In Boris Johnson’s first speech as Prime Minister, he pledged to focus his premiership on the “forgotten people and the left-behind towns, by physically and literally renewing the ties that bind us together”. One of his first acts as Prime Minister was to appoint himself ‘Minister for the Union’. But whilst Johnson has since pledged […]
Earlier this year CapX launched a major new project with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation focusing on how the Government should tackle the longstanding imbalances in the British economy. ‘Rebalancing Britain’ focuses not only on the well-documented North/South divide, but on the way smaller towns and cities are often left behind in national policy debates. Today we hear […]
Ruth Davidson is the most modern of politicians – a gay, buffalo-riding ex-soldier and, even more unusual in her native Scotland, a Conservative. But in important ways she is also a throw-back to an earlier, more civilised and, arguably, more rational political era. In our highly partisan political culture, where those who support other parties […]
The conventional explanation for the protests that have gripped Hong Kong in recent weeks is that they have been triggered by opposition to the government’s extradition bill, but the true causes run much deeper. Planning consultants Demographia have named Hong Kong the world’s least affordable housing market for nine years in a row, yet its […]
“So many of the parishes in our district are merrily approving more houses around their village,” an official from Oxfordshire fumed to me last month, “and that’s against Council policy!” I had to pinch myself: living in London, it’s normally the reverse. Making sure local people benefit is one obvious way to gain support for […]
When the possibility of the Government proroguing Parliament has been debated in the last year or so, it was envisioned that it would be simply leaving the Palace of Westminster vacant to carry Brexit over the line. This has generated a lot of fascinating and, if you’re a constitutional geek, very engaging discussion. But it […]
“We can’t go on like this.” Thus began a newsletter written on August 19 by Eddie Cross, a member of Zimbabwe’s parliament and one of the founders of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Cross is a trained economist and a very brave man. He remained in Zimbabwe throughout its 20 year-long descent from one […]
Writing in the not-very-Independent, Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to do everything he can to stop a ‘“bankers’ Brexit”. This slogan is presumably designed to appeal to the hard left and the #FBPE echo chamber. Nonetheless, as lazy narratives go, it still takes some beating. For a start, the City is hardly short of Brexit sceptics. […]
Boris Johnson has been telling us all – perhaps more importantly, all of them over the Channel – that the £39 billion divorce bill isn’t actually owed if there’s no Brexit deal. This is all good negotiating but there’s a trick being missed here. There is no divorce bill at all. Never has been and […]
There is a widespread perception that politics throughout the West – and even beyond – is now defined by a fundamental clash between liberalism and illiberalism. But this perception is misleading. Liberalism has a long and complex history, with multiple strands and all kinds of internal tensions. The different elements of liberalism were linked by […]
The one-year spending review, announced in the next few weeks, will mostly be a pre-Brexit holding operation. But Chancellor Sajid Javid may look to make a major impact in one area. Speaking at a British Future event last month, Javid talked about the importance of boosting access to English language learning for migrants in the […]
Critics of HS2 were given cause for optimism this week with the announcement of a review into the high-speed rail line. The new Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, has promised a “go or no-go” decision by the end of this year. Those hoping for the whole thing to be scrapped may be disappointed by the terms […]
Were you to ask its critics to identify a document that encapsulated everything that contemporary capitalism gets wrong, Milton Friedman’s 1970 New York Times Magazine article “The Social Responsibility Of Business Is To Increase Its Profits” would be a popular answer. In this landmark explanation of his shareholder theory, Friedman argued that as employees of […]
Freedom is underappreciated in the UK. As CapX readers well know, free markets and free people have made the whole world richer and more equal, and have helped bring freedom of speech and freedom of choice to billions. Everywhere from the United States to Hong Kong have benefited from capitalism creating prosperity, improving our living […]
The EU’s refusal to change its position on the Irish backstop is the clearest sign yet that we are headed for a No Deal Brexit. It followed the leak of a cross-government study warning of food and medicine shortages in such an event, even if Michael Gove dismissed the dossier as ‘an attempt, in the […]
For tens of thousands of teenagers the anxious wait to find out their GCSE results is over. Those students can enjoy what remains of the summer holidays – and judging by the rise in the proportion of students being awarded the top grades, they have earned a good break. As ever on results day, certain […]
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