings with such a company. Obviously. Much better to let patients die, cut police jobs […]
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has launched the largest ever public offering of stock today, selling $75 billion worth of shares. SpaceX emphasised its remarkable achievements in its IPO filing: ‘We are the primary launch provider for the US government. In 2025, we launched 11 of 12 National Security Space Launch (‘NSSL’) medium and heavy lift missions […]
I walked the dog recently along the Thames Path, around the source (or one of the sources, so as not to cause a fight) of the River Thames. This time of year, much of it is all dried up, and you can walk along the bed of what in the winter is full-flowing river. Wondering […]
Can a robot write a symphony? Can it turn a canvas into a beautiful masterpiece?” Can you? This exchange from the film ‘I, Robot’ (and later parodied in a million memes) captures human fears and concerns about coexisting with robots, and what it means to be human. Fast forward 20 years, and artificial intelligence is […]
Here’s a fact that will warm the heart of any Anglophile: Cambridge has more Nobel prizes than the whole of France put together. It’s a remarkable fact given Cambridge is such a small place – a population of just 150,000, with city status conferred only 75 years ago. So why do I mention this? Because […]
You will all know this experience. Sitting in a job interview, you are asked your biggest weakness. Desperate to impress, you used a humble brag; I’m a bit of a perfectionist, I get so invested in success. Something similar may have happened in the world of artificial intelligence. Anthropic, the company behind the large language […]
If you’re under the age of 53, no human being has ever left low Earth orbit in your lifetime. Just nine spaceflights, all under the Apollo Program, took human beings beyond Earth orbit at all. And they all took place in a four-year burst between December 1968 and December 1972. Tonight, NASA attempts to change […]
Earlier this year, I left London, for all the reasons you’d imagine an evil right-winger like me would. One of the few (and there are only a few) pangs of regret I had was when I was driving my wife and dog out along the Westway for the final time. Coming the other way was […]
Poverty was once the norm. A quarter of babies died in their first year of life. In 1980, around 40% of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty. Today only 10% of people do. Much of this is thanks to fossil fuels. The burning of wood, then coal, gas and oil, enabled us to prosper. […]
Earlier this week, Housing Secretary Steve Reed effectively handed in his resignation. He told BBC One’s ‘Panorama’ that his job should ‘be on the line’ if he failed to meet Labour’s target to build 1.5 million homes by the end of the parliament. Even if it is far shy of the estimated 6.5m homes we’d […]
This is an excerpt, reprinted with permission, from ‘The Origins of Efficiency’ by Brian Potter, published by Stripe Press. In his book, Potter argues that finding ways to produce goods and services in less time, with less labour, using fewer resources is the force behind some of the most consequential changes in human history. Here […]
For centuries, Britain’s financial system has been a cornerstone of global commerce – a home of innovation, competitiveness and a hard-won reputation for stability. But today, as our economy grows more digital and globally integrated, it is increasingly reliant on an overlooked element: space. From high-frequency trading to GPS-enabled logistics, cross-border payments to timestamped transactions, […]
Psychologists largely agree that we all live with an inner pessimist. Why? Because for most of human history, reacting to danger – real or perceived – was essential for survival. This has left us biologically wired to overreact to threats and underreact to good news, which helps explain why emotional, end-of-the-world-style stories tend to stick […]
Last week, NHS GPs began prescribing Mounjaro for weight loss for the first time. But for many people reaching out to their doctor, the response is likely to be disappointing – the NHS has made it clear that the drug will only be available to those who meet a strict set of criteria. The public […]
This article is the first in a fortnightly series of policy proposals from John Penrose and the Centre for Small State Conservatives. ‘Productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run, it’s almost everything’. This famous aphorism, coined by Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, should send shivers down every British spine. UK productivity trails France, Germany […]
A giant paradox cripples industrial Britain: we are a nation of inventors, and yet manufacturing is in decline. We nurture brilliant engineers, and yet commercialisation too often goes offshore – including to other advanced economies. This is a disaster for national prosperity. Collectively we spend a fortune on science and research. But if commercial exploitation […]
Energy is the great enabler. It comforts us by cooling our offices in summer and heating our homes in winter; it nourishes us by synthesising fertilisers and purifying water; it raises our infrastructure by forging steel and melting silicon into glass; it connects the world by mobilising cars, trains, and aeroplanes; it generates electricity, that […]
People say nothing works in Britain. That we cannot build anything any more. We hear about a decade of form filling before a spade is in the ground. Then, when we finally get going, only our grandchildren have a hope of seeing it actually built. But that’s not true everywhere. On March 14, digging started […]
Isn’t The Guardian just delightful at times? Take this recent piece, seemingly about fishing. Look beneath the surface, and the reporting actually manages to both diss the Left’s new favourite economist Mariana Mazzucato, and also show that central, let alone state, planning isn’t how productivity and economic growth happen. Of course, being The Guardian, they’ve […]
Last week, Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 jet became the first civilian aircraft to break the sound barrier since Concorde when the US company’s demonstrator aircraft achieved supersonic flight over a Californian desert. The aircraft, which accelerated to 10% faster than the speed of sound, is the company’s trailblazer product, leading the way to the development of […]
Can Britain strike a deal with President Trump and avoid the looming tariff trap? Why are leaders in the UK and the US falling short of the so-called “Reagan test”? And, could the UK be on the cusp of creating its own billion-pound tech titan? Join Douglas Carswell from the Mississippi Centre for Public Policy, […]
If you watched Peaky Blinders on Netflix, you might remember the charming Victorian village where Aunt Polly’s house was set. Those scenes were filmed in Port Sunlight, an iconic community near Liverpool inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement. Built by Lever Brothers, the precursor to Unilever, it offered vernacular-style housing to soap factory workers. […]
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