Working mothers will pay for Labour’s tax rises November 13, 2024 Employers’ national insurance hikes will increase the cost of childcare and put nurseries out of business, making life for working mothers even harder than it already is, says Alys Denby Governments are notoriously bad at picking winners, but Britain is about to find out what happens when leaders are more interested in picking losers. From [...]
These two mistakes are making today’s Budget harder than it needs to be October 30, 2024 The problem with Rachel Reeves promising both ‘stability’ and ‘growth’ is that the two can be mutually exclusive. Governments do not create growth; businesses do and they rely on innovation and risk taking, says Alys Denby Not since George Osborne’s ‘caesar’ cut has a Chancellor’s hair-do caused such a sensation. Did Rachel Reeves’ newly auburn [...]
Make the Tories Conservative again? October 23, 2024 A particularly laughable defence of socialism is that it’s never really been tried. It’s tempting to dismiss the central analysis of both candidates for the Tory leadership – that their Party lost the general election because they were not conservative enough in government – on similar grounds. But it would be a mistake to imagine [...]
Explainer: Does the public have the answers for the NHS? October 21, 2024 A public consultation on NHS reform is yielding some interesting ideas…. The health secretary has launched the “biggest ever conversation about the future of the NHS” and invited the public to contribute to share their ideas for how to improve the health service. The responses are being published on the consultation’s website and it’s fair [...]
Is Gen Z really a risk to businesses? October 17, 2024 A lazy, entitled and narcissistic generation, more interested in TikTok than hard work. The stereotypes about Gen Z have, apparently, become so pervasive that managing a young workforce is now considered the biggest business threat by CEOs. Just 38 per cent of executives are “very confident” in tackling demands for better pay and benefits from [...]
A ‘New Deal’ for fewer jobs and worse pay? October 8, 2024 Labour’s promise of a ‘New Deal for Working People’ is deliberately worded to evoke the era of Roosevelt, when major federal interventions supposedly shook America out of the Great Depression and conclusively demonstrated the benefits of Keynesian economics. But even Keynes knew it was more complicated than this. Alongside stimulus, he wrote that reversing a [...]
Explainer: Boris Johnson’s humble address to the Queen? October 4, 2024 Boris Johnson is never less than obsequious when referring to the late Queen in his new memoir, Unleashed, but is he really a loyal subject? Westminster has been gripped by the release of Boris Johnson’s new memoir, Unleashed, with figures from all areas of public life frantically checking the index to see if they are [...]
Tories must get out of their bubble and listen to business October 2, 2024 To those outside the bubble of true blue believers, Conservative party conference looked deranged. As violence exploded in the Middle East, delegates in Birmingham were battling over novelty merchandise and queuing for selfies with election losers. Fringe events debating the meaning of conservatism were packed while corporate sponsors and business lobbyists were conspicuous by their [...]
Why Conservatives are still asking: What would Margaret Thatcher do? September 27, 2024 Why are people at Conservative Party Conference 2024 still talking about Margaret Thatcher? Because she gave Tories something to believe in, says Alys Denby It’s Conservative Party conference and one subject that’s guaranteed to come up at any gathering of Tories is Margaret Thatcher. The palms of upholstered older party members moisten as they share [...]
Is this Peckham pub serving Britain’s best burger? September 18, 2024 My local pub serves Britain’s best burger – I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand I support The Montpelier on Choumert Road in all its endeavours, just as it has supported me through celebrations, hangovers, breast-feeding emergencies and excruciating family lunches. But I’m not sure I want it to become famous for [...]
