Britain’s economic debate rests on a dangerous assumption. Debt crises are things that happen elsewhere. Greece, perhaps. Argentina, certainly. But not the United Kingdom – a mature economy with its own currency, deep capital markets and centuries of institutional credibility. History offers little comfort to countries that think this way. Countries rarely enter fiscal crisis […]
Governments generally use Christmas and the New Year to bury bad news, hoping no-one will notice while they’re distracted by paper hats, mince pies and brandy butter. But this year Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook decided to ring the changes by swapping the traditional Scrooge costume for announcing glad tidings of comfort and joy instead. The […]
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 […]
As much as I hate to admit it, there is a lot to like in the Government’s water white paper. But there’s a reason for that: the best ideas are lifted straight from the Conservative Party. Stripped of the hollow slogans and performative toughness about tackling sewage that have dominated the debate in recent years, […]
In 2018, with ‘The Coddling of the American Mind’, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt launched a sustained attack on what they called the culture of ‘safetyism’ in American parenting and on university campuses. Their target was the belief that children and young adults are fragile beings who must be protected from uncomfortable ideas and the […]
In the latest episode of our weekly podcast, The Capitalist: Keir Starmer just hit the reset button on his struggling Government, but will voters buy it? We break down his six-hour crisis meeting, the economic warning signs, and whether Labour can regain control of the narrative. Plus: The Conservatives are staring into the political abyss […]
It’s fifty years since Margaret Thatcher became leader of the Conservatives. Over the decade and a half in which she led the party, Thatcher would remake conservatism, the state and the economy in her own image. Yet she may never have become leader, and the word ‘Thatcherism’ may never have crossed anybody’s lips, had it […]
Polling shows general elections are nearly always decided months, sometimes weeks, before they take place. Why? Because although first impressions count, and most voters do form a clear view on the personalities involved in elections much earlier, your average voter isn’t the faintest bit interested in an opposition party’s tax or immigration policy when they […]
Alongside CapX’s new weekly podcast The Capitalist, we’ll also be publishing a series of episodes, titled Despatch, which offer an audio version of some of our favourite pieces from the site. To kick things off, you can listen to Emma Revell’s recent piece for CapX on the need to remake the case for conservative ideas: […]
Kemi Badenoch has been Conservative leader for more than a month now. We are also approaching the 50th anniversary of the ascension of the Tories’ first female leader, Margaret Thatcher. Both came from modest backgrounds, holding scientific degrees and inherited a defeated and demoralised party. In my new book, ‘Forging the Iron Lady: Margaret Thatcher, […]
British politics has now entered a new and unpredictable phase. After their party’s smashing defeat at the latest election, most Tories assumed that Labour would be in power for at least a decade. In many cases, the stress was on the ‘at least’. Tory morale was rare as bananas at the end of the Second […]
During her time as the Leader of the Opposition, Margaret Thatcher travelled light on policy detail. But it would be hard to claim she did not have a mandate for the bold reforms she brought in after she became Prime Minister. She rejected socialism and embraced free enterprise. Her impatience with managed decline and the […]
What was Liz Truss’ biggest mistake as Prime Minister? Attention has, not unreasonably, tended to focus on the mini-Budget which fractured the Conservative parliamentary party, spooked the markets, forced out the Chancellor and ultimately precipitated her resignation. But the mini-Budget was arguably the product of an earlier poor decision: forming a Cabinet which excluded dissenters. […]
I’d never really been part of a campaign before – so taking unpaid leave from my job at the Centre for Policy Studies to join James Cleverly’s leadership campaign was somewhat of a leap. But it seemed like the perfect opportunity to get some new experience, and to learn about what a political campaign looks […]
Over the coming weeks, CapX will be running a number of perspectives on the future of the Conservative Party. If you have an idea you would like to contribute, get in touch at editors@capxstaging.wpengine.com. This week, I was fortunate enough to host a hustings between the two candidates for leader of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch […]
An important event is approaching. A few months ago, hardly anyone seemed interested in the Tory leadership contest. Complacent Lefties, buoyed up by victory, were reviving the old cliches about deckchairs on the Titanic. Who would be the next William Hague, sacrificing youthful promise to lead his demoralised followers towards a distant vista of interminable […]
