A tactical decision has caused strategic chaos – further delay will cost the British economy billions.
Former ConservativeHome co-editor Jonathan Isaby is taking over as the Chief Executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance
There’s applause for George Osborne’s Autumn Statement from Westminster’s wonks, but many of them think he could go further in cutting back the state.
Prof. Philip Booth is Editorial and Programme Director at the Institute of Economic Affairs. There is remarkably little economic commentary on the shadow economy. This is possibly because, by its nature, it is difficult to measure. Survey evidence tends to under-estimate the shadow economy because many respondents either do not wish to reveal their activities […]
By Andy Mayer of the Age Endeavour Fellowship There is compelling evidence in a new report, Work Longer, Live Healthier: The relationship between economic activity, health and government policy, from the Institute of Economic Affairs and Age Endeavour Fellowship, that Sir Alex Ferguson may have more than one reason to regret his decision to stand […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Matt Sinclair of the TaxPayers' Alliance liked the populist measures – #Crosbynomics according to Matthew d'Ancona – but worried about the Budget's complexity: "Unfortunately, the great limitation of this budget was that it relied far too much on complicated targeted reliefs instead of tax cuts across the board. Simpler, […]
A few think tank reactions to the Autumn Statement… Mark Littlewood, Director General at the Institute of Economic Affairs, focused on the big picture and the fact that Britain is becoming a high debt nation: "The Chancellor has basically stuck to his spending plans, but not to his deficit plans. Low growth and weak tax […]
Mark Littlewood is Director General of the Institute of Economic Affairs. Follow him on Twitter. Over the last ten months I’ve been acting as an independent adviser to the government’s Red Tape Challenge, which seeks to extinguish unnecessary, burdensome regulations that impede growth. It’s been a long drawn-out business, but since the reshuffle the coalition […]
Christopher Snowdon is a Fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs. Follow Christopher on Twitter. They say that laws are like sausages, it is better not to see how they are made. If so, the 2005 Gambling Act was of the supermarket own-brand, ‘sixteen for a pound’ variety. It began with some sensible proposals from the distinguished […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. Andrew Lansley's consultation on plain packaging for tobacco products ends today. The Health Secretary has support from backbench MP – and medical Doctor – Dan Poulter, in the Guardian today. Dr Poulter argues plain packaging… "…could certainly help to reduce the brand marketing appeal of cigarettes to teenagers, and […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. This morning's growth forecast figures were disappointing. David Cameron, speaking to LBC radio, said: "Obviously the growth forecasts are a matter for the bank of England, but they’ve all been coming in line with the reality, which has frankly been disappointing. I think what’s happening is there’s a rebalancing […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter A very quick post to point ConservativeHome readers in the direction of the Institute of Economic Affair’s new pamphlet on the LIBOR scandal. It contains everything that any normal, interested person could want to know about intra-bank lending rates: a Q&A on what went wrong, a timeline, and a […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter A few reactions to today's disappointing GDP numbers. First from the Institute of Directors: “Today’s figures come as a severe blow to business. The Eurozone countries show that we absolutely cannot afford to waver from the deficit reduction programme, but there are several steps the Government must take to […]
James Stanfield is a director at the School of Education at Newcastle University, and also the Editor of "The Profit Motive in Education: Continuing the Revolution, a new publication released this week by the Institute of Economic Affairs. It is fair to suggest that many politicians are still cautious about combining the profit motive with […]
By Harry PhibbsFollow Harry on Twitter Eight years ago a group of Lib Dems contributed essays to a volume called the Orange Book which sought to shift thinking in the Party away from socialism and towards liberalism. While social liberalism in the Party was well represented, the case for economic liberalism was not. Nor had it […]