How can people without capital be expected to believe in capitalism? This is the challenge of our age, as ‘own nothing and be happy’ hardens into a new dividing line in Western politics. Westminster risks ignoring the emerging political economy of housing, even as public anger grows. Green Party leader Zack Polanski is already courting […]
During the Thatcher premiership, popular capitalism came to the fore, focused on boosting home ownership and broadening share participation. It was a period when the City was growing and finance was helping drive economic success, and there was a desire for more people to share in this. The Big Bang reforms of 1986 transformed London’s […]
This is the second in a series of essays from the Rt Hon Kit Malthouse MP on how to fix the British economy. You can read the other instalments in the series here: 1. Growth is the child of capital 3. The friendly giants: breaking free from our new masters 4. The unchecked and the […]
Conservatives could be forgiven for feeling a little smug after this week’s Super Thursday elections. A big win in Hartlepool, convincing mayoral victories in Teesside and the West Midlands, a decent showing in English councils and a better-than-expected performance in London all suggest a government in rude political health. A giant inflatable Boris outside the […]
Well, that escalated quickly. On Friday, I was the proud publisher of a policy – long-term, fixed-rate, low-deposit mortgages – that Boris Johnson had decided to put at the heart of his attempts to help “Generation Buy”. By Saturday, the same policy was being condemned in some quarters as putting Britain on a path to […]
At today’s Budget, Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s focus will be on containing the economic impact of coronavirus. The top priority will be preventing otherwise profitable businesses from going bust and damaging long-run productivity. But it will be a missed opportunity if the short-term measures to keep SMEs afloat aren’t matched with policies to enable them to […]
We want more greenery. We want to address climate change. We want to attract people back to our small towns and villages. We want to improve health and well-being. We want devolution. We want to empower people with more control. Perhaps more than anything, we want to rebuild active communities – indeed the drift away […]
With Boris Johnson’s election win early Friday morning, he has won over a huge number of working class voters. It would appear his vision of one nation Conservatism championed by Benjamin Disraeli is back. One issue that must be addressed is one that does not discussed often enough: homelessness and rough sleeping. Chancellor Sajid Javid […]
Among the maelstrom of election news stories that broke yesterday was one that will be music to the ears of many free-marketeers. Responding to a question from a member of the public, Boris Johnson said that the BBC licence fee should be “looked at” and questioned how “justified” the current funding model from “a general tax” could be in the long term. […]
Sir Vince Cable’s defence of Royal Mail privatisation could be minuted, perhaps uncharitably, as “It’s a dog, that’s why we sold it”. He’s right, of course, however politically unsuitable it is to tell the truth to people. As he notes, the share price is now half what the government sold at, which is pretty solid […]
Recently released Government housebuilding data contains a pleasant surprise – the number of new dwellings in England was over 241,000. This is the highest rate of housebuilding in England since the target for 240,000 new homes a year for the UK was set back in 2007. This is good news for housing affordability, and national […]
The Labour Party has recently unveiled plans to bring large swathes of the British economy into what they term ‘public ownership’. Even before their bumper manifesto, they had already promised to nationalise the Royal Mail, the railways, energy suppliers, and water and sewage companies. Estimates vary for exactly how much that might costs, but the […]
What is the future of capitalism? This week’s Free Exchange exchange, recorded live at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, debates just that. Our Editor John Ashmore chaired an expert panel including the RSA’s Alan Lockey, digital policy expert Casey Calista and fellow of the Adam Smith Institute and self-declared inventor of neoliberalism, Sam Bowman, […]
The Confederation of British Industry has produced a really important piece of research today on the extra borrowing involved in Labour’s renationalisation plans. Strikingly, it completely vindicates the similar exercise we did at the Centre for Policy Studies – although their baseline figure for upfront cost of £196bn is even higher than ours.* (Their figures […]
After the 1980s, it was thought that the battle for free enterprise and free people had been won. We had Thatcher and Reagan, followed by market-sympathetic leaders on the left like Blair and Clinton. But if the rise of the likes of Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders tell us anything, it is that the fight […]
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 […]
