Ryan Bourne: Will the Government’s new High Potential Individual visa actually attract top global talent?

Questions have been raised about whether the visa route will truly be as liberal as some have implied

Ryan Bourne: The tax hikes that could fall in the south. And tear the Tory coalition apart

The problem is that spiralling spending demands quickly use up the options which voters don’t notice. Eventually you need other big sources of revenue,

Ryan Bourne: School catch-up for the disadvantaged? Of course. But do all pupils need it? Not really. The Treasury has a point.

That schooling can improve earning potential doesn’t mean that ever-more schooling is good for all kids in the aftermath of a pandemic.

Ryan Bourne: GB News will offer viewers a new choice – within the rules. Which is precisely why the left fears it.

The new channel’s critics don’t understand the difference between impartiality, which is required, and bias, which is not.

Ryan Bourne: How Government is making childcare more expensive

Upper class professionals are imposing their preference for formal settings – bringing the trade-off of higher prices and fewer affordable providers.

Ryan Bourne: A lesson from the pandemic. We place high value on all our lives – including those of the elderly.

Why, then, are certain lockdown sceptics so keen to play down the loss of older lives? Aside from these errors, I suspect motivated reasoning is at play.

Ryan Bourne: We can never be certain of the costs and benefits of lockdowns

Overall, I still think that their re-use in the UK after the summer lull is evidence of the failure of the Government to think on the right margins.

Ryan Bourne: Are fears of a return of inflation overblown?

I believe so – but nonetheless, the balance of risks, driven by economic and political trends, has definitely shifted.

Ryan Bourne: Why is Sunak so taken with tax hikes – when the tax burden is forecast to be its heaviest for 70 years?

Conservative messaging implies an implicit belief that there are no major state functions ripe for reform in any fiscal repair.

Ryan Bourne: The lifting of lockdown. Yes to prudence but no to pessimism. The projections of these gloomy scientists seem absurd.

If first dose efficacy proves strong, the Prime Minister will have to break with those who fail to think about the marginal costs and benefits of shutdowns.

Ryan Bourne: How many lives will we save by choosing our own vaccination programme, not the EU’s? Let’s start at nine thousand.

It’s safe to say the UK will have saved tens of thousands of additional lives relative to going at the EU-4’s pace over the coming months.

Ryan Bourne: A reassuringly conservative speech from Starmer’s Shadow Chancellor. The Tories will need to up their game.

This is not to say that all of Dodds’ analysis is coherent or correct, but the days of unhinged Corbynite attacks on capitalism are over.

Ryan Bourne: Ministers must speed up the pace of vaccination. Here are some ways of doing so.

Government sometimes treats the constraints fatalistically, rather than seeing them as a problem that prices, incentives, and regulations could affect. 

Ryan Bourne: First, Covid-19 lockdowns. Next, climate change ones – rationed car use, no red meat. Coming soon to a country near you?

It might seem far-fetched that one could face jail for eating steak frites. But one could have said the same about not eating at least a scotch egg with your pint.

Ryan Bourne: Calm down, stay cool – and drop this talk of tax rises. It’s too early to know how everything will settle down.

It’s baffling why think-tanks are taking the OBR assessments as truth, given its prediction record.