£74m for branded condoms? UK must stop spaffing cash on foreign aid Opinion Labour is plotting to reverse cuts to foreign aid, but the UK's spending history reveals a questionable use of funds, writes Anne Strickland.
Andy Burnham is on course to rack up the second highest debt interest bill on record Opinion Britain’s national debt has reached £3 trillion. We can’t go on like this, says Anne Strickland Andy Burnham has been Prime Minister for just over a fortnight and in that time, Britain’s national debt crossed the unimaginable £3 trillion mark, according to the Taxpayers’ Alliance Debt Clock. It took us 11 years to go from [...]
Britain can’t afford a self-harming tourist tax Opinion Tourism is exactly the kind of industry that the country needs more of, yet it’s about to be taxed like a burden instead, says Anne Strickland With millions of us packing for summer holidays this month, it is worth remembering that tourism in the United Kingdom is one of the industries that we are still [...]
The climate quango empire will keep growing until cheap matters more than ideology June 9, 2026 Net Zero has generated an ever-larger bureaucratic apparatus operating at arm’s length from ministers, insulated from accountability and immune to the question of whether it is actually working, says Anne Strickland Ed Miliband frequently claims that net zero is the economic opportunity of the century. A theory that collapses the moment you open your energy [...]
Governments can’t ‘tax for growth’ – they need to get out of the way May 8, 2026 You cannot tax your way to growth and prosperity, and Labour’s track record suggests any extra revenue would go toward expanding benefits rather than productive investment, says Anne Strickland Amid the local elections, some MPs think they’ve cracked the code to win back voters – by raising taxes. Jeevun Sandher MP, parliamentary aide to the [...]
Graduates are the canary in the coalmine for a failing welfare system April 7, 2026 The welfare state is a Ponzi scheme that’s dependent on an ever shrinking cohort of taxpayers, says Anne Strickland Discussion about student loan unfairness has dominated the headlines over the last month, after a freeze in the repayment thresholds led to a backlash about the student loan system in general. With fiscal drag pulling more [...]
