Are we heading for a 1980s-style inflation spike? Opinion What lessons should policymakers from the Lawson Boom and subsequent recession? Asks Daniel Mahoney High inflation, unreliable data and a government banking on growth. While this sounds familiar, it was also the situation at the end of the 1980s – the “Lawson Boom”. We know what happened next; inflation soared further and was only eventually [...]
Will Rachel Reeves end up being a right-wing Chancellor by accident? Opinion With poor growth and pressure on defence spending, Rachel Reeves faces having to make welfare cuts the likes of which haven’t been since the days of Nigel Lawson. But unlike Lawson, her spending plans are not being driven by a programme of reform, but by panic, says Eliot Wilson Rachel Reeves cannot have expected it [...]
We need a government that gets business, not businessmen running government Opinion The idea that business leaders can transform the way government works didn’t start with Elon musk, but success in politics demands different skills to entrepreneurship, says Eliot Wilson Business feels let down by the current government. Before the general election, Sir Keir Starmer and his shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, staged an updated performance of the [...]
Rachel Reeves: Nigel Lawson was ‘right’ on not abolishing National Insurance May 7, 2024 Labour’s shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, speaking in the City of London today, set out her party’s attack lines on the Tories’ economic record following the local and mayoral elections last week.