Lending a hand: government loans to energy firms can’t be the final answer
Some of the media seem to have become addicted to gloom. Most outfits have become cautiously optimistic on Covid-19, but the prospective double squeeze on living standards has rushed in to fill the gap. Consumers are faced with tax increases and sharp rises in energy bills. The surge in the world price of energy means […]
Three Christmas presents for a Cabinet that lacks political grip
At this time of the year hapless members of the Cabinet, and even the Prime Minister himself, are entitled to some charity. We might usefully consider the gifts we would put under their trees on Christmas morning. Top of the list could well be both a Peloton and a deckchair. Sarah Healey, permanent secretary at […]
Precaution is a useful thing, but designing policy based on maybes is a dangerous road
It is is so familiar, the script almost writes itself. Health professionals start to call for more restrictive measures at the slightest whiff of bad news. The government initially dismisses the concerns. Gradually, ministers – many of them almost wholly innumerate – are beaten into submission by projections of what might happen. If we were […]
Schools across the country have forgotten how to teach kids to aspire to be better
Omicron, the new Covid variant, has had an unexpected victim: the long-awaited White Paper on levelling up. Boris Johnson’s plans to put his 2019 election pledge into reality will not be published until New Year, to give the government more time to focus on containing Covid. The document, set to span industry, skills and transport, […]
Unchallenged inflation will make strike action the norm in a new labour market
Last Friday, London once again muddled through the inconvenience of yet another Tube strike. Another one is planned for the middle of December. They are just as much a feature of the metropolitan scene as Big Ben. Until more of the trains are automated, Tube staff will retain the capacity to cause disruption. But this […]
Think petrol panic buying was bad? Wait til you see what’s (not) in store this Christmas
It is that time of year again: ice skating, cold, clear blue skies, fairy lights decorating Oxford Street, and fears about having enough Christmas toys on the shelves. There are two key themes to this year’s scare stories. First, supply problems could lead to a deluge of children missing out on the most popular toys. […]
New winter Covid restrictions would make it official policy to pray for a better day
A trip to the Scottish Highlands is always refreshing. Despite the shortening days, the hills were in perfect late autumn condition. It clears your mind and helps you reflect on what’s not working. This time around, it was more interesting than usual: it illuminated the stark contradictions and hypocrisy of the current Covid regulations, administered […]
Britons squeamish to spend their savings are jeopardising our economic recovery
The economic recovery is under threat. British consumers are saving and not spending. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) estimates that during lockdown, households accumulated a massive £180bn of so-called “excess savings”. Earlier in the year, most economic forecasts assumed that these would be run down. Lockdown had constrained people’s normal behaviour and with the […]
The impasse on climate change is as clogged up as our petrol-packed roads
Boris Johnson is usually a superb communicator. But after the last few days of the G20 and Cop26, he is not currently on his best of form. First of all, we have the farce of world leaders first gathering in Rome and then flying to Glasgow. For a summit on climate change and curbing emissions. […]
In the end, the Swedes really did have the last laugh with a relaxed Covid approach
They never give up. The finger waggers who know what is good for the rest of us; the epidemiologists trying to intimidate us with their seemingly terrifying but actually rather trivial models of applied mathematics. The vested interests in the NHS creating excuses for the inefficiencies inherent in the system. If we already have restrictive […]
