CapX

Reform UK is part of the broad Tory family, according to @Jacob_Rees_Mogg Can @reformparty_uk and @Conservatives work together? More in the latest episode of The Capitalist with @marcsidwell

European electricity prices are twice as high as in the US and China ✍️Magnus Henrekson, Christian Sandström & Mikael Stenkula on their research for @iealondon capx.co/the-eus-failed…

The Government’s approach to the UK’s steel industry has always looked like a cross between inveterate, unshakeable optimism and the panicked thrashings of a drowning man clutching for a flotation aid. Labour’s latest gambit is protectionism. From July, import quotas for tariff-free steel will be reduced by 60%, and imports above those levels will be subject to a 50% tariff. Yet when every taxpayer is being charged to keep the industry alive, it is necessary to ask why UK steel is uncompetitive, and whether it is right to keep the sector afloat artificially. ✍️Eliot Wilson Read more: capx.co/tariffs-will-n…

Unemployment for males aged 18-24 has reached 17.2%, up from 16.1% in February’s data and 13.8% for the comparable period a year ago. What to do? The Government, which has contributed to this problem by sharply raising employer national insurance contributions and minimum wages, and passing the Employment Rights Act, is now attempting to offset this by offering employers £3,000 to take on young people aged 18-24. The problem with these schemes is that they don’t achieve very much, they are expensive in terms of the jobs ‘created’, and they allow governments to make dishonest claims about what they are achieving. ✍️Len Shackleton of @iealondon capx.co/the-government…

The village pub does not need a strategy, a taskforce or a community ownership framework. It needs a government that understands the difference between taxing a business and dismantling a community. If government genuinely believes that rural social infrastructure has public value, and its willingness to fund it suggest that it does, then it should align policy accordingly. The neatest solution would be to designate single-pub villages as a protected category and exempt those pubs from business rates and employer National Insurance, and to reduce or rebate alcohol duty attributable to on-trade sales in those locations. ✍️@johndotwills capx.co/labours-war-on…

Protectionism is not the answer to the crisis in British steelmaking ✍️Eliot Wilson Read more: capx.co/tariffs-will-n…

Offering employers £3,000 to take on young people will achieve nothing ✍️Len Shackleton of @iealondon capx.co/the-government…

🗽As the Covid-19 Inquiry publishes it's third report today, do read my @CapX piece from December on the shambles of the Covid-19 Inquiry 👇 capx.co/the-battle-ove…

Debut piece in @CapX. Very proud to be there ( a great many writers I really admire feature regularly), and also on home turf with the subject matter, in more ways than one

We need a government that understands the difference between taxing a business and dismantling a community ✍️@johndotwills capx.co/labours-war-on…

Our calculation of the likely economic cost to the UK of dynamic alignment with EU SPS regulations is cited by @jcdinnage in this important piece for @CapX 👇 capx.co/dont-buy-labou…

ICYMI: Nigel Lawson preached free markets and sound money in his 1984 Mais lecture: it'll save us again now ✍️@jcdinnage capx.co/dont-buy-labou…

After the non-event that was the Spring Statement, yesterday’s Mais lecture by Rachel Reeves was supposed to give us the granular detail of the Chancellor’s plan to rescue Britain’s economy. I hope no one held their breath. But between the platitudes and hollow justifications for failure, an economic direction could just about be discerned, and all roads lead to Brussels. Rather than take accountability for her considerable role in worsening Britain’s economic malaise, Reeves has imitated every left-wing bore on social media by blaming Brexit for our national decline. To get us back on track, Reeves is going to negotiate with the EU a deal which would require us to align with the bloc’s regulatory regime. ✍️@jcdinnage capx.co/dont-buy-labou…

The collapse of Labour in power has curdled the public mood. Increasingly, polling suggests voters are considering parties that make a virtue of wanting to overhaul the state. If the system isn’t working, then why not roll the dice on a risky option? A new report from @NextGenTories sets out how the Conservative Party can articulate the scale of the national challenge and present a credible plan equal to it. This requires radical candour which, if delivered thoughtfully, makes the political choice on the centre-right clear: serious change with Conservatives versus chaotic change with Reform UK. ✍️@JamesRCowling Read more: capx.co/its-time-for-a…

Governments cannot prevent geopolitical shocks or legislate volatility out of global energy markets. What they can do is make sure the domestic economy is able to absorb shocks without tipping into prolonged disorder. That means more storage, better infrastructure and fewer regulatory obstacles in the way. Above all, it means resisting the familiar political itch to ‘do something’ every time markets send a signal ministers do not like. If oil prices remain elevated in the months ahead, Britain will face a real test. But the history of the 1970s suggests that the gravest danger does not come from the shock itself. It comes when governments panic, suppress adjustment and mistake political activity for economic seriousness. That is how a supply shock becomes a national policy failure. ✍️@DamianPudner Read more: capx.co/britains-next-…

Brexit has become the original sin of modern British politics ✍️@jcdinnage capx.co/dont-buy-labou…

The central lesson of the 1970s was not that oil prices rose. It was that governments responded badly. For advanced economies, the effect was severe. For Britain, it was worse. Are we about to repeat an old mistake? ✍️@DamianPudner Read more: capx.co/britains-next-…

Kemi Badenoch cannot afford to have only half an answer on growth A new report from @NextGenTories says the Conservatives must become the party of serious change ✍️@JamesRCowling Read more: capx.co/its-time-for-a…

The BBC likes to present itself as a national institution that belongs to all of us. If that is true, it should be willing to live by the same rules as everyone else. Right now, it does not. Under the current system, complaints about BBC programmes are handled first by the BBC itself. Only after the corporation has investigated and ruled on its own conduct can a complaint be escalated to Ofcom. This system, known as ‘BBC First’, gives the broadcaster a privilege that no other major broadcaster enjoys. Commercial channels do not get to mark their own homework. When viewers complain about them, the regulator steps in. The BBC alone is allowed to sit as both judge and jury. ✍️@Bren4Bassetlaw capx.co/the-bbc-must-n…

When I was growing up, the NHS was often described as ‘the envy of the world’. Yet the rest of the world never felt quite envious enough to copy it. Even in Britain, the claim is heard less often. The suggestion was put forward that in the UK, the poor are cared for when they fall ill. While the arrangement abroad, so the claim went, was that they were left to die, with only the rich being able to afford hospital treatment. That was always a pretty insulting parody. Were all those social democratic governments on the continent really so heartless? Now the truth is more widely understood. ✍️@harryph capx.co/theres-nothing…

The Left struggles with Iranian protesters because they do not fit comfortably into its narrative: that the oppressors are always Western and white, and that violence from the Global South must be explained away for ‘cultural’ reasons. Yet many Iranians have paid dearly for the Palestinian cause – in lost prosperity and lost freedom. From lived experience, many do not want their money financing groups such as Hamas. That is precisely why some on the Left dislike them even more. Iranian protesters threaten the idea that the Islamic Republic represents the last meaningful state champion of the Palestinian cause. ✍️@ManiBasharzad & Bardia Farahmand capx.co/why-does-the-l…