Is Britain one geopolitical shock away from a financial crisis?
Liam Halligan thinks the warning lights are flashing. The economist, journalist and new Director of the Centre for Policy Studies joins Marc Sidwell to argue that Britain’s growing debt burden, stubbornly weak growth and soaring interest bill have left the country dangerously exposed.
So what can be done? Halligan makes the case for getting spending under control before cutting taxes, explains why deregulation could unlock growth without costing the Treasury a penny and looks to Italy and Ireland for lessons in restoring confidence in the public finances.
They also discuss Britain’s £120bn debt-interest bill, the echoes of the 1976 IMF crisis, why free markets shouldn’t be confused with big business – and why, despite the economic gloom, Halligan remains optimistic about Britain’s ability to turn things around.
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Andrew Griffith says Britain has already gone over the fiscal cliff. The question now is whether it can pull itself back. In a conversation with Centre for Policy Studies director Liam Halligan, the Shadow Chancellor delivers a clear diagnosis of Britain’s economy: a state consuming 45% of national income, punitive energy costs, rising taxes, excessive […]
Can the Tories’ tough-love welfare plans get more people back into work? Helen Whately, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, joins Marc Sidwell to set out the Conservatives’ plans for reforming Britain’s welfare system – including tougher rules for young people and the long-term unemployed. Whately explains the party’s new ‘Get to Work’ plan, which would […]
Was life really better before industrialisation? Strip away the nostalgia and the past begins to look considerably less idyllic: famine, child mortality, casual violence, environmental destruction and entertainments of almost unimaginable cruelty. In The Grim Old Days, author Chelsea Follett challenges our romantic vision of the pre-industrial world. Here, she tells Marc Sidwell how the […]
