On economic policy, Trump is the bigger danger to both the US and the world November 7, 2016 The Western world is retreating from economic liberalism. Don’t take my word for it – look at the platforms of both Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump ahead of today’s election. While a commitment to individual rights and a clear separation of powers has facilitated the conditions to maintain the US at the world’s [...]
Repeat after me: Post-Brexit tariffs would primarily hurt UK consumers – not European exporters October 31, 2016 Tariffs primarily hurt the consumers of the country imposing them on imported goods. That is such an important insight that it deserves reiterating, nay, repeating ad nauseam until everyone understands it: *tariffs hurt consumers in the importing country*. Both the Remainers who want us to stay within the EU’s protectionist customs union, as well as [...]
We’ll never have a better health system unless we’re brutally honest about the NHS’s failings October 24, 2016 It was heart-rending to witness. Back in January, sitting at my grandmother’s hospital bedside, a new patient entered the ward. Her name was Anita Richardson, a 42 year-old grandmother from Rochester. Visibly frail and frightened, Anita and her family explained how she’d been visiting her GP frequently over the previous 10 months, complaining of shoulder then back [...]
No, Nick Clegg: A true liberal knows Brexit should slash UK food prices October 17, 2016 So Brexit means more expensive breakfast! Or so Nick Clegg believes. Hanging onto the coattails of last week’s Unilever-Tesco row over who would bear the cost of a falling pound raising food import prices (so-called Marmite-gate), the former Deputy Prime Minister now warns us that milk and cheese will be more expensive as a result [...]
The Single Market battle is the Remainers’ last stand in the Brexit war October 10, 2016 It has all the hallmarks of a last stand. Having abandoned resistance to the referendum result itself, Remainers are rallying to the cause of staying in the Single Market. Re-using the referendum hymn sheet, the same politicians, businesses and pressure groups who predicted doom and gloom from the decision to vote Brexit are now forecasting postponed doom [...]
Philip Hammond is wrong to assume an infrastructure splurge will boost growth October 3, 2016 Mention the name Philip Hammond in Westminster, and invariably someone will describe him as “a safe pair of hands”. The man who has been chancellor for three months had been largely inconspicuous in his role prior to yesterday’s conference speech. But after almost two decades of a Treasury dominated by micro-managers and tinkerers, primarily in [...]
Britain’s socialists aren’t quite as “progressive” as they think they are September 26, 2016 It’s as predictable as the so-called “rabbit out of the hat”. Twice each year (three times when George Osborne felt an “emergency” coming on), the days after a Budget or Autumn Statement are littered with left-wing MPs, armed with their Institute for Fiscal Studies bar chart, denouncing the package of policies as “regressive”. “The tax and [...]
Uber’s “heartless” New York price surge actually shows the vital importance of market forces September 20, 2016 "How could they be so heartless?” declared a newspaper on Facebook. “Shame on you” screamed the paper’s headline. No, this was not about the despicable bomb attack in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighbourhood on Saturday. It was rather a public shaming for the ride-sharing app Uber after customers complained of increased prices following the explosion. With a [...]
A truly meritocratic society would be an intrusive and cruel dystopia September 12, 2016 Meritocracy. It’s a term beloved by Conservatives, who say they want a “fair” society where people’s outcomes are determined purely by a combination of hard work and talent. This was Theresa May’s rallying cry last week as she turned Tory education policy on its head by outlining the case for a new generation of grammar [...]
Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour should focus on growth above inequality August 22, 2016 It used to go without saying that growth matters. But if former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers now feels the need to take to the pages of the FT to make the “progressive case for economic growth”, it shows just how far other issues, whether inequality or climate change, have come to dominate the thinking [...]
