Britain must not forget the lessons of Adam Smith April 8, 2025 Adam Smith taught us that trade is not a zero-sum game 250 years ago. Trump may not have read his Wealth of Nations, but the rest of the world now must, says James Price Much ink has been spilled over Trump’s tariffs in the past few weeks. At a glance, the bear case is that [...]
Booze, chocolate, meat, flights: What will Labour tax next? March 28, 2025 Pitiful growth forecasts will tempt Reeves to impose sin taxes on everything from a can of coke to a holiday, says James Price I’ve previously called the Chancellor Reeves the Roundhead in these pages, in honour of her fun-killing ways. But she’s not the first Chancellor to tax having a good time. A tax designed [...]
Radical honesty on net zero is Badenoch at her best March 20, 2025 Kemi Badenoch has said that net zero by 2050 is impossible and she has the evidence to prove it. Now she needs to prove she has the energy to take on the reform Britain so badly needs, says James Price At last, I have seen the Kemi Badenoch that her supporters see. The leader of [...]
Why it matters that The Rest Is Politics gets everything wrong March 14, 2025 On issues from Trump to Syria, Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart’s wildly popular podcast The Rest is Politics is actively making its millions of listeners less informed, says James Price “I wasn’t fundamentally wrong because I was patronising to people. I was wrong because I’m an optimist and I hate the idea of being wrong [...]
Defence spending is one thing, but does Gen Z have the will to fight? March 5, 2025 It’s not just our diminished armed forces that leave Britain vulnerable to Putin, it’s a generation raised on the idea that Britain isn’t worth fighting for, says James Price In his “Politics and the English Language” George Orwell warned against using tired, old metaphors, as they reflected tired, old thinking. But the poor frog in [...]
Britain’s overseas territories are an asset, not an anachronism February 26, 2025 Far from historical oddities, Britain’s crown dependencies and overseas territories make an important contribution to the United Kingdom – and Brexit provides an opportunity to unleash even more of their potential, says James Price Hopefully you have by now become aware of Labour’s abject attempts to give away the Chagos Islands, along with billions and [...]
Rumours of the death of DEI have been greatly exaggerated February 19, 2025 Donald Trump and Elon Musk may be dismantling DEI in the States, but in Britain and Europe it remains buried deep. We must root it out or risk being left poor, defenceless and exposed, says James Price A few years ago, the term ‘vibe shift’ entered the online lexicon. Broadly, it describes a moment of [...]
Net zero is making Britain colder, poorer and less productive February 12, 2025 Far from leading the way, Britain is a cautionary tale on the dangers of net zero zealotry. We are too poor to continue a policy of self-harm, says James Price A friend came back from a trip to the United States recently and told me her biggest takeaway was how warm every home and business [...]
Better relations with America could be the biggest Brexit benefit yet February 5, 2025 Brexit allowed Britain to lead the West in support for Ukraine. Now we must use that freedom to dodge tariffs by convincing Trump we are a reliable partner in defence, says James Price Having served in government through some of the Brexit negotiations, and seen up close how completely bonkers everyone was driven by it, [...]
Want Gen Z to believe in democracy? Why not actually try it January 29, 2025 Reports that Gen Z are increasingly disillusioned with democracy aren’t surprising. Too many powers in Britain have been handed to unelected quangocrats with no skin in the game while autocracies like China and the UAE are offering superficially attractive alternatives, says James Price “Democracy is the worst form of government, except all those other forms [...]
