Britain and America have spent a decade arguing about Nimbyism as if it were a housing problem. It is much bigger than that: our inability to build, in a broad sense, has grown into a source of geopolitical weakness. The economic argument has been made already. Growth controls add anywhere from 17% to 38% to […]
‘A Waiter in Paris’ is the story of a young Englishman who graduated from a good university in London with a humanities degree, trained and educated for a world that no longer exists. ‘All while I applied for other, more “prestigious” jobs. Jobs that didn’t appear to exist anymore.’ That’s how Edward Chisholm puts it […]
‘I’m personally convinced that our civilisation is approaching its end,’ wrote the British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge in 1980. ‘I think of St Augustine when, in AD 410, the news was brought to him in Carthage that Rome had been sacked by the Barbarians.’ Jim Callaghan was equally gloomy. In 1974, he remarked: ‘When I am […]
Josiah Quincy Jr., who was the mayor of Boston in the middle of the nineteenth century, wrote in his Last Will and Testament that his son should read ‘John Locke’s works, – Lord Bacon’s works, – Gordon’s Tacitus, – and Cato’s Letters. May the spirit of liberty rest upon him!’ Indeed, there is nothing closer […]
Spare a thought for Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, heading the US negotiating team, as they met with Qatari Emir Al Thani this week to discuss the ‘progress of the negotiations’ between the US and the Iranian regime in the Qatari capital, Doha. While the venue for the talks has shifted from Pakistan to Switzerland […]
The World Cup starts today and for the first time in over 30 years it is being held in North America. Not only is this exciting news for football fans, it should also be of interest to free trade enthusiasts, as the last time it was held there the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) […]
On July 27, 2025, the US President Donald Trump invited the President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen and other top EU officials to his golf course, Trump-Turnberry on the West Coast of Scotland. Their meeting sealed a trade deal, which von der Leyen described as ‘huge’, but which critics described as a […]
The British are coming! The British are coming! As the United States celebrates 250 years of independence from the British, millions of Californians wish to put themselves under British rule. The primary is taking place tomorrow, and Steve Hilton, a British-born former adviser to David Cameron, is not only expected to make it through to […]
Americans like their eggs. While for Britons it is but one part of a fry up or mere fodder for toasted soldiers, for Yanks there is a deep romance, whether eaten at an old-school diner or as part of a trendy brunch. It was therefore bemusing for outsiders when the price of eggs caused a […]
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 […]
If you want to feel really gloomy, think back to the beginning of the 1990s. The West had won the Cold War. The Gorbachev era seemed to suggest that Russia was embarking on a path of stability and democracy. There were indications that the Chinese leadership was interested in cautious moves towards international legality. Other […]
Donald Trump is very nearly a year into his second term as President, with the anniversary of his inauguration on January 20. He began with a blizzard of executive orders – 26 signed that first day back in the White House – and left his opponents breathless and wrong-footed. But it is in 2026 that […]
Zohran Mamdani and Zack Polanski have brought back the politics of ‘hope’. Many of their voters do not even know the policies involved or their unintended consequences; they vote based on vibe. The vibe of something new, something different, something that promises change. But this politics of hope is not new – and it is […]
Donald Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs, which have caused havoc and uncertainty in global markets, are now finally having their day in court. On November 5, the US Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments in two consolidated cases, Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump and Trump v. V.O.S. Selections. The Trump Administration will defend its reciprocal tariff […]
With Donald Trump having once again visited Britain, it is worth asking if we might be able to learn something from America’s devotion to liberty. Say what you will about the 45th President, he has never been shy of wading into the ‘culture wars’, at the heart of which lies our right to freedom of […]
I’ve just returned from the US, where can-do spirit and positivity were on abundant display – a welcome contrast to the self-doubt and anaemic growth Labour are presiding over. Instead, talk in Washington, as well as in an Alabama congressional district, was of cutting taxes, increasing investment and building everything from power plants to manufacturing […]
For America’s anxious European allies, few questions matter as much as whether Donald Trump’s re-election in 2024 marks a permanent shift in the role played by the United States in the world, or whether it is just a passing phase. On trade, the answer is reasonably clearcut. As US average tariffs congeal somewhere in the […]
I first heard the names Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes when I was a high-school sophomore. My teacher announced, as if it were a fact as firm as any law of thermodynamics, that the Great Depression was caused by laissez-faire policies advocated by Smith, and that salvation came from the more scientifically sound ideas […]
The decision by US Court of International Trade to block Donald Trump’s tariffs, declared by the President under International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), comes as a relief after the weeks of uncertainty and policy reversals that followed the ‘Liberation Day’ on April 2. It also shows that, while businesses had good reasons to be rattled […]
The King and Queen of Canada have made it home to open the 45th Session of Parliament. While King Charles III is the Canadian head of state through the development of unique constitutional doctrines, he, of course, remains the British monarch. Their Majesties’ presence in Canada raises the question of where the long-standing relationship between […]
David Cameron was regarded as a rather establishment figure as prime minister. This is partly due to having been educated at Eton College – through no fault of his own. For most of his time in Downing Street, he was also constrained from operating in a true coalition with the Liberal Democrats. Yet in terms […]
Under one particularly charitable reading, Donald Trump’s discontent with the global financial status quo, reflected in his administration’s drastic trade policies, is a response to the pressure that a chronically overvalued dollar puts on the competitiveness of US industry. As the prospect of a likely trade war-induced recession shows, tariffs carry large economic costs, including […]
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